rock-boring machine of Messrs. Beaumont and Appleby recently drove a bore hole 84 feet, in thirty-six consecutive hours, through very hard rock, at a slate quarry near Portmadoc. A machine capable of accomplishing such a feat ought to prove of immense service both to mining and civil engineering.

The Captain.-While we write the news of the terrible catastrophe which has happened to this vessel reaches us. The Captain was the only vessel which completely exemplified the ideas which Captain Cowper Coles has so ably and so persistently urged on the Admiralty. As a mere fighting machine, she was one of the most powerful vessels afloat, if not the most powerful of any; and in her preliminary cruise she appeared to be thoroughly seaworthy. No particulars have reached us which would enable us to surmise whether she has fallen a victim to circumstances which no foresight could have provided against, or whether the catastrophe will prove that we have not yet completely mastered the problem of carrying enormously heavy armour on vessels of her class. In thinking over the peculiarities of the Captain, we cannot forget that her main characteristic, that to which her designer attached most importance, was an excessively low freeboard. Intended when first designed to have a freeboard of 8 feet only, and a height of port of 10 feet, she had actually, in consequence of alterations during construction, or for some other reason, a freeboard of only 6 feet and a height of port of 8 feet.-(Engineering, June 24.) She was therefore an extreme example of the low freeboard type of sailing vessel, for the American monitors, with a freeboard of only 16 ins., do not carry sails; and, in spite of the voyages of the Monadnock and Miantonomoh, have not yet established a position as ocean cruisers. The Monarch, designed by Mr. Reed as a sister vessel to the Captain, has a freeboard of 14 feet. In the trial cruise of the Monarch and Captain both vessels proved remarkably steady and easy in their pitching and rolling motions.

MEDICAL SCIENCE.

The First and Second Stages of Labour.-In regard to this point, a very able paper was contributed to the Royal Society by the Rev. Samuel Haughton, F.R.S. In the first stage of natural labour the involuntary muscles of the uterus contract upon the fluid contents of this organ, and possess sufficient force to dilate the mouth of the womb, and generally to rupture the membranes; and he endeavours to show, from the principles of muscular action already laid down, that the uterine muscles are sufficient, and not much more than sufficient, to complete the first stage of labour, and that they do not possess an amount of force adequate to rupture, in any case, the uterine wall itself. In the second stage of labour the irritation of the foetal head upon the wall of the vagina provokes the reflex action of the voluntary abdominal muscles, which aid powerfully the uterine muscles to complete the second stage by expelling the fœtus. The amount of available additional force given out by the abdominal muscles admits of calculation, and will be found much greater than the force produced by the involuntary contractions of the womb itself.

On the Law which regulates the Relative Magnitude of the Areas of the Four Orifices of the Heart.-Dr. Herbert Davies, Senior Physician to the London Hospital, has published a very long and important paper on the above subject. It was read before the Royal Society many months since, and will require careful study. We quite think with the author, that there can be no doubt that an instrument so accurate in the adaptation of its valvular apparatus must reveal, on close examination, the existence of laws which not only determine the force required to be impressed on the blood traversing its chamber, but also the relative sizes of these apertures to one another.

What is Vaccinine?—The answer must be that it is a crystalline principle extracted from the leaves of the cowberry. The amount of vaccinine in the shrub is, according to Mr. E. Claussen, about 1 per cent.; it forms long acicular crystals, of somewhat bitter taste and devoid of smell. This substance is scarcely soluble in ether, better so in cold water and alcohol, but best of all in boiling water; a saturated solution of this substance in the latter yields, on cooling, a solid mass. When the crystalline substance is heated, it melts to a clear liquid. It is not precipitated by either sub-acetate of lead or tannin, is neutral to test-paper, and contains no nitrogen.— American Journal of Pharmacy.

The Action of Alcohol on the Body.-Dr. Parkes and Dr. Wollowicz have published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society a very valuable paper, from which we take the following:-It appears, then, clear that any quantity over two ounces of absolute alcohol daily would certainly do harm to this man (the subject of the experiment); but whether this, or even a smaller quantity, might not be hurtful if it were continued day after day, the experiments do not show. It is quite obvious that alcohol is not necessary for him; that is, that every function was perfectly performed without alcohol, and that even one ounce in twenty-four hours produced a decided effect on his heart, which was not necessary for his health, and perhaps, if the effect continued, would eventually lead to alterations in circulation, and to degeneration of tissues. It is not difficult to say what would be excess for him; but it is not easy to decide what would be moderation; it is only certain that it would be something under two fluid ounces of absolute alcohol in twenty-four hours. It will be seen that the general result of our experiments is to confirm the opinions held by physicians as to what must be the indications of alcohol both in health and disease. The effects on appetite and on circulation are the practical points to seize; and if we are correct in our inferences, the commencement of narcotism marks the point when both appetite and circulation will begin to be damaged. As to the metamorphosis of nitrogenous tissues or to animal heat, it seems improbable that alcohol in quantities that can be properly used in diet has any effect; it appears unlikely (in the face of the chemical results) that it can enable the body to perform more work on less food, though by quickening a failing heart it may enable work to be done which otherwise could not be so. It may then act like the spur in the side of a horse, eliciting force, though not supplying it.

The Poisonous Efects of the Icaja of Gaboon.-The Comptes-rendus of August 8 contains a very valuable paper on this subject, by MM. Rabuteau and Peyre. It seems that at the Gaboon there is in use a vegetable poison,

locally known as m'boundou, or icaja. That substance is the root of a plant, which is not further specified. The authors have been experimenting with this substance, which, even in very dilute decoctions, is very bitter, and appears to contain one or more alkaloids, since the aqueous decoction is largely precipitated by iodide of potassium, and also by phospho-molybdic acid. The poisonous effects of this substance bear some similarity to the effects of brucia, but the authors state that, under certain conditions, this poison does not hurt men. Some of the lower animals are readily killed by it; a dose of 3 milligrms. of the alcoholic extract, placed under the skin of a frog, kills it; and rabbits and dogs are killed by doses of from 15 to 25 centigrms. of the same extract introduced into the stomach.

Relation between White Blood Corpuscles and Pus-cells.-Very few of the many questions which have turned up of late years have received so much consideration as this one; yet it is still unsettled. If we may judge from a paper published by M. Picot in the Comptes-rendus, June 20, it would seem that the idea of Conheim, that the pus-corpuscles are partly produced by the passage of the white blood cells through the blood vessels, is altogether a mistake is a misinterpretation of the phenomena in point. M. Picot, whose memoir was presented by M. Robin, gave a tolerably long account of his observations on the circulation of frogs and mammals, and he declares most positively that the white blood cells never pass through the vascular walls, and that the pus-cells are formed gradually, external to the capillaries. He explains the error of Conheim and others by stating that they confounded several focal planes together, and he considers that he has demonstrated this in the following way. He counted the number of white blood cells in the arrested blood in the capillaries, both before and after the quasi-exuded corpuscles appeared. In both instances, he says, the numbers were the same, and this could not have been if the white cells had passed outwards. We must, however, express our doubts as to the method by which M. Picot was so well able to count the corpuscles on both sides.

Relation of Pigment Cells to Capillaries.—The Lancet has called attention to some valuable researches of Dr. Saviotti, which we should be sorry to omit noticing. The observer was engaged in studying the inflammatory process in the foot of the frog, and he first obtained a circumscribed spot of inflammation by means of a drop of collodion, and after a few days found the pigment cells of the irritated spot accumulated around the vessels in a contracted condition, and in the course of a short time that they had entirely disappeared. He immediately applied himself to the question of explaining the mode of their disappearance. In other frogs he excited inflammation by dropping on the web a small quantity of a 2 per cent. solution of sulphuric acid. Again, after a few days, he saw that the pigment cells had accumulated around the blood-vessels, and that, though they still preserved their contractility, their processes were less branched and numerous than natural. On further examination, he now observed that these processes began to penetrate the walls of the adjacent capillaries and small veins, causing an obstruction to the onward movement of the red corpuscles on their proximal side, while a clear space was observable on their distal side, occupied only by serum. And now one of two things occurred: either the process of the cell broke off, and was swept away by the blood current, or

the whole cell gradually squeezed itself through the capillary wall (the part within the vessel becoming greatly attenuated and elongated) until it also was carried away. In the former case, the cell, shorn of part of its substance, still remained outside the vessel; in the latter, it of course disappeared entirely. As regards the time occupied in these phenomena, Dr. Saviotti finds that the cell processes penetrate the vessels in a period varying from three to six hours, and that it takes about the same length of time for the whole cell to follow and to be washed away from the internal surface, to which it long remains adherent.

Increase in Temperature of the Pulse.-Dr. Rattray has contributed a very valuable paper on this important subject to the Proceedings of the Royal Society, from which we take the following:

While observation thus showed that the average temperature of the body about the latitude of England is 91-3° F., the following Table shows that it rises in the tropics to 981-99-994, and occasionally even to 100° F. This fact is interesting, if not important, in connection with temperatures in disease; and the mutual relation of the two is worth study.

Hair Tonics, Washes, and Cosmetics.—It is of importance that the scientific world should not allow the immense trade in these articles to pass by altogether unnoticed. It would be neither well nor wise that it should be so. We are therefore glad to see that Professor C. F. Chandler has given some very interesting details in his Report to the New York Board of Health concerning the above. The following is a brief account of this gentleman's researches :-Hair tonics, washes, and restoratives; lotions for the skin; enamels; white powders for the skin. Of the substances named in the first category, sixteen were examined, all of which, with but one exception, were found to contain lead, generally in the form of the acetate or sugar of lead. No 11 among these samples is Mrs. S. A. Allen's “world's hair restorer," of 198 and 200 Greenwich Street, New York. One fluid ounce of this cosmetic (largely advertised) contains-Lead in solution, 5·26 grains; lead in sediment, 0:31 grain-total, 5·57 grains. The one sample free from lead was an ammoniacal solution of nitrate of silver, containing 4.78 grains of the nitrate in 1 fluid ounce. Of the lotions for the skin (six different samples were analysed), only one was made up with injurious metals, viz. an American compound known as " Perry's moth and freckle lotion," containing, to the fluid ounce-Corrosive sublimate, 3-61 grains; and crystallised sulphate of zinc, 4.25 grains. Among the enamels for the skin, seven different samples were tested, among which three containing from 108.94 to 190 99 grains of white lead in 1 fluid ounce; other

samples were found to contain oxide of zinc. The white powders for the skin were found to be chiefly made up of carbonate of lime and magnesia, clay, and French chalk, and as far, therefore, as these materials are concerned, are harmless, except in so far as their application may interfere with the healthy action of the skin.-American Journal of Pharmacy, July 1.

Physiological Effects of Carbonic Acid.—A valuable paper on this subject was read by Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., at the British Association meeting at Liverpool. The author first demonstrated from a specimen the result of subjecting a vegetable alkaline infusion to the action of carbonic acid under pressure. The result was a thick fluid substance, which resembled the fluid which exudes as germs from some trees. When this fluid was gently dried, it became a semi-solid substance, which yielded elastic fibres, and somewhat resembled conachone. (?) This observation had led the author to study the effect of carbonic acid on albumen, serum of blood, blood itself, bronchial secretion, and other organic fluids. When the serum of blood was thus treated with carbonic acid under pressure and gentle warmth (96° F.), the colloidal part was separated; but when the blood, with the fibrine removed from it, was treated, there was no direct separation, the blood corpuscles seeming for a time to engage the gas by condensation of it. But blood containing fibrine, and held fluid by tribasic phosphate of soda, was at once coagulated by the acid. The bronchial secretion is thickened by carbonic acid, and a tenacious fluid is obtained, resembling the secretion which occurs in asthma and bronchitis, while secretions on serous surfaces are thickened and rendered adhesive. After detail of many other facts, Dr. Richardson concluded by showing what bearing this subject had of a practical kind. In the first place, the research had relation to the question of elasticity of organic substances; and secondly, on the direct action of carbonic acid on the production of vegetable juices. But the greatest interest concentrated on the relation of the research to some of the diseases of the animal body. Thus, in instances where the temperature of the body is raised and the production of carbonic acid is excessive, the blood on the right side of the heart has its fibrine often precipitated, and in many other cases fibrinous or albuminous exuded fluids are solidified, as is the case in croup. The author, in the course of his paper, explained how rapidly blood charged with carbonic acid absorbed oxygen when exposed to that gas, and he held that carbonic acid in the venous blood was as essential to the process of respiration as was the oxygen in the pulmonary organs.

Methyl Compounds.-Among the many researches made during the year, and reported on to the British Association, Dr. Richardson said, among other things that had been discovered by the experiments made with anesthetical bodies was, that it was possible to remove pain without removing consciousness, although any act performed by the patient was afterwards forgotten. The nervous centre which produced sensibility was affected and paralysed before those centres which were devoted to consciousness. He thought it very possible they would be able to discover an agency which would produce paralysis of sensation through the body without destroying consciousness at all.

Are the two Sides of the Brain alike?-Dr. Brown-Séquard thinks not. In the course of his remarks, at the British Association at Liverpool, he