Scientific Notes.

Otago Witness, Issue 1589, 6 May 1882, Page 29

Scientific Notes.

\ r • .Interesting Discoveries in Belgium. At Anglem (nea^Liege), Belgium, some interesting .antiquities have-just been discovered. Some workmen found buried at a depth of 50 t or 60 centimetres^ about 20 .bronzes splendidly ' coated with green, and in an excellent state of preservation. They include two female sta- " tuetfes, those of a youth with his hands out- ■ stretched and gazing heavenwards, three heads • of Mercury, two tigers' heads, _ and alion with upraised paw. They are said to rival the 'best specimens of tho kind discovered at Pompeii, -and were probably brought from .Italy. Other specimens of a rough and undeveloped art, which were also found at Anglem, aro believed to be due to native skill, and, with the othei s, to have formed part of a monumental'fountain. Evidence of this is furnished by tho discovery of some pipes. Archaeologists state" that the antiquities just discovered date back to the third century of the Christian era: : It is added that after researches in the same ■■/vicinity will probably bring other interesting < objects to light, as has been the case at Jupille and *7uslenville, near Theun, though the dis- . coveries in these places are less important.

Malarial Organisms in tl?.o Blood.

In the blood of patients suffering from nialu- ' rial poisoning, M. A. 'Laveran has found parasitic gganisms, very definite in form and must remarkable in character. Some wevo cylindrical curved bodies, pointed at th<; extremities, with a delicate outline ant] a transparent boil y, colourloss except for a blackish spot in the middle, due to pigment granules ; ou the concave side a fine line could often be traced,

which seemed to unite the extremities of the 'crescent. These bodies presented no movement. Spherical organisms were also seen, transparent, of about the diameter of a red blopd corpuscle, containing * pigment grains which, in a state of rest, were often arranged in a definite circle, but sometimes presented ; rapid movements, and then lost their regular arrangement. On the borders of the spherules .very fine filaments could often be perceived in .rapid movement. Theae filaments were in 'length three or four times the diameter of a red corpuscle. Their number varied. Some.thnes three or four were seen around a spherule, 'to which they communicated an oscilatory ■movement, displacing the adjacent red cor puscles;. . > , There were also bodies of spherical or irre-' gular form, transparent or finely granular, about the hundredth of a micro-milimeter in diameter, containing dark red, rounded pigment grains, either regularly arranged at the periphery or aggregated at some part of the spherule. The bodies and granules were both motionless. These appear to be the ultimate or ' cadaveric ' stage of those last described. They have no nuclei, and do not tint with ! carmine. Lastly, spherical elements were met with similar to 1 those' already described, but I much smaller in size,' and apparently repreI senting a stage in their development. The animated nature of the mobile pigmented , ■ spherule, furnished with filaments, appears in- j disputable. , Besides these organisms, the blood of patients suffering from malarial fever contain: — 1. Red corpuscles,, which appear to be vacu'olated at one or two spots and contain j pigment granules. 2. Pigmented leucocytes. 3. Free pigment granules, possibly proceeding from the destruction of the parasitical organisms. •'. These elements Were first discovered by M. Laveran about a year ago, and since then he has examined the blood in 192 patients affected ! with various symptoms of malarial poisoning, ' intermittent and continued fever, and palustrai cachexia, andfound the organisms in 180. The disease had been contracted for the most part in different regions of Algeria and Tunis. He convinced himself, by numerous and repeated observations', that these organisms are not to be found in the blood of persons suffering from diseases that are not of malarial origin. In most of the cases of malaria in which the exanimation yielded a negative result, the patient had undergone a course of treatment with quinine, and to this fact the absence of the organisms from the blood was probably due. The addition of a minute quantity of a dilute solution of sulphate of quinine to a drop of blood was found at once to destroy the organisms. In all the examinations great care was taken to preclude the entrance of any extraneous objects into the drop of blood examined. In general the parasitic bodies were found in the blood only at. certain times ; a little before, and at the moment of, the accession of the fever. In some very obstinate cases the organisms were always present in the blood. ■ They rapidly disappeared under the influence of a quinine treatment. It is- conjectured that in the apyrexial intervals the organisms probably sojourn in internal organs, especially the spleen and the liver. After death from malarial disease pigment granules are found in great numbers in the blood, 'and especially in the small vessels of the spleen and liver ; and they may be, in the most severe cases, so abundant that not only the spleen and the liver, but the. marrow of bone, and even the gray substance of the brain, are darkened by their presence. These pigment granules, .which may obstruct the capillary veiiels, appeared to be derived from the parasitic elements,, which perish after, death, and become them unrecognisable. — Lancet.

Facts about the Eye.

The eye is preserved in the convenient form of a sphere, or ball, by the simple , device of •having its interior' cavity filled with liquid, which prevents the limp and otherwise flexible coats from puckering up into , any irregularity of shape. It, is like a. bladder distended with water, which is firm and tense o.n account of the contained liquid.so shut in by the membraneous wall that it cannot possibly escape anywhere from the tight grasp in which it is held. There are, however, in the interior of the eye two distinct chambers 'in which the liquid is distributed, one in front and one behind the crystalline lens. The lens hangs, as'ifwere, in the-midstof the liquid. The portion which is in front, of the lens is a little more than a very wealcaflueous solution of salt, and is on that account termed the aqueous humour of the eye. The portion which is behind more nearly resembles a solution of white of egg. ,On account of this somewhat thicker consistency, it is termed the vitreous, or glass-like humour. Both humours, however, exert very nearly the same influence upon the vibrations of the light, and the optical part of the eye thus ( comes to be considered as composed simply of two refracting parts— the denser lens and the thinner humours.

The iris is loosely' suspended in the aqueous humour in front of the lens, so that it has the water-like' liquid bathing both surfaces, and thus enjoys the same ready freedom of movement that it would possess if it were simply immersed in water. The humours of the eyes are supplementary aids to the image-forming 'capacities of the lens. But they are only subordinate aids, as their influence in this particular is comparatively small. For simplicity's sake, the crystal lens and the associated humours may be looked upon as together constituting one single lens, and the visual power of the eye in reality depends upon three curved surfaces which are found in the combination of humours and lens — the front surface of the | globe or corner, upon which light in the first instance strikes- as it enters the transparent media of the eye, and the front and the back protuberant surfaces are of the crystalline mass itself. The position of tho definite image within the eye is determined by the form of these surfaces, taken in connection with the density of' the crystalline substance and its associated humours.— Edinburgh Review,