318 
A NEW VERMIFUGE, ETC. 
out, viz., wheat-starch , which is invariably found in the dust 
whether old or recent. Surprised at the quantity of it pre¬ 
sent among the aerial corpuscles, M. Pouchet investigated the 
dust of all ages and of every locality; and everywhere he found 
this wheat-starch presented. “ I have found/” he says, “ the 
starch in the most inaccessible corners of old Gothic churches, 
mixed with dust blackened by six or eight centuries of ex¬ 
istence. I have found it in the palaces and caves of the 
Thebiad, where it may have dated from the time of the 
Pharaohs, I have found it in the tympanic cavity of the ear 
of a mummified dog, which I had discovered in a subter¬ 
ranean temple of Upper Egypt. In all countries, in a word, 
where wheat forms the staple of food, starch always pene¬ 
trates into the dust, and is met with in greater or less quan¬ 
tities. Hence, therefore, the corpuscles of which we have 
heard so much, are granules of starch and silica.” 
Twice only in a thousand experiments has M. Pouchet 
observed the large ova of infusoria in the atmospheric duct. 
—Medical Times ancl Gazette. 
A NEW VERMIFUGE. 
In BarreswiEs c Repertoire de Chimie’ appears a report 
showing that, from the analysis made by M. Helet, of the 
Ailanthus glandulosa (the Japan varnish tree), the bark and 
other parts contain an oleo-resin, or mixture of a volatile oil 
with a fixed one, which is a powerful vermifuge.— Lancet. 
A NATURAL RESULT. 
A coxcomb, teazing Dr. Parr with an account of his petty 
ailments, complained that he never could go out without 
catching a cold in his head. “No wonder,” returned the 
doctor; “you always go out without anything in it.” 
GOOD DESCENT. 
It is a question whether being called “the son of a gun ” 
should not be taken as a compliment rather than as a term 
of abuse, as it is well known that no gun is good for anything 
unless it descends in a straight line from a good stock. 
