854 
FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
act as such contents would themselves act, i. e. to exhibit a 
greater cohesive attraction for their own particles than for 
those of the contiguous liquid. The cohesive power of the 
blood-corpuscles varies wdth varying conditions of the liquor 
sanguinis, and this is doubtless due to the law of osmosis : 
for we can readily imagine that when theoxosmotic tendency 
w’as in excess the corpuscles would become more adhesive, 
and, on the contrary, when the endosmotic current prevailed, 
less so. In any case the increased cohesiveness will be due to 
the increased extrusion upon the surface of the corpuscular 
contents. All, then, that is required in the case of the 
blood-corpuscles is a difference between their liquid contents 
and the plasma in which they are submerged. That this 
difference is not so great as between the liquids used in these 
experiments is probable, but it must also be remembered that 
the attraction is not so powerful. The power required to 
attach the blood-corpuscles together is, on account of their 
exceeding minuteness, extremely small, as they are thus so 
much more removed from the influence of gravitation, and 
brought under that of molecular attraction.— Pojoiilar Science 
Beview. 
Origin of the second Cervical Vertebra. —We 
learn from the American Naturalist (June) that a very im¬ 
portant memoir on this subject has been published in a recent 
number of the Proceedings of the Swedish Academy^ by Pro¬ 
fessor Kinberg. This origin he refers to the fusion of two 
vertebrae together. In mammalia, generally, says Dr. Lutken, 
who reports upon it, the odontoid process is separated, during 
a longer or shorter period, from the true corgpus epistrophm by 
two intervertebral epiphyses in the same manner as in all 
other ordinary distinct vertebrae; the odontoid process has 
parts answering to the arms, which are, however, not deve¬ 
loped into true arches, but analogous to that of certain caudal 
vertebrae; the epistropbaeus has, of course, two corpora 
fused together like the sacral vertebrae, and, consequently, 
draws its origin from the connection of two primordial ver¬ 
tebrae.— Ibid. 
Horse-flesh. —The consumption of this variety of food 
appears to be daily increasing in France. In 1867, the 
quantity consumed in Paris was 8l6,000lb., and in 1868, 
968,4001b., being an increase of 152,4001b. in the year. 
In the provincial towns in the provinces, at Ilouen, Mar¬ 
seilles, loulon, Bordeaux, Rheims, Troyes, Charleville, and 
Sedan, butchers^ shops for the sale of meat are doing a 
good business. 
