560 Siliceous Animalcula. 



ping Forest, Newmarket Heath ; Birch, Darn, and Combe Woods ; Dover, 

 Whittlesea Mere, &c. ; and the writer of this well remembers a trip he made 

 with Mr. Sparshall and Mr. Kirby to Martlesham Heath, in Suffolk, to 

 capture Cicindela sylvdtica and Lycus neburosus. In 1824, Mr. Spar- 

 shall, in conjunction with Mr. Wilkin, Mr. R. C. Taylor, Mr. Sothern, and 

 Mr. S. Woodward, originated the Norfolk and Norwich Museum, of which 

 he continued an active member until his death ; for, while the herbarium 

 was arranged by the joint labours of Sir J. E. Smith and Mr. Wigham, 

 the insects were arranged by the Rev. W. Kirby and Mr. Sparshall. In 

 his manner he was plain and unostentatious, of easy access, and ap- 

 peared never so happy as when aiding his fellow-creatures. To any 

 individual, however humble his sphere, who exhibited a fondness for 

 the study of insects, he was ever ready to afford assistance by his own 

 experience, his valuable cabinet, and his library; and to those whose 

 future prospects he felt an especial interest in advancing, his exer- 

 tions were unbounded, and his disinteredness and kind-heartedness most 

 exemplary. To the distressed he was ever ready to afford relief, many 

 of whom will have to lament the loss of a generous and cheerful benefactor. 

 Mr. Sparshall was the sixth member of his family who has died within 

 a few months. — H. D. 



Siliceous Animalcula. — In the public meeting of the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences in Berlin, held on the 3d of August 

 (the king's birthday), M. Ehrenberg read an article on the 

 relative quantities of the living animalcula, and, at the same 

 time, laid before the Academy more than a pound of tripoli, 

 prepared from animalcula now found living at the Thiergarten 

 (Deer Garden), near Berlin. He concluded with observing, 

 that at the Thiergarten there is a sort of mould, in which these 

 siliceous animalcula predominate : 1-J- lb. of this living earth 

 was submitted to the inspection of the Academy. 



Leeches in Moldavia. — We are informed by a letter from 

 Jassy, written about the beginning of June, 1837, that, though 

 the officinal leech has there been an object of extensive com- 

 mercial speculation only for the last two years, the breeding- 

 places are already fast exhausting, and the leech merchants 

 have to draw upon Asia for new supplies. The leeches are sold 

 by the hundred weight, which contains from 30,000 to 35,000 

 middle-sized individuals, these being best suited for export- 

 ation. It is sold at the rate of from 800 to 1400 florins. The 

 merchants, who often have 30 cwt. or 40 cwt. at a time, keep 

 them either in pools, or, which is preferable, in tuns. The 

 animals are so strongly affected by electricity, that a violent 

 storm will cause them to vomit, or even die ; wherefore, it has 

 been successfully tried to insulate the tuns, in which they are 

 kept, by glass feet {Berliner Nachrichten, No. 153.) 



