iva in the course of an hour weighing eight or ten times as much as
its own tissue. A striking example this of the rapidity with which
saliva can be separated from the blood under certain circumstances,
and of the fallacy of founding conclusions on the quantity secreted
within the twenty-four hours.

The sublingual gland is inert during mastication, and only begins to
act as swallowing commences, when it envelops or lubricates the chewed
substance with a fluid that assists its passage to the stomach. The
function of the submaxillary has much to do with taste; the fluid
which it pours out dilutes and diminishes the pungent flavour of sapid
substances, and at the same time weakens the energy of their contact.
The three organs are identical in texture, though so different in
their secretions; 'each gland,' as M. Bernard says, 'having a special
act, its function is exercised under separate and independent
influences. Notwithstanding their discharging into and mixing in the
mouth, their use remains distinct,' as above stated. To complete this
brief summary of an interesting subject, it may be added, that birds
and reptiles have but one kind of saliva, answering to the viscous in
mammalia.

M. Vogt, in a communication to the Academie, adds to the proofs that
what is called the spontaneous generation of certain worms, is due to
natural causes. For instance, a worm, which has no reproductive
organs, is often found in the body of the stickle-back; this worm,
however, is known to breed, but it does so only when the stickle-back
happens to be eaten by a bird; the worm is then placed in the proper
condition for development, 'for it is then only that its segments
become filled with eggs, which, egested by the bird, pass into the
bodies of other fishes;' in a way more in accordance with natural
operations than spontaneous generation.

Again, of two kinds of worms which infest human beings, the
_Bothriocephalus_ is found among the Poles, Swiss, and Dutch, while
the _Tenia_, or tape-worm, is common among the French and Germans. If,
however, the latter reside in Switzerland, they also become infested
with the first-named worm, the reason given being, that in Switzerland
liquid _excretae_ from cesspools are largely used for manuring
vegetables, and that, in the eating of these vegetables, the eggs of
the worms are taken into the body, and become hatched by means of the
intestinal warmth. These investigations, which are to be continued