isomeric compounds. The report of the committee has particular reference to the physiological side of the question; it was edited by Claude Bernard, an eminently distinguished physiologist. The following extract is from the report:

Following the example of Caguiard Latour, Pasteur considers the yeast of beer an organized body; he regards the modifications which it undergoes during alcoholic fermentation as of a nature essentially vital, and he shows that the chemical phenomena of fermentation are connected with a perpetual renewal of the yeast; whence it follows that, during the alcoholic fermentation, the sugar not only gives origin to chemical substances which disengage themselves or remain dissolved in the liquid, but at the same time, there is still a portion of the sugar which is taken up by the yeast in the form of cellulose, and another portion in the form of fatty matter, while the nitrogen of the old yeast serves to regenerate the new. Pasteur has made in this respect an experiment which, so to speak, reduces physiological conditions to the most simple relations which can connect living beings with mineral nature. He has shown, in fact, that the globules of yeast develop and multiply, and that the sugar ferments, when a quantity of the globules, so to speak, imponderable is sown in a medium composed at the same time of: 1st. A solution of pure candied sugar. 2d. An ammoniacal salt, the dextrotartrate, for example. 3d. Mineral substances containing phosphates. The ammonia is seen to disappear and to be transformed into the complex albuminous matter of the yeast, while at the same time, the phosphates give up their mineral constituents to new globules. The carbon which is one of the constituent elements of the yeast, is evidently furnished by the sugar. Before Pasteur, the lactic yeast was generally considered as organic matter in process of alteration, but not as organized matter. Our author has discovered and pointed out the special character of a lactic yeast, which is much more minute than the yeast of beer. During the lactic fermentation this yeast buds and multiplies, behaving in the matter of reproduction very much like the yeast of beer. In regard to the fermentation of tartaric acid and its congeners, Pasteur has arrived at very unexpected results, having a high chemical and physiological interest. Putting into conditions of fermentation with albuminous matter, and at a suitable degree of heat, the racemate of ammonia, which is formed by the union of the right- and left-handed tartrates of ammonia, and which has no effect on polarized light, it was seen that the phenomena of fermentation finally manifested themselves, and that new chemical products were formed at the expense of the racemate of ammonia. But it is remarkable that only the elements of the right-handed tartrate separate or ferment, to give rise to the products of fermentation, while under the same conditions the left-handed tartrate remains unaltered in solution in the liquid, which then acts very energetically upon polarized light. In this fermentation there is produced a yeast peculiar to the right-handed tartaric acid, which developes itself in presenting the characteristics of a mycodermic vegetable.

This example proves, in the plainest manner, the influence of the molecular dissimilarity of organic bodies, in the phenomena of fermentation. It is, indeed, impossible otherwise to interpret the marked differ

ence which, in this respect, the right and left tartaric acids exhibit, since both have exactly the same physical properties, the same chemical composition, and they differ only in the interior arrangement, which gives to their constituent parts a rotatory power equal, but in opposite directions, and which corresponds to the dissimilarity which is reproduced in their aptitude or inaptitude, to be influenced by ferments.

In short, Pasteur regards the chemical phenomena of fermentation as being always correlative to the vital phenomena of organization, and to the development which takes place, at the same time, in the organized yeasts which have the power to excite it.

The committee judged that the author, in thus pursuing the physiologic study of the yeasts, in the direction which he had chosen, would bring new light to bear upon a series of organic products, which are related to the phenomena of nutrition and histogeny.

Transplantation of the Periosteum.-Honorable mention was also made of Mr. Ollier, in reference to his interesting experiments on the transplantation of the periosteum, preserving its property of renewing the osseous tissue. The author showed, that if a strip of the periosteum is detached from the bone of a living animal, and is transplanted to the subcutaneous cellular tissue upon the same animal, or upon another individual of the same species, the fragment of periosteum becomes encrusted, and continues to live in such a manner that vessels are formed in its substance, and communicate with those in its vicinity, as can be proved by careful injection after death: Ollier has likewise proved that, several hours after death, the possibility of this transplantation of the periosteum still remains.

Prize relative to the unhealthy Arts. This prize was awarded to the inventor of a lamp suitable for giving light to laborers at work beneath the surface of water. It is a lantern, consisting of a thick cylindrical covering of glass fixed between two iron plates. A reservoir, containing a mixture of alcohol and turpentine ("burning fluid") is placed in the interior. Where the apparatus is plunged into water, the air necessary to support combustion comes to the bottom of the lantern through two iron tubes opening up into the atmosphere. The products of combustion are likewise removed by means of a tube fitted to the centre of the upper plate, which is also prolonged so as to open into the atmosphere, and of which the section is double that of both the tubes, through which the external air is supplied.

The inventor of this apparatus was a simple workman, named Guigardot. With this lamp it is possible to work under water to the depth of twenty metres. It has been used with success at the works of the monumental bridge built over the Rhine, at Strasbourg. It illuminates a circle of 2m. 50 radius, even in turbed water.

Medical Prize.-In the preceding years we gave much praise to the committee in charge of the medical prize. They sometimes expended even 90,000 francs in prizes of all kinds, awarded even to chemists whenever their labors were important to one of the branches of the healing art. This year the committee have been economical, one knows not why, inasmuch as important works are not wanting. They have awarded only honorable mention to physicians for the labors of their profession.

Prize for Organic Chemistry.-The opposite state of things appears in the department of chemistry, which for the first time has awarded a prize to living chemists. A sum of 6000 francs was divided between Messrs. Wurtz and Cahours; to Prof. Wurtz for his researches upon glycol and its derivatives, and upon the new bases containing oxygen recently discovered; to Prof. Cahours for his labors in reference to the organic radicals. Be it understood, there is no question as to who is the discoverer of the composite radicals (Liebig), nor of the organo-metallic radicals (Loewig). Bréant Prize. This prize is in reference to cholera and contagious diseases. It has not been awarded. The pieces sent for this concours were mostly mere letters, containing medical formulæ, all, according to their authors, infallible for the cure of the cholera, and all wanting, both in practical observations in regard to this dangerous disease, and in rational deductions as to the nature of its attack, and the symptoms which accompany and constitute it. The following are the principal questions proposed for the concours of 1861 and 1862:

1st question. "Discuss carefully and compare with theory, the observations upon the tides, made in the principal ports of France."

2nd quest. "To complete in some important point the geometrical theory of polyhedrons."

3rd quest.

"Establish the general equations of the movement of the earth's atmosphere, taking into consideration the rotation of the earth, the calorific action of the sun, and the attractive forces of the sun and moon."

4th quest. Study of any question, at the option of the candidates, relative to optical phenomena."

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5th quest. "At different points of the thermo-electric scale and for a difference of temperature reduced to 1° C. to determine the directions and compare the relative intensities of the electric currents produced by different thermo-electric substances."

6th quest.

"Determine by experiment the causes which influence the difference of position of the optical and photogenic foci."

7th quest.

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Comparative anatomy of the nervous system of fishes." 8th quest. "Study of the hybrid vegetables, with respect to their fecundity, and the perpetuity or non-perpetuity of their character." 9th quest. Study of the mode of formation and of the structure of spores and of the other organs which contribute to the reproduction of fungi, their physiological office, the germination of the spores, and particularly with reference to parasitic fungi, their mode of penetration and developement in other living organized bodies."

Each of these prizes consists of a medal of the value of 3000 fr.

10th quest. "Essay upon carefully made experiments, to throw new light upon the question of so-called spontaneous generation."

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11th quest. Experimental study of the modifications which can be effected in the developement of the embryo of a vertebrate animal by the action of external agents."

12th quest. "Study of the distribution of the vessels of the latex in the different organs of plants, with particular regard to their relation to or connection with the lymphatic or spiral vessels, as well as with the fibres of the liber."

13th quest. "Determine experimentally what influence insects may exercise upon the production of the diseases of plants."

Each of these prizes consists of a medal of the value of 2500 fr.

Besides these prizes there are others: especially the Bréant prize (100,000 fr.) is to be awarded "to the person who shall have discovered the means of curing the Asiatic cholera, or shall have discovered the causes of this terrible scourge."

Now that we are upon the subject of prizes we will also say that a prize of 6000 fr. is offered by the society of Pharmacy at Paris, for "the question of the artificial production of quinine, or in default of this, of a substitute possessing equivalent anti-febrile properties." The prize for artificial quinine has been open since 1849.

Time strictly limited to July, 1861.

These concours are open to all scientists without distinction of country. Obituary. Death of Poinsot.-This illustrious geometer died on the 10th of December last, at the age of 83 years. Born in 1777, he carried on his studies at the Polytechnic School from which he went out in 1796 in the character of an engineer of bridges and highways. He was successively, Professor at a Lyceum in Paris, and member of the higher council of public instruction. He had been a member of the Institute since 1813 where he took the place of the mathematician Lagrange. We shall speak no further of the titles, the dignities, and the decorations of Poinsot, since all these objects of human pride are but a vapor, and have added nothing to his merits, whom mechanicians place, in the history of mechanics, immediately after Archimedes, Galileo, Huygens and Newton. His principal claim upon the memory of posterity is founded upon "La Statique," the "Memoire sur l'équilibre et le mouvement des systèmes, 1806," and the Théorie nouvelle de la rotation and the Mémoire sur les cônes circulaires roulants; the last memoirs were in 1853.

In the Elémens de Statique, he brought to light his beautiful theory of couples and its application to the conditions of the equilibrium of machines.

Poinsot had a truly philosophic mind; he knew how to render the most abstract matter accessible and to bring it down to the most elementary ideas; this power was one of the characteristic traits of his genius. It is equally recognized in his work upon the precession of the equinoxes, that remarkable phenomenon discovered by Hipparchus, and explained two thousand years afterwards by d'Alembert.

Poinsot retained his intellectual activity to the close of his life. He never experienced the trials which are often met by men of science in their pathway. While yet young he saw the most illustrious judges proclaim his rare talents, and his life has always been happy and honored; Poinsot was not only a great savant, but moreover a good man.

Discovery of an Intra-Mercurial Planet. The year 1860 has been inaugurated in France by an astronomical discovery, all the more remarkable because made in unusual circumstances. It is the discovery of another planet between the earth and the sun, verifying the conclusion to which Leverrier had arrived by the power of computation, that there existed one or more planets within the orbit of Mercury. This conclusion was announced to the Academy at the session of September 12,

1859, in a letter from Leverrier to Mr. Faye. Very soon reports were spread that the discovery of such a planet was no new thing. Among these reports, the most persistent was this, that such a planet had been observed towards the commencement of the year 1859, by an amateur astronomer, a poor country doctor. Leverrier, resolving to trace this story to its source, went personally to Orgères, a village in the Depart ment of Eure and Loir, where this doctor resided. Great was the emotion of Dr. Lescarbault on seeing before him the illustrious director of the Observatory of Paris. He had little difficulty in satisfying Leverrier that the observation had really been made. He said, "On the 26th of March last, (1859), about four o'clock, in pursuance of my regular habit, I was exploring the sun's disc with my telescope, when suddenly I noticed near the border a small, well defined, round black spot, having a sensible motion. It advanced farther and farther on the sun's disc. Unfortunately just then occurred a call from a patient. I went down below, my advice to the patient, reascended to my observatory, the black spot continued its journey, and I saw it reach the opposite border of the sun and disappear, after being about an hour and a half on the disc."

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The measurements made by Dr. L., with very simple means of his own, enabled Leverrier to determine that the chord of the sun's disc traversed by the planet was 9' 17"; and it would have required 4h 26m 488 to traverse the diameter of the sun. He estimates the angular diameter of the planet at about a quarter that of the planet Mercury when in transit. If this estimate is correct, the new planet is insufficient to account for the anomaly in the motion of the perihelion of Mercury; and there probably is, as M. Leverrier announced, a group of small planets between Mercury and the sun. Observers should give special attention to this subject at the next total solar eclipse.

The new planet has not been officially named, but it is already designated as Vulcan. Its return is looked for at Paris at the end of March or the beginning of April.

This discovery was not a matter of mere chance. Dr. Lescarbault, having observed the transit of Mercury, on the 8th of May, 1845, conceived the idea that if there were between the earth and the sun any planetary body besides Venus and Mercury, it must also sometimes cross the sun; and that by frequently observing its disc, such body might be detected thereon as a black point.*

Without fortune and without means of observation, Dr. Lescarbault was unable to obtain a telescope until 1853; and it was not until 1858 that he commenced systematic work. He made most of his auxiliary apparatus for himself, and went to work in astronomy very much as Scheele did in chemistry.

In 1836 and 1837, M. Pastorff of Buchholz observed, several times, a pair of small, round black spots, of unequal size, passing, in a few hours, across the sun's disc, and each time in a different path. These must have been a planet with a satellite. Messrs. E. C. Herrick and Francis Bradley of New Haven, in 1847, endeavored to re-discover those bodies, by observing the sun's disc, twice a day, with a large telescope, and by exploring the vicinity of the sun with the telescope, armed in front with a pasteboard tube, blackened within. These efforts proved unsuccessful. (See this Journal, Nov. 1859, vol. xxviii, pp. 445-6.) The hypothesis of an intra-mercurial planet was also proposed, many years since, by M. Buys-Ballot, in his researches on a maximum and minimum of the solar heat.