le wounds.

The bruised leaves applied directly usually prove sufficient for the
purpose; as to whether it will prove sufficiently valuable to add to our
list of pharmaceutical preparations will require longer and more
extended experiment.--_New Remedies_.

* * * * *

DANGER FROM FLIES.

Dr. Grassi is said (_British Medical Journal_) to have made an
important, and by no means pleasant, discovery in regard to flies. It
was always recognized that these insects might carry the germs of
infection on their wings or feet, but it was not known that they are
capable of taking in at the mouth such objects as the ova of various
worms, and of discharging them again unchanged in their faeces. This
point has now been established, and several striking experiments
illustrate it. Dr. Grassi exposed in his laboratory a plate containing a
great number of the eggs of a human parasite, the _Tricocephalus
dispar_. Some sheets of white paper were placed in the kitchen, which
stands about ten meters from the laboratory. After some hours, the usual
little spots produced by the faeces of flies were found on the paper.
These spots, when examined by the microscope, were found to contain some
of the eggs of the tricocephalus. Some of the flies themselves were then
caught, and their intestines presented large numbers of the ova. Similar
experiments with the ova of the _Oxyuris vermicularis_ and of the
_Toenia solium_ afforded corresponding results. Shortly after the flies
had some mouldy cream, the _Oidium lactis_ was found in their faeces. Dr.
Grassi mentions an innocuous and yet conclusive experiment that every
one can try. Sprinkle a little lycopodium on sweetened water, and
afterward examine the faeces and intestines of the flies; numerous spores
will be found. As flies are by no means particular in choosing either a
place to feed or a place to defecate, often selecting meat or food for
the purpose, a somewhat alarming vision of possible consequences is
raised.

* * * * *

THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S GARDENS.

The erection of the new house for the accommodation of the serpents,
alligators, and other reptiles, which is shown in our illustration, must
be commended as a valuable improvement of the Zoological Society's
establishment in Regent's Park. This building, which has a rather
stately aspect and is of imposing dimensions, constructed of brick and
terracotta,