SCIENTIFIC NEWS; 3\$ 



considered as tadpole;-, that have a change to undergo. 

 The last inhabits the lake of Mexico, where if is used as Axolotl. 

 food, and resembles a water lizard, except in bavins: i>ills. 

 It is called there dxofail, and was brought over by Hum- 

 boldt. 



Mr. Biot, while employed in measuring an arc of the Air-bladders ojf 

 meridian at the Balearic Islands, thinks he has observed, fislie ^ 

 thai part of the intestines of fishes caught by a hook and 

 line at great depths, and drawn up suddenly, issue out of 

 their mouths, which he attributes to the expansion of the • 

 air-bladder. He has likewise examined the nature of the 

 air in this bladder, and found it to vary from pure nitrogen 

 to a mixture of this gas with 0*87 oxigen, but he dis- 

 covered no hidrogen. It appeared to him, that, the deeper 

 the fish lived under water, the more oxigen the air cq;j- • l 



tained. 



Mr. Jurine is extending his new method of classing; in- Entomology, 

 sects*, which is found to be more natural than could have 

 been expected, to the diptera. 



Mr. Dupuytren, head of the anatomical department of Nerves of the 



the Medical School, has shown, that the concurrence of' un ^ n ces 



, p i i «i n sar y ul breath- 



the nerves or the lungs in the act ot respiration is neces- ing. 



sary to the conversion of the venous blood into arterial. 



The science of botany lms been sedulously pursued. Mr. 

 de Labillardiere has finished his Flora of New Holland. 

 Mr.Dupetit-Thouars continues his researches on the growth ~ t . . 

 of vegetables. He still thinks, that the trunk of trees has getablesu 

 the principle of its increase in the buds ; and that the fibres 

 composing the annual layers of wood are in some sort the 

 roots of the buds, while the little medullary thread ter- 

 minating each bud performs the functions of cotyledons. 

 He has endeavoured to answer objections, and brought for- 

 ward many interesting facts. Among these is the germina- 

 tion of the lecythis. The evolution of the seed of this tree, 

 which is dicotyledonous, cannot be referred to either of the 

 three modes hitherto adopted. Its cotyledon is interior, 

 and serves as a base to the pith, which Mr. D.T. thinks a 

 proof of the justice of his opinion. The cuttings of the 



* See Journal, Vol XV I II. p. 218. 



willow, 



