384? Queries and Answers. 



the same peculiarity both in coughing and breathing, and were, in fact, per- 

 fect models of their mother in miniature ; this swelling, however, gradually 

 decreased in a few months, and also lost its attendant unpleasantnesses ; 

 but in the whole of them there is still evident enlargement. At the present 

 time the eldest is eight years old. How far this deformity may become 

 hereditary I can form no opinion ; the evidence to the full establishment 

 of its being so is so contradictory. Neither the grandfathers, nor grand- 

 mothers, nor fathers, had the least deformity ; her own mother had some 

 little, but not perceptible without close examination. She has two sisters, 

 both younger than herself; one, married, with a swelling larger than her own, 

 has two children, but neither show any disposition to swell at present, nor 

 were they born with any ; her younger sister, not married, has her neck 

 swelled, but not to such a size as that of either of the others. The whole 

 generation have always lived in their present neighbourhood. The water 

 they drink is perfectly clear, though impregnated with a little calcareous 

 matter and iron ; it is what all the inhabitants drink ; and goitre is not 

 a general deformity. I am. Sir, &c. — D. N. Worksop , May 12. 1831. 



A Marine globular Substance. — Sir, I have observed, when walking by 

 the sea side, a substance of a globular form, colourless, transparent as jelly, 

 with four circles (small) in the centre. It appears to be convex on one 

 side. If you or any of your correspondents could favour me with a 

 description of it, it would greatly oblige — A. Z, May 3. 1831. 



The ttuo drawings sent appear to be the following ; but they are not, as 

 M. A. Brown supposes, very rare. They were figured and described 

 three years ago in the Botanical Register. Eriophyllum (erion, wool, 

 pkyllon, a leaf J woolly foliage) caespitosum ; Compositse. (^g. 82.) A 



plant found by Mr. Douglas in North-west America, from the sea to the 

 valley of the Rocky Mountains, in dry situations. Dracae'na (drakon, a 

 dragon ; some of the species having been supposed to produce the drug 

 "dragon's blood") surculosa. Long-shooting Dracaena; Hexan. Monog. 

 and ^sparageae. (/g. 83.) A monocotyledonous shrub, from Sierra 

 Leone, " exhibiting, in a small space, what may be termed a model of the 

 plan upon which the gigantic palms of the tropics are formed. It rarely 

 flowers, and has never 3et produced fruit ; it is probable that the latter 

 will show that it constitutes a genus distinct from Dracae'na, to which it 

 is referred on account of its habit rather than of its fructification, which 

 approaches that of Sansevier«." (Bot. Reg. 1828.) — Co7id. 



