Miscellaneous. 269 



position, have the same action as nicotine upon the Angiiillulce. A 

 little piece of meat, cheese, some paste, &c., put into the water con- 

 taining them, will render the whole of them straight and stiff in the 

 course of a few hours in hot weather. By drying and again moist- 

 ening them, or by washing them constantly with pure water, they 

 soon begin to move again, and the author has repeated this resusci- 

 tation frequently with the same individuals. So great is the influence 

 of decomposing animal matters upon the AnguiUulce, that if a few of 

 them be crushed in opening a mildewed grain, this will be sufficient 

 to prevent the others from moving when placed in a small quantity 

 of water. 



Substances which act chemically upon the tissues, and especially 

 acids, destroy these animals more or less quickly ; sulphuric acid, 

 diluted with 200 volumes of water, kills them in a few hours, and 

 may be employed to destroy them in seed corn. This action, which 

 is common to all acids, is the more singular, as other AnguiUulce live 

 and breed in vinegar. 



These animals also support an intense cold. The author has 

 exposed them to a temperature of —4° F. for several hours without 

 killing them. Heat on the contrary is fatal to them, and they perish 

 at about 148° F., whilst the Rotifera and Tardigrada support a heat 

 of 212° F. The author remarks, that as wheat loses its germinative 

 power at about 148° F., it was unnecessary that these animals should 

 be enabled to bear a higher temperature. 



The adult AnguiUulce exhibit far less tenacity of life in all these 

 respects. The larvse live two months or more in water ; the adults 

 on an average a day and a half. The extreme limit was five 

 days. The larvae live at least two hours in sulphuric acid diluted 

 with 200 volumes of water ; the adults less than one hour. In a 

 mixture of 3 parts of water and 1 of alcohol, the larvae live for six 

 hours or more, the adults only two hours. The larvae kept for more 

 than a month in glycerine are soon revived when put into pure 

 water ; the adults could not be resuscitated after lying in this sub- 

 stance for two hours. Five hours' exposure to a temperature of — 4°F. 

 does not injure the vitahty of the larvae, whilst exposure for the same 

 period to a temperature of + 3° to + 4° F. always kills the adults. 

 The larvae may be kept dry for several years and revived by placing 

 them in pure water ; whilst the adults after a desiccation of a few 

 hours have entirely lost their vitality. 



The author has also made some experiments with the view of 

 determining whether these singular little animals would undergo any 

 metamorphosis if placed in conditions different from those in which 

 they usually occur, and found that changes of habitat produced no 

 modifications in their characters, which would approximate them to 

 the other Nematoid worms. He placed the larvae in vegetable mould, 

 in vinegar and flour paste, and administered them to animals. In 

 no case did the AnguiUulce acquire the appearance of the Nematoid 

 worms which live naturally in such situations, and when administered 

 to cold-blooded animals they were evacuated in a motionless state, but 

 still 2\\we.~-Comptes Rendus, July 21, 1856, p. 148. n! 



