MISCELLANY. 



249 



better than to subscribe for this exceeding- 

 ly valuable little monthly. He will there 

 always find, in the "Monthly Hints," just 

 the information he is likely to want, coming 

 precisely in season for him; while in the 

 department of "Communications" he will 

 have detailed in brief the experience of 

 some of the most successful amateur and 

 professional gardeners in the country. A 

 glance at the headings of the various de- 

 partments of this magazine will perhaps best 

 show the ground it is intended to cover. 

 Besides the two already mentioned, we have 

 the following: Editorial, Scraps and Que- 

 ries, Book Notices, New and Rare Plants, 

 Fruits, etc., Foreign Correspondence, Hor- 

 ticultural Notes. Mr. Thomas Meehan is 

 the editor ; and, this said, there is no need 

 of further commendation of the magazine. 

 $2.00 per annum. Philadelphia : Published 

 by Charles H. Marot, 814 Chestnut Street. 



The Bee -Keeper's Magazine (H. A. 

 King & Co., 14 Murray street, N. Y)., the 

 initial number of which is out, presents a 

 very creditable appearance, and will no 

 doubt be favorably received by the special 

 public to which it is addressed. It has a 

 very interesting table of contents, and a 

 handsome chrorao frontispiece, "A Group 

 of Honey Plants." 



BOOKS EEOEIVED. 



Annual Report of the Director of the 

 Meteorological Observatory, Central Park, 

 New York, 1871. 



Reports on the Observations of Encke's 

 Comet during its Return in 1 87 1 . By Asaph 

 Hall and William Harkness. Washington : 

 Government Printing-Office, 1872. 



The Health and Wealth of the City of 

 Wheeling, etc. By James E. Reeves, M. D. 

 Baltimore, 1871. 



MISCELLANY. 



Facts relating to Niagara. We have 

 received a letter stating that the article 

 on Niagara Falls, which was published in 

 the September Mon'thly, contains various 

 inacuracies, the following being the most 

 important. The author of the article 

 states that a barrier fifteen feet high, 

 6tretching across the plateau at the head 



of the rapids, would throw the water back 

 on Lake Erie. Our correspondent objects 

 that this barrier would have five feet of 

 water flowing over it. The critic further 

 states that the writer of the article blunders 

 about the source of Gill Creek, in such a 

 way as to require its waters to rise 350 feet 

 before they could discharge into Niagara 

 River ; and, finally, the author of the arti- 

 cle affirms that the falls, in cutting their 

 way southward, have lost 35 feet in height 

 each mile, which, in 6 miles, the distance 

 to Lewiston, would amount to 227 feet, 

 while our correspondent affirms that this 

 loss of height is but 99 feet. 



The Monas Prodigiosa. In our common 

 household experience we may often observe 

 the sudden appearance of a phenomenon, 

 which, as is remarked by a writer in the 

 Danziger Zeilung, is of great interest, both 

 from the historical and the scientific point 

 of view. The writer says that housewives 

 in Dantzic must have noticed blood-red 

 spots making their appearance on farina- 

 ceous articles of food, when laid aside for a 

 little while. This phenomenon has been 

 often observed in that city lately, and is at- 

 tributable to the presence in the food of a 

 microscopic animalcule in the low : est stage 

 of organic development, and consisting of a 

 single mucous sac; though the botanist 

 would perhaps class it among plants. It is 

 probable that house-flies transfer from place 

 to place these animalcules, which adhere to 

 their feet, and thus occasion in provisions 

 those apparent spots of blood which cause 

 housewives so much annoyance. These 

 animalcules acted an important and tragic 

 part in the history of the middle ages, pro- 

 ducing the phenomenon of bleeding hosti 

 which repeatedly gave the signal for fearful 

 persecutions of the Jews. It will be le 

 membered that in those ages of fanaticism 

 the Jews were often accused of stabbing 

 the consecrated Host, and causing it to 

 bleed, and on this charge over 300 Jews 

 were at one time put to death in Basle, dur- 

 ing the fourteenth century. Bolsena, a 

 town in the late Pontifical States, was once 

 the scene of a great miracle, produced by 

 these animalcules. Down to the present 

 day they exhibit at Bolsena, as a famous 

 relic, the robe worn by a certain priest who, 



