Science.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1571, 29 July 1882, Page 6

Science.

M. Lklten mukes a icport before the Paris Biological Society of the effects of these articles of food, in connection with Dr. Semerio, There is a gteat diversity of opinion on those subjects. Some, as Trousseau and Pidoux, eonbider coffee an excellent digestive. Others, on the contrary, consider ifc veiy injurious. M. Leven thus writes :— Ho mixed 30 ( gramme*, of coffee in 150 grammes of w«iter, for a dog, which is killed thiee horns after. Tho mucous membrano of the stomach is found pale, discolored, and profoundly aiuumie. The vessels on tho internal surface, as well as those in tho pcriphpry, aie contracted. There lcraains 145 grammes of tbo mixtuio undigested, and the stomach digestion diminished, because tho contraption of the vessels, and tho consequent anajroic condition of the mucous membrane, piovent the secretion of the gastric juice. The abubo of coffee will produce dyspepsia-. Thus the English and tho Dutch, who drink fieely both of tea and cofleo, aio vury dys-peptic. Coffee increases tho ceiebral functions, an effect useful, agreeable, and innocuous. Sugar has been denounced by modern chemists as a substance whose effects on dyspeptics are deplorable. Mr Lcucri docs not partako of these fears. Ho cites tho ea&o of a dyspeptic doctor, who for twenty years had a terror of sugar, but who now consumes 120 grammes (3J 1 o/.) of sugar daily, without inconvenience Ho followed similar experiments with sugar. A dog aLe SO giains of sugar with 200 of other food. Six hours afterwards its stomach showed i littlo food. Tho mucous lining of the stomach was led and highly conjosted. The coiijestion of tho liver was, notable. If one opens an animal aftor eating 200 | grains of food and no .sugar, 90 to 100 grammes of food i.s undigested. Sugar, then, favors the secretion of the gastric juice. Coffee sweetened loses part of ifcft defects. — Lo Medmu I'tuetuwn.

Till, discoveiy of a new and important constituent of the mammalian blood has, says tho London Zc/wtt, just boon announced by a distinguished investigator of blood formation — Prufc-sor VAzaoacvo, of Turin. This now element if, not the same as the invisible corpuscle of Norris, but piesents nevertheless somewhat similar characters. If the comseof the circulation is watched in the small vessel*, in the inoseulciy of ohknab/ed rabbits and guinea pigs, thcie are seen, besides tho ordiuaiy led aud pale cospusolcs, thud elements — very pule, oval, or round disk-shaped or lenticular bodies, ono half or one-third the diameter of the red corpuscles, among which they are scatteied " JilutpLitlehen," Bi/zo/ero proposes to call them. They havo hitherto e.se.iped notice, probably bceauso they arc so colorless and translucent, less numerous than the red, and less visible than tho whifcp corpuscles ; and on account of tho di/ficulty of observing tlic inamm.ilian blood in tho course of the circulation with a high magnifying 1 power. They are to bo observed also in freshly drawn blood, for tho most part aggregated around the colorless corpuscles, ov, ascending to the upper layer, they adhere to tho cover glass. They change, however, with great rapidity, rapidly become granular, and appear to be the source of tho small gianulo masses which havo been dc-oribed by many observers. Tho corpuscles can bo prosorved unaltered iv form for more prolonged examination by certain rcagonts, as, for instance, by a solution of chloiido of bodium tinted with methylviolet. They aio to bo found also in human blood, but they undergo alterations with extreme rapidity, and tho best method of observing them has boon found to bo by placing a drop of tho abovo solu- j tion over the puncture, aud then squeezing the blood out, and immediately examining it under tho microscope.