Col. Miller's Description of a Percussion Rifle, fyc. 277 



satisfactorily done in consequence of the precision with which 

 those gentlemen have written their accounts. 



The substances they have respectively examined offer, as 

 I have stated above, qualities so different in their nature, as to 

 ascribe to each a different origin ; so that I cannot agree with 

 Mr. S. in supposing the substance examined by him to be of 

 the same kind as Mr. B.'s, while I readily admit that the sub- 

 stance he has investigated was a real tremella. Mr. B.'s sub- 

 stance, on the contrary, fully agrees with that examined by me. 

 Their chemical contents are quite the same ; and the only es- 

 sential difference between them seems to be, that the substance 

 examined by him no longer exhibited any organic structure ; 

 whilst that observed by me still bore the evident traces of an 

 animal production. But if we consider that this snail-spawn 

 had lost all appearance of organic structure wherever the mem- 

 brane had burst, and especially when it was much swelled with 

 water, I suppose that Mr. B. found this substance so swelled, 

 that it had burst the membrane in every part, so as to cover 

 and obliterate the organic structure entirely. That the mass 

 examined by Mr. B. was actually very much swelled, appears 

 from the fact, that he found only 40*4 of solid substance; whilst 

 the one examined by me still had 20*0. If then the identity of 

 the two cannot be doubted, we must at once ascribe the same 

 origin to both, — that of being the spawn of a snail. — Thus I 

 think I have explained the nature of the substance called star- 

 jelly, and have had the satisfaction of reconciling the differences 

 between the observations of Messrs. B. and S. ; having shown 

 that the observations of both these meritorious naturalists were 

 correct, but that the substances were entirely different in their 

 nature. 



XLV. Description of a Percussion Rifle, igniting by a Spring 

 instead of a Loch By Lieut.-Col, Miller, F.R.S.* 



nnHE stock of this rifle is made either of iron or bronze f, 

 -■• hollow in the centre, and the barrel is made to screw into 

 it at the breech. The spring acts horizontally, and is screwed 

 to a plate, fixed to the left side of the small of the stock. A 

 cross piece is attached to the fore part of the spring, which 

 passes through the stock behind the breech, and projects a 

 little on the left side. In the cross piece there is a notch, and 

 a button at the end of it ; — the trigger moves upon a pivot in 

 the upper part of the stock, and is pressed forward by a spring 

 behind it. The piece is cocked by grasping the small of the 



* Communicated by the Author. f As manufactured by Nock. 



stock 



