Literary and Philosophical Intelligencj* 
[Sept. 
360 
prcTvided with cases when properly qua¬ 
lified. . 
Mr. Carpue will commence his Lec¬ 
tures on Anatomy and Surgery, &c. on 
the 1st of October, at No. 50, Dean 
street, Soho. 
Some highly interestnig experiments 
on the ciilferent inodes in which death is 
produced by certain vegetable poisons, 
have lately been made, by Mr. B. C. 
Brodie, F. R. S. and were read before 
thq Royal Society, February 21, 1811. 
Tliey were instituted with "a view to 
ascertain in what manner certain sub¬ 
stances act on tlie animal system, so as 
to occasion death, independently of me¬ 
chanical injury. The experiments led 
to the following conclusions. — 1. Al¬ 
cohol, the essential oil of almonds, the 
juice of aconite, the cmpyreumatic oil of 
tobacco, and the woorara,act as poisons, 
hy simply destroying the functions of the 
brain; universal death taking place, be¬ 
cause. respiration is under the influence 
of the brain, and ceases when its func¬ 
tions are destroyed.^ — 2. That the infu¬ 
sion of tobacco when injected into the 
intestine, and the upas antiar when ap¬ 
plied to a wound, have the power of ren¬ 
dering the heart insensible to the stimulus 
of the blood, thus stopping the circu¬ 
lation ; in other wmrds, they occasion 
syncope.—3. Tiiat . there is reason to 
believe that the poisons, wliicb in these 
experiments were applied internally, 
produce their effects tlirougli the medium 
of lire nerves, without being absorbed 
into the circulation. — 4. Tiiat the woo- 
rara, if applied to a wound, produces 
its efifects on the brain, by entering the 
circulation through the divided blood- 
Tessels, and from analogy, we may con¬ 
clude that other poisons, when applied 
to w'onuds, operate in a similar manner. 
‘— 5. That when an animal is apparently 
dead trom the influence of a pois.nn, 
which acts by simply destroying the 
functions ot the brain, it may, in some 
instances at least, be made to recover, if 
respiration is arrificially produced, and 
continued for a certain lengtli of time. 
Mr. Brodie says, from anaiegv, he 
TTi’i^ht draw some conclusions rsspectjng 
the mode m which some other vet^etable 
poisons produce their eflects on the 
animal system: but he forbears to enter 
into any speculative inouiries, as it is 
h;s wish to record facts only. 
The liev. 11 , F. Border has in the 
press a sermon on die death of the Rev, 
'i iiuMAS cPEt>{CZR, late of Lriverpool. 
R. BvvHaxan, of Gia* low, in¬ 
forms Mr. Tillock, of London, that a 
place of worsliip has been for a consider¬ 
able time heated by steam on a most 
simple plan, so as to require little or no 
attendance, and does not require any 
water whatever to be added to that first 
put into the holier above thrice in a win¬ 
ter. He has seen another mode also, by 
which a fire of three hours in the morn- 
irm serves for heating through the rest of 
tlie day. This does away the objection 
to the use of steam as formerly applied 
for many purposes, such as hot-houses, 
6 zc. 
On the 13th of June, an account was 
read, at tlie Royal Society, of a foetus 
having been taken from the body of a 
woman, where it had remained 52 years. 
The narrative was written by Dr. Ches¬ 
ter, who examined the body after death. 
The woman was a native of Gloucester, 
had been taken in labour as usual, but 
owing to the unskilfuiness of the midwife 
ivas not delivered. A surgeon was sent 
for; but, when he arrived, the action of' 
tlie uterus had subsided ; in a few’ days 
the woman got well, and lived to the 
age of eighty, without having been deli- 
vered of the foetus, when she died of pa- 
ralvsis. Dr. Chester, having learned the 
history of the case, opened the body, 
and found an ossified globe which con¬ 
tained the perfect child, the arms and 
legs of which were somewhat compressed 
by liiis osseous mass, and in some parts 
absorption had taken place. The foetus 
w’as livid, but not putrid: the bony shed 
in which it was enveloped was thick and 
hard. 
A paper on the alcohol of wine has been 
read to the Royal Society bv Mr. 
Brande. The object was to refute or 
confirm the opinion of Fahrionl, that 
alcohol is a product of distillation, and 
not an essential part of the vegetable li¬ 
quor. He gave a table of tlie quantity 
of alcohol contained in various wines and 
malt liquors; the highest was, tiiat of 
iMaicella wine, which contained 26 per 
cent of alcohol; red Cliampagne, 20; 
Port, from 20 to 24; Madeira, 10; Cla¬ 
ret, 15; Cider and Perry, 12; ale, 9; 
Brown Stout, 8; porter, 6. 
Dr. Gordon lately read an iuteresting 
paper to tlie Wernerian Society, con¬ 
sisting of observations and experiments 
on the qualities and sensations of sound; 
on the difl'erent modes in which sonorous 
vibrations are communicated to the au¬ 
ditory nerve; on the idea of the distance; 
and of the angular position of snunding 
bodies with respect to the ear; which are 
associated 
