430

3rdly, " Such, indeed, is the tenacity ofthis mixture, that cases may arise in whichit may be usefully employed as a cement."

Lastly, " The process is to be stronglycondemned for its inconvenience and ex-

pense."That Mr. Phillips has failed does not

surprise me, after the novelties which hehas exhibited to the world in his Transla-tions (so called) of the London Pharma-copoeia,-exhibitions which the EdinburghCollege had prevented, by causing the Phar-macopœia of that College to be printed inEnglish. ITo find the word " accrete," I refer Mr.

Phillips to the dictionaries of Crakelt andWalker. Accretion will occur " after con-cretion and pulverization." I have adoptedthis process during some years, and havenever failed. The tenacity of the mixture issuch, when properly managed, that it is use-less as a cement, and I am of opinion that theprocess is to be commended. I admit thatthe quantities employed by me are upon adifferent scale from those used by Mr.Phillips. Instead of 140 grains, I invariablyuse 84 pounds of the acetate, and experienceno « difficulty in clearing the apparatus fora second operation."Mr. Phillips is equally unhappy in his

remarks on the acidum aceticum, S. L. Iremain, most respectfully, Sir, your mostobedient servant,

GEORGE WHIPPLE.22, Garnault-place, Clerkenwell,

June 8, 1840.

GEORGE WHIPPLE.

RATTLESNAKES DESTROYED BYHOGS.

.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SIR :—In your Journal, Vol. 1, 1839-40,

page 497, with regard to the article "Onthe Bites of Poisonous Snakes and Reme-dies," allow me to state, that when I was inthe United States of America, it was a com-mon practice among the farmers to turn theirhogs upon those lands which were infestedwith rattlesnakes, which reptiles were verysoon destroyed and eaten. In rocky districts,the rattlesnake will retreat into holes, whichare as closely watched by the hog, as a

terrier would watch a rat’s hole, the hogremaining until hunger compels the snaketo quit and be killed, which the quadrupedis not long in effecting. No harm ever re-sults to the hog from being bitten, though Isuppose, of course, that the bite is a com-mon occurrence. Whether the mass of fatunder their thick skins, or the thickness ofthe skin itself, protects them, must be amatter of conjecture ; but might not a know.ledge of this circumstance be turned to ac-count by those who have been wounded byany poisonous reptile;-applying, for in-

stance, a cataplasm of hogs’ lard to the part,spread on linen, before the virus has beenabsorbed iato the system. I have the honourto subscribe myself, VIATOR.

Bath, May, 1840.

EPIDEMIC IN THE RIFLE BRIGADE.

" THE epidemic which has laid up so

many of the privates of the Rifle Brigade,still prevails to a considerable extent. Up-wards of seventy of them are now in thehospital, and every day is adding to theirnumber. Some of the officers were affectedwith it, but we believe they are all nowcompletely recovered."** The above paragraph is copied from

the" Windsor Journal," and, if correct, callsfor inquiry on the part of Government, andthe adoption of hygienic measures, of anactive kind, for the prevention of the dis.ease. We should infer that the cause of the

epidemic must exist either in the situationof the barracks, in the food, or in the ac-commodation provided for the men.

TEMPERATURE OF PLANTS.

, M. VAN BECK, in repeating the experi.ments of Dutrochet, with the physiologicalneedles of Becquerel and Breschet, and thegalvanometer of Gourgon, has observed thatthe temperature of plants increases until the! afternoon, that it then diminishes, disappears almost wholly during the night, andreturns on the following day. The maximumof inherent heat on the 29th of September,at a quarter past one o’clock, P.M., in a

young leaf of the sedum cotyledon, did notexceed 0° 25 centigrade. In rainy and dullweather, the phenomenon was not so evi.dent as in a calm and clear atmosphere. Inthese experiments, M. Van Beck’s resultsdiffered from those of Dutrochet, in findingthe living leaf of a lower temperature thanthe dead leaf of the same plant, when theobservations were conducted in the air. Whenmade in an atmosphere impregnated withwatery vapour, and beneath a bell glass, theheat of the living leaf was the greatest.Dutrochet explains this want of agreementby reference to his mode of treatment of thewithered leaf. After destroying the vitalityof the leaf by immersing it in hot water, hedips it immediately into cold water, andkeeps it well moistened during the experi.ment, so that an evaporation equal to thatof the living leaf may be continued. If M.Van Beck allow the leaf after immersion inhot water to dry gradually, the evaporationwill have ceased, and the temperature intheliving leaf be consequently lower than thatof the dead when the experiment is made.-4bridged froan the Edin. New. Phil. Journal.