Scientific Journals, - 1 7rl 



in proportion to their abode in rivers. — On the Temperature of the Interior 

 of the Earth, by M. Cordier, Professor of Geology in the Garden of 

 Plants at Paris. From experiments in mines, this writer is convinced that 

 a subterranean heat exists, which is peculiar to the terrestrial globe, does 

 not depend on the solar rays, and increases rapidly with the depth. — Note 

 on Swallows; by which it appears that oiling or soaping the corners of the 

 windows where they build, will deter them from doing so. — On the Do- 

 mestication of Mammiferous Animals, hy M. Frederick Cuvier. (Taken 

 from the M^moires du Museum (THistoire Naturelle.) It appears that what 

 we call the domestication of animals, consists in our becoming members ot 

 the society which these animals form among themselves. Man becomes the 

 chief of its herd ; from the moment that an animal admits man as a mem- 

 ber of its society, it is domesticated, — " as man could not enter into such 

 society without becoming the chief of it." Applying these principles to 

 wild animals, the apes and monkeys, notwithstanding their social instinct 

 and intellect, are yet so violent and irritable, as to be incapable of all use- 

 ful subjection. Among carnivorous animals, the seals, together with the 

 various species of the dog tribe, would be the best adapted to attach them- 

 selves to us, and serve us. M. Cuvier suggests, that the seal might be 

 trained for fishing, as the dog is for hunting. Several animals peculiar to 

 South America, having but very feeble means of defence, will, as that 

 country is peopled, gradually disappear from the face of the earth. After 

 other illustrations, the writer concludes, that all domestication is founded 

 on the propensity which animals have to live together in herds, and to 

 attach themselves to one another. " We obtain it only by enticement, 

 and principally by augmenting their wants, and satisfying them. But we 

 could only produce domestic individuals, and not races, without the con- 

 currence of one of the most general laws of life, the transmission of the 

 organic or intellectual modifications by generation. Here one of the most 

 astonishing phenomena of nature manifests itself to us, the transformation 

 of a fortuitous modification into a desirable form ; of a fugitive want into 

 a fundamental propensity; of an incident habit into an instinct. This sub- 

 ject is assuredly worthy of exciting the attention of the most accurate ob- 

 servers, and of occupying the meditations of the most profound thinkers." 

 The Geology of Nithsdale, by J. S. Menteath, Esq, jun.: a paper valuable 

 in an economical point of view. — On the Causes of the Difference of 

 Temperature on the Globe, by Baron Humboldt, being an extract from a 

 public lecture delivered in the Royal Academy in Berlin. " The differ- 

 ences of climate," this distinguished philosopher observes, " manifest 

 themselves in the character, in the civilisation, and perhaps even in the 

 development of the language of different tribes of the human race." — 

 Account of a Siven /acertina „^ 



(j%. 80.), which has been 

 kept alive at Cannon Mills, 

 near Edinburgh, by Patrick 

 Neill, Esq. This reptile was 

 sent from the marshes of' 

 South Carolina to Dr. Mun- 

 roe, in 1825, who soon after* 

 confided it to Mr. Neill, who kept it in a box of water and moss in 

 his greenhouse, till April, 1827, when it was put in a hot-house ; there it 

 became more lively, and began to croak like a frog. It lived on earth- 

 Ayorms, but did not care for food oftener than once in a week or ten days ; it 

 lived several hours at a time out of water, or several hours at a time under 

 water, at pleasure, being truly amphibious, and capable of breathing 

 either by means of external branchiae, or internal lungs. — Tour by G. A. 

 W. Arnott, Esq. to the South of France. — On the Irritability of the Sen^ 

 sitive Plant, by M. Dutrochet. This distinguished physiologist refuses to 



