Queries and Ansisoers* 403 



head being broken. On examining the phial, in the course of two months 

 afterwards, I perceived a quantity of very fine white sediment at the bottom 

 of the phial, and partly extending up its sides, which I immediately supposed 

 was a portion of the matter forming the body of the grub, which had escaped 

 through the wound on the neck, as there was nothing else in the bottle 

 from which it could have been produced. For the purpose of investigating 

 its nature, I emptied the whole contents of the phial into a shallow white 

 saucer, which enabled me to perceive by the assistance of a high-powered 

 glass, that these minute portions of matter were of irregular forms, and 

 without individual life. Although, to my great surprise, they appeared to 

 be endowed as a mass, or rather as numerous small masses, with very great 

 motion, moving about in various directions or currents, now slowly, now 

 briskly, advancing, retreating, coming into contact with each other, then 

 gradually becoming motionless, then again (without any additional motion 

 having been given to the saucer), coming into active life, as it were, as be- 

 fore, and resembling, individually, to the naked eye, the minute animalcules 

 found in putrid water, which are just perceivable without the assistance of 

 lenses. These motions^ I observed for at least a quarter of an hour, but 

 as \ felt convinced that they in some manner or other were the effect of 

 some motions in the substance of the fluid, and not of the particles of sedi- 

 ment, I did not think it necessary to continue my observations. 



Might not the motion have been produced in the same manner as that 

 which we perceive when we mix spirits with water ? and may not many of 

 the motions heretofore observed have originated from a similar cause ? and 

 has the result been the same when pure rectified water has been employed, 

 as when pure spirit ? I am, Sir, &c. — J. O. Westwoodj F.L.S, S^c. Cliel-^ 

 sea, June, 1829. 



The Cause of Goitre. — Sir, I should be glad to be informed, through the 

 medium of your useful Magazine, what is the most generally received opi- 

 nion as to the cause of that distressing disease, the goitre, with which the 

 inhabitants of Switzerland and other countries are afflicted. It has been 

 attributed to some peculiar quality in the water of mountainous districts; 

 but this appears to me to be totally inadequate to account for a disease 

 which appears under such different circumstancesof climate and habitation. 

 May it not, with more probability, arise from some peculiar disposition in 

 the muscles of the throat, which certain habits of life have, by time, ren- 

 dered hereditary ? If it be true that the absence of this deformity in the 

 neighbourhood of Lucca, in Italy, is to be attributed to the iodine with 

 which the water is there impregnated, how is this supposed to operate ? and 

 what noxious qualities of the water would it tend to neutralise ? Is the 

 disease curable without having recourse to the knife ? Yours, &c. — Ok' 

 scums. June, 1829. 



The Dark-looJcing Water Bird (fig. 21. p. 101.) shot at Fowey, I think, 

 must be the young female of the ^'nas nigra, or Scoter, the peculiar form- 

 ation of the bill marking the particular species. — Walter Henry Hill. New' 

 land, July I A. 1829. 



The Young of the Raven. — In March last, a nest, containing five young 

 ones and two unhatched eggs, was brought to me. The young ones were 

 of various sizes ; the largest covered with down, the smallest quite naked, 

 but all of them blind. The place for the eye being very indistinctly marked, 

 query, are all the young of the genus C'orvus expelled from the egg blind; 

 and if so, how long after their expulsion do they remain without sight? — Id, 



The Small Dover. — I shall be obliged for some certain information re- 

 specting a bird shot by me in May last, figured by Bewick as the Lough 

 Diver. On my taking it to Ledbetter's to be set up, his son pronounced it 

 to be the female of the ^'nas Clangula, or Golden Eye ; but I pointed out 

 circumstances, both as to appearance and otherwise, which convince me 

 that it is a distinct species. 1 begged he would have it dissected, ,to ascer- 



