1830.] 



Varieties. 



223 



clay, of a compact earthy texture, and their 

 Chemical analysis approaches to that of 

 album grfficum. Undigested bones and 

 scales of fishes occur abundantly in these 

 fgecal masses. The scales are referable to 

 the Dapedium politum and other fish that 

 occur in the lias : the bones are those of fish, 

 and also of small Icthyosauri. The interior 

 of these bezoars is arranged in spiral folds ; 

 their exterior also bears impressions received 

 from the convolutions of the intestines of 

 the living animals. In many of the entire 

 skeletons of young Icthyosauri the bezoars 

 are seen within the ribs and near the pelvis : 

 these, most probably, have been included 

 within the animal's body at the moment of 

 his death. The doctor found, three years 

 ago, a similar ball of faecal matter in the 

 collection of Mr. Mantell, from the strata 

 of Tilgate Forest, which abound in bones of 

 Icthyosauri and other large reptiles ; and he 

 conjectures that these bezoars exist wherever 

 the remains of Plesiosauri are abundant. 

 An indurated black animal substance, like 

 that in the ink-bag of the cuttle fish, occurs 

 in the lias at Lyme Regis ; and a drawing, 

 made with this fossil pigment three years 

 ago, was pronounced by an eminent artist to 

 have been tinted with sepia. It is nearly 

 of the colour and consistence of jet, and very 

 fragile, with a bright splintery fracture ; its 

 powder is brown like that of the painter's 

 sepia ; it occurs in single masses, nearly of 

 the shape and size of a small gall bladder, 

 broadest at the bare end, and gradually 

 contracted towards the neck : these are 

 always surrounded by a thin nacreous case, 

 brilliant as the most vivid Lumachella ; the 

 nacre seems to have formed the lining of a 

 fibrous thin shelly substance, which, toge- 

 ther with this nacreous lining, was prolonged 

 into a hollow cone like that of a belemnite, 

 but beyond the apex of this alveolus no 

 spathose body has been found. Dr.Buckland 

 infers that the animal from which these 

 fossil ink-bags are derived, was some 

 unknown cepholopode, nearly allied in its 

 internal structure to the inhabitant of the 

 belemnite ; the circular form of the septa 

 shewing that they cannot be referred to the 

 molluscous inhabitant of any Nautilus or 

 Corn u- Ammonis. 



Apparatus for Warming Buildings. 



A patent has been obtained for an appara- 

 tus designed to combine elegance with 

 Utility and economy, and appearing to offer 

 one of the most convenient and effective 

 methods of warming large apartments and 

 public buildings that has fallen under our 

 notice, beside possessing the very important 

 feature of heating air without deteriorating 

 it. The proposed form of the apparatus is 

 that of a hollow pedestal, containing a 

 spiral channel through which the pure at- 

 mospheric air is made to pass in a consider- 

 able current by the upward pressure caused 

 by rarefraction, the spiral being encompassed 

 by a chamber filled with hot steam. 



Questions regarding Alcohol. An Ame- 



rican professor has proposed the following 

 query for a medical dissertation : Are 

 spirituous liquors obtained from succulent 

 fruits, as grapes, apples, pears, and peaches, 

 more inflammatory than those from grain or 

 wheat, rye, corn, oats, and barley ? From 

 some observations made on the effects of 

 intemperance upon persons within his 

 knowledge, professor Eaton imagined that 

 the following results were clearly evinced. 

 Those who drank wine, cider, perry brandy, 

 and cider brandy, presented red, bloated, 

 and highly inflamed surfaces. Those who 

 drank gin and whisky, became pale and 

 debilitated. Those who drank rum, were 

 at a medium in this respect. Hence he in- 

 ferred, that although pure alcohol is always 

 the same, there is something combined with 

 it which influences its effects, and that alcor 

 holic liquors, from succulent fruits, had a 

 tendency towards the surface ; that the same 

 from farinaceous seeds caused a recession of 

 the fluids towards the heart, and that when 

 derived from the herbage of plants, as the 

 stalks of cane, its effects were of the 

 medium kind. 



The spontaneous Purification of Thames 

 Water In the report which Dr. Bostock 

 made of the result of his examination of 

 Thames Water to the Commissioners 

 appointed by his Majesty to inquire into the 

 supply of water for the metropolis, one of the 

 specimens, taken near the King's Scholars 

 Pond Sewer, was described as in a state of 

 extreme impurity. This water had remained 

 in the laboratory unattended to, and after an 

 interval of some weeks it was observed to 

 have become clear, while nearly the whole of 

 the former sediment had risen to the surface, 

 forming a stratum of half an inch in thick, 

 ness, and still emitting a very offensive 

 odour. In process of time this scum sepa- 

 rated into large masses or flakes, with 

 minute air bubbles attached to them. At 

 the end of two months longer these masses 

 again subsided, leaving the fluid almost 

 totally free from any visible and extraneous 

 matter. On analysis the water was found 

 to contain lime, sulphuric and muriatic 

 acids, and magnesia, in much larger quan- 

 tities than in the specimens of Thames 

 water previously examined ; the proportion 

 of saline matter being increased four-fold. 

 The proportion of the muriatic is nearly 

 twelve times greater; that of carbonate of lime 

 between two and three times, and that of sul- 

 phate of lime five and a half times greater. 

 The water in its foul state had given very 

 obvious indications of both sulphur and 

 ammonia ; but neither of these substances 

 could be detected after its spontaneous 

 depuration. The source of these new 

 saline bodies is referable to the organic 

 substances, chiefly of an animal nature, 

 which are so copiously deposited in the 

 Thames. The depurating process may be 

 denominated a species of fermentation, in 

 which the softer and more soluble animal 

 compounds act as the ferment, and are 



