Observations relating to Heredity. By M. Coste.-The impor. tant experiments which our distinguished confrerè has just communicated to the Academy, suggests to me the curious fact of coloration transmitted by the mother; not, however, to the embryo or the developed foetus, but to the egg itself, and to the substance of the germ, before it has undergone any of the transformations of which it becomes the seat, in the creation of the first lineaments of the new being. It is, in my opinion, the visible evidence of the manner in which heredity marks each being with an original stamp, and introduces, with life, the elements of health or disease, according as these elements come from a pure or vitiated source. The fact to which I allude is borrowed from the bony fishes of the family of salmonides. When the flesh of the females of this family is impregnated with the particular matter which gives to it that more or less intense color, known by the name of the salmon color, the contents of the eggs laid by the females are impregnated with this coloring matter, and the intensity of this coloration is proportioned to that of the mother; on the contrary, if the females are placed in conditions where their flesh loses this color, the eggs which they lay in these new circumstances present no traces of it- they are white, like the flesh of the mother. If, in giving to the flesh of the mother, by the action alone of surrounding circumstances, a quality as fugitive, we may make this quality be carried into the substance of the germ, we see how, when we regard a cancerous or tuberculous diathesis, etc., that the disease becomes necessarily an inheritance; and this inheritance is not limited to the introduction of the morbid element in any point whatever, but to its infusion into the entire organism, which demonstrates itself by the manner in which this organ is constituted.

The death of the Fatus of a Cow in the Uterus, having remained in it Eight Months after Death. By M. Eug. Chevandier.-The membranes were intact and complete; they did not contain any amniotic liquid; the cord and the placenta had been expelled; the placenta was a little atrophied; the cord quite thin; the whole had a blackish color. The foetus, withdrawn from its envelopes, appeared completely mummified; and the flesh, from its color and consistence, resembled smoked ham. The position was

not normal. The entire length of the body, measuring from the occipital ridge to the caudal extremity, was forty-eight centimetres. The skin was smooth; some hair only was observed on the extremity of the head; it was of a dark color. The muscles seemed atrophied; they were very hard. There was flatness of the whole body, in its transverse diameter. The foetus was about five and one-half months. The causes of its death are unknown. The only very remarkable fact is, that it should have remained eight months in the uterus, and have submited to a transformation which resembled mummification.

The production of Proto- Organisms in Calcined Air, and by the aid of Putrescible bodies raised to the temperature of 150 degrees. By M. F. Pouchet.-The author stated that it would soon be one year and a half since he announced to the Academy that he produced proto-organisms in apparatus or vessels hermetically sealed, warmed to 100 degrees, and receiving no air which had not been washed in sulphuric acid, or carried through a red heat; and that consequently the experiments of Schultz and Schwann, upon which some physiologists based their arguments solely against spontaneous generation, should be considered as sub judice.

The first of these assertions was not the subject of any serious discussion; but the second, on the contrary, was warmly controverted. Since my first communication, adds M. Pouchet, I have not ceased to improve the experiment in question; and I can certainly state at the present time that it constantly succeeds, when we conduct it with all the care that it exacts, and that it demonstrates manifestly that the organisms which we see produced in the apparatus have not been brought from without. The process was as simple as easy to find it consists solely in not plunging the putrescible body in the water which undergoes the ebullition, until it entirely cooled, and the calcined air is taken into the apparatus. In proceeding in this way, we may warm this body up to 150 degrees, and even more, without compromising the success of the operation. After a time very variable, the duration of which is in relation with the temperature, the proportion and the nature of the body used, the liquid becomes turbid, and very soon microzoaires or mucédinées appear. That which is es

sentially remarkable, but which the physiologists have passed inattentively, is that these microzoaires are never identical with those which appear in the same decoctions exposed to the air. They all belong to inferior grades in the zoological scale.

It is almost always the same for the cryptograms. Thus, in the apparatus hermetically closed, all the microzoaires which we met with belong to the species amiba, manus, trachelius, bacterium, vibris, spirillum; and no one has ever discovered either vorticelles, colpodes, paramécées, glaucomes, or kérones, etc. However, if the eggs of animalcules come from without, it will be absolutely impossible to explain rationally this delimitation. All physiologists are agreed on this point: it is, that no egg, animal, or plant cau resist the moist temperature of 100 degrees. We have made a great many experiments on this subject, and in those we have always seen that this temperature annihilated life in all organized beings, and often even sufficed to alter their structure profoundly. Thus, then, when in our experiments with calcined air we see the microzoaires appear, these animals not having been able to resist the heat of the apparatus, nor gaining admission from the outside, heterogeneity can alone explain their presence.

Experimental Researches on Death by Drowning. By J. H. S. Beau. What is the cause which prevents the free entrance of surrounding fluid into the respiratory passages of those who are drowned? The author proposed this problem; to solve it, he instituted and practiced three series of experiments: he took the important precaution of employing very small dogs, as, wishing to submerge them immediately below the surface of the water, he could observe their movements easily, and with the aid of an assistant maintain them in this position. He observed that the immersion of the natural orifices of respiration is with animals who drown in ordinary circumstances the condition from which results, by sympathetic or reflex action, the spasmodic closure of the sphincters or orifices of the respiration, and the arrest of the respiratory movements. As to the very small quantity of frothy water which is found in the bronchial tree, it enters at a single inspiration, made quickly at the moment when the animal is surprised by the immersion. From which it results that death by

drowning has the greatest resemblance to that which supervenes in consequence of a tetanic affection of respiration. The paper was referred to a committee of Flourens, Milne Edwards, and Bernard.

At the meeting of the Academy of Medicine, June 11th, M. Velpeau presented the liquid of a hydrocele from a patient in whom no lesion of the epedidymis, testicle, or its envelopes existed. He thinks the liquid, which has the appearance and opacity of milk, and resembles in no wise the lactescent and cloudy serosity which is sometimes found in these kind of tumors, merits to form a particular variety of hydrocele. He demanded a chemical analysis to be made in the laboratory of the Academy. M. Robin said that he had made a microscopical examination of the liquid. No trace of spermatozoons were found, but he met with a large quantity of the special corpuscles which color the spermatic liquor in subjects sterile in consequence of double epididymitis. These corpuscles remain in a state of emulsion, in spite of everything we may do to precipitate them; they do not deposit and pass through the most delicate filters. M. Robin added that the analysis of the liquid had been undertaken by M. Wurtz.-Gaz. Hebdomadaire.

Proceedings of Societies.

Proceedings of the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine, February 6, 1860. Reported by J. A. THACKER, M.D., Recording Secretary. After the minutes of the last meeting were read and approved, the President announced that the subject for discussion for the evening was, the History and Pretensions of Cod-Liver Oil as an antidote for the several diseases for which it is applied.

Dr. Robert R. McIlvaine was here introduced, who, after a few preliminary remarks concerning the Academy, and the nature of its organization, proceeded to discuss the subject as announced.

He said they had met to-night to inquire into the claims and pretensions of cod-liver oil as a therapeutic agent. It was claimed, that at a period previous to Christian civilization, fishVOL. III., No. 9.-37.

liver oil had been in use as a medicinal agent; and in proof of which, its enthusiastic advocates had quoted as authority, the apocryphal books of the Bible, to-wit, Tobit, chap. vi. But he would say, for the information of those whose pious scruples forbade them to read the apocrypha, or, for other reasons, that the word oil is not found in the record.

He then spoke of the traditional claims set up for it in Holland and England, from time immemorial, as a popular remedy; but the first who brought it before the notice of the profession was the great Micholis, in Germany, about the year 1755. The next author of distinction that introduced it to the notice of the profession, was Percival, of England, about the year 1785, or, as some say, 1790. Be this as it may, the curative properties ascribed to it then were very dissimilar to those said to be possessed by it now.

The Doctor then passed on to the inquiry, as whether the codliver possessed any function peculiar to itself. He spoke of the discovery of the great Bernard, of France, in the liver of mammalia, and its function of sugar-making.

In his research, however, he discovered that this property is not peculiar to that class, but is also possessed by the galliguassi, fishes, and reptiles. Most of the representatives of each of these families, with the exception of the fresh codfish, Bernard had tested; to test this latter was impossible, as the distance from which it could be obtained was too remote for him to make the experiment. Hence, the Doctor stated, that when leaving France, in August, 1859, he prepared himself with the necessary tests, tubes, and apparatus for experiment, in case an opportunity should offer when arriving at the Banks of Newfoundland. On the 25th of the same month this opportunity was afforded. On that day, while the ship City of Washington, in which he sailed, was lying to off the Banks, to send out her news, he procured some fresh codfish from the fishermen, and succeeded in putting beyond controversy the fact that the law that is universal in all animals is not excepted in the case of the codfish.

Here the Doctor exhibited the identical sugar to which he had alluded, with specimens of his research since his return to this city, including sugar obtained from the livers of the pikefish, the catfish of the Ohio, the whitefish of the lake, with other