234 SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



which it is composed contain a great deal of lime, and of 

 sulphuric acid. 

 S^ral meteo- On the l$)th of April, 1808, at one o'clock in the a r ter 

 ImU^imh 1 n °° n ' U » reilt H'^'^'ty °f meteorolites fell in the commune 

 April* 1808. °f Pieve <Ai Ca>ignauo, in the department of Taro (formerly 

 the duchies of Parma and Plucentia}. The air was calm, 

 and the sky serene, but with a few clouds. Two loud ex- 

 plosions were heard, followed by several less violent, after 

 which several stones fell. A farmer, who was in the fields, 

 saw one fall about fifty paces from him, and bury itself in 

 the ground. It was burning hot. xV fragment of one of 

 these stones is deposited in the museum at Paris. 

 Peculiar claw On the 1 7th of November, 1807, during an inundation 

 in the beaver. of the Rhone> a better was killed ill the island of la Bar- 

 thalasse, opposite Avignon. Mr. Costuing has given a very 

 particular description of the animal, and among other things 

 remarks, that the fourth toe of each hind paw has a double 

 nail, the parts of which close on each other, so as to form a 

 sharp and cutting beak, opening and shutting like that ef a 

 bird of prey. 

 Bec» poisoned , A large swarm of bees, having settled on a branch of the 



by the effluvia „ OJSon as ] 1} rkut vernix, in the county of West Chester in 

 r ot the rnus . __ * 



remix. America, was taken into a hive of fir at three o'clock in the 



afternoon, and removed to the place where it was to remain 



at nine. About live the next morning the bees were found 



dead, swelled to double their natural size, and black, except 



a few, which appeared torpid and feeble, and soon died on 



exposure to the air. 



Cotton tree The cultivation of the cotton tree, as well as of the sweet 



to^France ^ P otuto ll om St. Domingo, has been introduced in the south- 

 ern departments of France, it is said very successfully. 



Paper from Mrs. Lena Serpenti, of Como, to whom an honorary me- 



lnounuun flax. j a [ was d ecre ed in 1806 for having improved the method of 

 spinning amianthus, has fabricated paper from this fossil, 

 that answers well either for writing or printing, and is capa- 

 ble of resisting the action of fire or w r ater. 

 Metallic ther- Mr. Urban Joergensen lias presented to the Copenhagen 

 woincter. Society of Rural Economy a metallic thermometer of his 

 invention, in the shape of a watch. The scale, on a circle on 



the 



