New-York daily tribune., 1858-08-23

Ien. and ~ the efee. Of some minute particles Of
,cs on .her favo.te sopg BIRDS the extreme greed
nees with which ]. VII be consumed vii spee-iy
azure then Of the rscessi:y FOR i.s consnssccs.
The author presents curious theory IN ard "a
the acton Of
TIE s.IvsRY GLANDS.
The SILVA sppesrs to possess hree most tmPortsrt
nrope,t.s firstly Il destroys vitality u al 81 srd
yese,sble matter; secondly, sooseEs the hssues,
.her.by prepsriDg them 10 recsye tie ssiva Itself,
snd Ultimately 10 admit the gsstre Juice ard thirdly,
Il mef haricsly scens and dizes hard dry food.
Wher 8 cow IFS her p.unch with grass, sic places
there q lnge amount Of living vegetable material;
lyirg in ina, crgsn transferring TO tae second
somsch, way Affects lts tality, oat Vnen trroNn
b.k INTO the mouth AID i cones in eon.sc, with tie
saliys then it instantly dies, and becomes materially
altered IL appearance.
E1smne the contents Of the hrs. three e omscns OF
cow or sheep in the tive Ire. The TODD u evident
lx y pG grass bu, in tue h r Il has the sppesrsnce
OF a thoroughly well boiled vegetable more near.y
Allied in color and appearance to spnsch, snd, as yet,
i has only cone In contact with tie sahNS, Wllen
must be held resIors bic for Its chsr geo eoa'oS.
Arrest q caterpillar in the act OF estinG the est oi
csbbsge kill Il instantly open lis crop and examine
the leaf you saw it consume but minute before u
will have os is bright green color, and be reduced,
il every respect to the appesrance OF tae grs II Ge
contact With any other material tnsn tie sAivsry
secretion it lie surely ustifsble 70 atrbn,e It's altered
appearance 10 the action Of that huid.
When mar eats raw, rps truit:, ne esx @ m'fs
that state there they will remain, for no stonsch hiss
the power to destroy the vitality Of fsnythiug as II 1t
had a,suredly If would destroy and digest se aeon
more ci mon, at post orten examinations, than to
ind that portion OF the stomach has actually thus
acted upon itself
To show the uniyeisaty Of this particular chemical
pro pery OF destroying life let US see Thst tsAes psee
smorg the lower srimals. Bulk for bulk, weight for
weight, can anything exceed the pain OF musketo
bite 10 say nothing OF the long continued ter conse-
quebces
What eiyes ,ise 10 this extreme suffering Surely
il capnot be the insertion Of It's tubular shestn and
inv laws, because if the flesh were stabbed 81 the
same time with a dozen large s.oching needles, the
pain would rot be nesrly 60 great ana tns "ouna
would scorer heal. When q SPIDER bites ny, way
does tie insect die instantly and ts body swell up
prodgi iously
If rattlesnske or other, go csled, poisonous SER
Tent bite man, why is the wound almost universally
fatal
If dog, not rabid, bite man. or if a COW, horse,
hog, rsccooD, fox land many other anImals, do tne
same thing, OF if BITE anotteL why, 10 any or
all these circumstances, should the bitten person ue
liable to bydrophobis
To these questions which might be greatly en-
tended there is but one answer, namely tina. the
person bitten has been In every instance inoeuated
with the saliva of the other ANIMAL and inst one o. lis
chief properties is 10 destroy ite.
To them and to it il natural secretion, and so
harmless, is il, under some circumstances, that man
may drink any quantity Of the poison lssllva ~
roeSn0ke ard Il will have other effect tnan TO
help him TO digest his food But if nooulated into
the circulation of the blood 1t becomes viruen',
fatsl poisop.
WHO can doubt that, if musketo were ss large a.
6 good sized dog its ssliva would be a. immediately
AID certainly istal as the bite of a rsttssn.ke
The pain that We shsre with domestic and otner
animals from the bite OF parasitic insects is solely due
to this osuse- iroculation by their saliva.
The division OF the salivary glands amorg the rep
WOuQ throw
Of each or Certainly of them thus the poison
reptiles possess only parot,d glands, the secretion
of which descends by the channels OF the iangs OF the
upper Jaw the use they make OF them would seem 10
establish the function and properties of these psrcu-
lar glands.
Tie boa constructor fPy,lon tgris) has no p.rotid
gsIds, neither he destroy hi, prey by bite, but
he entwines bis body around mis- vctin, and kills him,
as bear would by an embrace. But what is nov 10
be done he has no grinding teeth to enable hlm 70
rsavate the food and loosen the tissues, by partially
cecon posing the body Of the goat he has killed. and
so prepare il for the action of the stomach in other
worse how CON he perform the important function OF
nselivaiing it
He does it in this way: he Hcks Il all orer, and
wherever the tongue covered with saliva, touches It,
the hesh becomes almost rotten under ts Influence
Now, as it is well known that persons have been
bitten by q rabii sog and escaped nydrophobis While
o:her persons have been bitten by sound and hea.shy
dogs and yet this fearful disease has supevenet how
is this to be xIlsined, unless we admit the differing
chemical property OF the salvary glands respectively
III tDe 'ehcnlrbt vi tue ooa coH-
stIctor have ar practical value il would appear that
the parotid glanes alone posses e p9rer o Destroy
ing M that the secretion of the other glands can
only be employed upon already dead msttsr to effect s
SPEEDY decomposition.
T. lis theory be true, it is very essy to explain tue
tpes Ar their consequences Of the two dogs in the
case Of tbs raid dog whose bite proved Innocent the
ssliys Of incubation may have come only from t,e
sutmordVory and sRbRguot gtands, and consequently
il WAS harmless whereas in the case OF the SOUND dog
the saliva came from the prrot'd glands, ard was
therefore fatal.
This view is sustained by the following consders-
tionf: The duets of the psrotd glands are nustsa,
as we have ssep, in immediate proximity to the mo.a
teeth and the secretion only evolved by thers acton
the probability that the ineisor teeth used 10 otng
and the rterior Of the mouth, are usually Iuorcaea
by the secretion OF one both of the other pairs OF
glands while the psrod glands reserved for mss-
tica,iOn alone.
No small attraction is added TO the work by the
numerous pictorial illnitratOns which are executed
in Eove style, that ia both beautiful in ltse aud
admirably adapted to the purpose of scientific Illus
trafOn.