Natural History, 369 



the substance, being the worst as destroyers of the instruments. 

 A better agent than any of the above, and one free from this great 

 inconvenience, is common whiskey. " We fix a pipe into a large 

 artery, and inject the whiskey until no more can be thrown in. 

 It does not flow out by the bowels or mouth, as the solution of 

 common salt, which may be attributed to the action of the spirit 

 contracting the delicate extremities of the capillary vessels. In 

 this way the whole of the muscular and cellular system is acted 

 on, and if the skin be then sponged with impure pyroligneous acid, 

 the body may be kept for a great length of time even in warm 

 weather. — Silliman's Jour.^o. 18. 



12. Falling Star seen at mid'day. — On the 13th August, 1823, 

 at a quarter past eleven in the forenoon, as I was employed in 

 measuring the zenith distances of the pole star, to determine the 

 latitude, a luminous body passed over the field of the universal 

 instrument telescope, the light of which was somewhat greater 

 than that of the pole-star. Its apparent motion was from below 

 upwards, but as the telescope shews images in an inverted posi- 

 tion, its real motion, like that of every falling body, was from 

 above downwards. It passed over the telescope in the space of a 

 second or a second and a half, and its motion was neither per- 

 fectly equal nor rectilinear, but resembled very much the unequal 

 and somewhat serpentine motion of an ascending rocket, from the 

 unequal burning of the charge, and the irregular re-action of the 

 stream of air issuing from it on the atmospheric air. It was thus 

 evident that this meteor moved in our atmosphere, but it must 

 have been at a considerable height, since its angular motion was 

 so slow. This is perhaps the only instance in which a shooting 

 star has been seen at mid-day. in clear sunshine.' Hanstein. — 

 Edin.Phil Jour. xii. 406. 



13. Prize Questions 'proposed hy the Academy of Sciences for 1826. 

 ** A method of calculating the perturbations of the elliptic motions 

 of comets applied to the determination of the next return of the 

 comet of 1759, and to the motion of that which has been observed 

 in 1805, 1819, and 1822." The prize a gold medal 3000 francs 

 value ; memoirs sent before Jan. 1826. 



" To describe with accuracy tlie changes which the circulation 

 of the blood of frogs undergoes in their different metamorphoses." 

 The prize a gold medal of 300 francs value ; memoirs to be sent 

 before Jan. 1826. 



14. Zoology. — We beg to call the attention of our readers to 

 the following Prospectus of a Society for introducing and domes-^ 

 ticating new breeds or varieties of animals, such as quadrupeds, 



Vol. XIX. 2 B 



