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through the cerebellum upon the medulla oblongata, the muscles of the body were at the same time convulsed. On pressing upon the spinal marrow as it issues from the foramen magnum, the muscles of the body were convulsed, those of the head and face remaining quiescent. The experiment has been frequently, and several times in presence of my medical friends, repeated upon sheep, rabbits, and dogs, with invariable success. This discovery

, led to several minute dissections of the brain and spinal marrow in dogs, cats, cows, horses, &c.; in which I found that the spinal marrow is uniformly composed of four longitudinal divisions--two larger, anterior, which may be traced into the cerebrum, and two smaller, posterior, which may be traced into the cerebellum. I suppose that the two anterior portions are the organ of feeling; the two posterior, of motion. I also found that the spinal marrow does not terminate at the sacrum in a lash of nerves, but tapers to & sharp point, to the very extremity of which I could distinctly trace the division into four portions.

On tracing the various organs of the body from man downwards through the chain of living beings, I find that there are three great fundamental functions-respiration, nutrition, and propagation, common to all organized beings. In all vegetables and animals there are neither more nor less, in so far as the living machine is concerned, than these three functions, every other being subsidiary. From this view I was induced to think more highly of respiration than as an absorber of oxygen, or an expeller of carbon. That such a large complicated organ, and such a laborious and incessant function, should serve no other purpose but drawing off carbon from the blood, is neither consistent with analogy, nor with that Divine wisdom and power which uniformly effectuates the greatest ends by the smallest means. It appears to me that vitality has been originally diffused equally over the creation; that vegetable and animal life is just a less or greater accumulation of this vitality; and that the leaves, gills, and lungs, are the chemical laboratory in which vitality is continually secreted as fast as it is expended by the vital and animal functions.

As the facts and arguments in support of this theory, and of the preceding discovery, are forthwith to come before the public, in a work to be entitled, Researches in Physiology and Physiognomy, I will not at present encroach further on your patience. I remain, Sir, your most obedient servant,

John CROSS.

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ARTICLE VI.
Observations on Tanning. By Mr. Murray.

(To Dr. Thomson.)
SIR,
Noticing in the Annals of Philosophy, for the 1st of Septemberg
Queries respecting Tanning, I presume the liberty of submitting to

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you the results of experiments I have instituted on this branch of our manufactures.

Respecting the question whether lime-water or pure river water extracts the tannin from bak bark most promptly and in greater quantity, experiment enables me to decide on the latter.

That time and alkalies ought to be discarded in the process of tanning (could we find a substitute for the former) will appear evident from immersing a piece of leather in either; the fluid will

; appear in a few minutes of a blood-red colour, and the surface of the leather blackened; a proof that the tannin has been absorbed by the alkaline menstruam, or lime-water.

Hence the justice of the remark, by all possible means get rid of the lime employed in depilation, previous to immersion in the tannin poze. "Lime will always produce with tannin an abundant and difficultly soluble precipitate : and for the same reason alkalies must not be used in raising the pelt, as they, though producing a quick and powerful extract, prevent the union of the tannin with animal gelatine by virtue of superior affinity.

The excrement of the pigeon and hen were tried with respect to their superiority over that of other animals. By sulphuric acid, a powerful effervescence takes place; and as lime had been proved to exist by the previous application of fluate and oxalate of ammonia, the carbonic acid was inferred to be in combination, and not the phosphoric, as the precipitate by barytes did effervesce by muriatic acid.

Nitro-muriate of tin and gelatine threw down an abundant precipitate. Hence I presume that it is to this peculiar substance, and

I not to any of the salts which it contains, we are to attribute its action on the pelt. The gelatine must be rendered less pliant by the lime used in depilation. The substance in question having an affinity for lime, would necessarily render the fibre of the hide less rigid than before, by removing the cause.

I have long suspected that handling did more for the beauty and value of the leather than was suspected. I endeavoured to ascertain to what this effect was owing. For this purpose a piece of leather was suspended in a vessel filled in water over the shelf of a pneumatic cistern, while the water was displaced by a stream of oxygen. The leather was in consequence beautifully bloomed, and this eifect penetrated quite through the piece. Diluted nitric acid stains the leather of a blood-red.

Sulphuric acid acts in an inferior degree, and makes the leather hard. Muriatic

, oxymuriatic, citric, phosphoric, acetic, and fluoric acids, communicate each a bloom. of these the oxymuriatic and muriatic acids are by far the preferable.

Oxymuriatic acid and wheaten flour communicate a very fine light bloom.

It was therefore of considerable moment to ascertain whether the effect was owing to the fecula or gluten of the four employed. Vol. V. N° II.

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Having separated these constituents, I found fecula simply to communicate a bloom. Oxymuriatic acid and gluten had a very bad effect. Hence a self-evident proposition becomes irresistible: that those nutritious grains containing less gluten are the most proper ; thus the farenaceous seeds of oats, barley, rye, &c.

The oxymuriate of lime appears to communicate a fine bloom : and as this acid may be employed to extract the lime after the process of depilation, so the salt of oxymuriate of lime may be employed afterwards to improve the bloom, so requisite to those tanners who

prepare for the London market. Two very respectable tanners have informed me that on my suggestion muriatic acid and oatmeal, and barley flour, have been used by them with great success. The muriatic acid renders hides which are required to possess this property pleasantly flexible.

“ Les choses ne sont estimables qu'autant qu'elles sont utiles."

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I am, with much respect,

Your very humble servant, Stowmarket, Oct. 3, 1814.

J. MURRAY.

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P.S. One of the desiderata in tanning appears to be some good substitute for lime in the process of depilation. Would not this be effected by a stove heat?

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ARTICLE VII.

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On Galvanism as a Solvent of Urinary Calculi.

By Mr. William Stark.

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A METHOD of decomposing urinary calculi by the galvanic influence having been suggested by a Mr. Goring in the last number of your Annals of Philosophy, p. 361, I am induced to trouble you with some of the remarks which I made in a paper read at the Norwich Philosophical Society, Nov. 26, 1812, on that subject. I have no wish to take from Mr. Goring any merit that belongs to him in proposing a substitute for one of the most dangerous operations in surgery; but I must confess. I do not see that Mr. Goring's suggestion promises much advantage, either with respect to the greater safety, or the alleviation of the sufferings, of patients. I would ask Mr. G. whether puncturing the bladder with a trochar, and introducing the appendages of a galvanic battery through the wound, is not attended with as much pain, and as much danger, as attend the common method of operating for the

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stone? Mr. G. considers, very properly, his mode of operating to be a work of time; and that consideration surely is sufficient to reject his plan ; for how is it possible to keep a wound open a suffi

2 cient time to enable the action of the galvanic influence to decompose a calculus, without the greatest danger to the patient? The plan I suggested to the Norwich Society was this :-“ Let an

I instrument similar in shape to a common catheter, made with gum elastic, waxed silk, or any non-conducting substance, with two cavities, one for the wire froin the positive end of tlie battery, the other for the wire from the negative end. This instrument with the wires to be introduced along the urethra into the bladder till it touches the stone, the wires having elasticity, and an inclination to bend outward, would facilitate the operation, as they would then be easier fixed, one on each side the calculus. When so fixed, whiclı a sargeon accustomed to similar operations could easily determine, the patient might be left at rest, and the action of the battery suffered to proceed. It is not to be supposed that in all cases of calculous affection this plan is advisable, but in those where the bladder contains but one concretion : and from the best information I can procure, it seems that, on the average, sis-sevenths of those afflicted have but one concretion, I have no doubt of its success. The patient immediately after, or towards the close, of the action of the battery, should be suffered to drink plentifully of diluents, that the disunited matter may be carried off by copious evacuations of urine.”

When the above suggestions were made, I intended to have tried experiments to ascertain the time and intensity that certain calculi required for their decomposition, by first analyzing the different strata of them, and submitting them to the action of batteries of different powers ; but the difficulty of procuring calculi, and the want of leisure, have at present frustrated my intention.

The objection which 'Mr. Goring makes to the introduction of
any instrument up the urethra surely is not well founded, and
certainly not liable to the risk, pain, and inconvenience, of the
method he proposes. I dare say every person is acquainted witli
some one in the circle of his friends who is obliged to perform such
an operation himself daily, at least it falls to my lot to know many
who are obliged to do it, and without the least danger. However,
so satisfied am I that the power of the galvanic influence is sufficient
to accomplish the desired object, that were I so unfortunate as to be
afflicted with the malady, I would cheerfully submit to a trial of it.
Experiment must prove whether the plan which I suggested in
1812, Mr. Goring's, or any other, is best adapted for its accom-
plishment.
“ Palmam qui meruit ferat.”

Yours,
Norwich, Now, 12, 1814.

WILLIAM STARK,

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Answer to Mr. R. Phillips's Animadversions on Mr. Hume

(To Dr. Thomson.) SIR, Your Correspondent, Mr. R. Phillips, affords another example of human imperfection, that we are all prone to complain" and often to publish too, without any reason or foundation.

Much of his valuable time, and more than nine-tenths of his letter to you, might have been spared, had he only looked into one of the volumes of your own System of Chemistry. There he would have found that, instead of dashing into a stream of words, studied expressions and polished sentences, you have in a single line said all that was necessary to correct where there was assuredly of my side no intentional plagiarism ; for, speaking of the supersulphate of barytes, you say in a note, Mr. Hume has also mentioned it, but the fact was well known to chemists." To your decision I have long ago assented, and have also abandoned all claim to priority respecting the super-sulphate of strontian, after I found that Mr. Clayfield, of. Bristol, had anticipated my observations.

Mr. R. Phillips is equally unfortunate in the two esperiments quoted from M. Sage; he has drawn inferences diametrically opposite to those of all the chemists who have written upon the subject, especially those of France. In these experiments there is neither water of solution nor water of crystallization; there is no guide to direct future operators to avoid such errors as I shall presently quote; nor is there any room for asserting, that putting a quantity of carbonate of barytes into either of the two acids, although it be granted that in such a case it must be converted into a nitrate or muriate, is precisely the same as adding these salts or more particularly their solutions to the respective acids. There is nothing here to invalidate what I have said on the subject; nothing detailed by M. Sage to show the direct meaning and tendency of the instructions which I took the liberty to offer, and. which may be thus epitomized :- That such is the avidity of nitrous and muriatic acid for water, that they will attract even the whole of the water of solution from their respective barytic salts.

When I published my paper upon this subject, it had been a common practice to ascertain the purity of nitrous acid, and even to purify it, by dropping into it a solution of nitrate of barytes; and this method was pursued by some very eminent professional men. I recollect one case in which a Gentleman, well known as a chemist and mincralogist, condemned some nitrous acid which had been sent to Sir John St. Aubyn, which, on my proving the error, wäs

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