82 Notices of some Recent Botanical Facts. 



The following table shows the degree that coincides with the short 

 stationary point in various alloys of lead and tin : — 



Lead. Tin. Short. Long. 



1 atom + i atom .... 536° 



1 -- + i — .... 518 



1 — + 1 — .... 464 360" 



1 — + 2 — .... 392 361 



1 — + 3 — .... 361 361 



1 — + 4 — .... 374 374 



Now Kupfer gives the melting point of different alloys of lead and 

 tin as follows : — 



1 atom load + 1 tin, . . 460*» I 1 atom lead + 3 tin, . . 367° 

 1 -- +2 . . 385 I 4 — +1 . . 272 



It is obvious that he has taken it for granted, that the short sta- 

 tionary point indicates the melting point of these alloys, while in 

 reality it is the long stationary point which indicates the temperature 

 at which they change their state from liquidity to solidity. 



XXIII. — Notices of some Recent Botanical Facts. 



Much has of late been written on the subject of the devlopement 

 of parasitic plants upon man and animals in certain states of disease. 

 Attention was early directed to the subject by Audouin and Bassi, 

 who examined the disease in the silk-worm, call Muscardine, which 

 they showed to be accompanied with the growth of a cryptogamic 

 plant, afterwards designated Botrytis Bassiana. Since their observa- 

 tions were made known, plants of a similar nature have been detected 

 on various larvae and insects. Deslongschamps found a parasitic 

 fungus or entophyte in the air cells of an eider duck, which died after 

 suffering from dyspnoea for nearly a month. Vegetations have like- 

 wise been noticed in pigeons, domestic fowls, flamingoes, paroquets, 

 and owls, as well as on gold fishes. In most of these cases the fungi 

 appeared in the form of transparent articulated filaments, some of 

 which presented bodies analogous to sporules. 



Schoenlein and Langenbeck observed similar cryptogamic vege- 

 tations in the disease called porrigo favosa, as it occurs in the human 

 subject ; and of late years Gruby, of Vienna, has taken up the investi- 

 gation, and has given a full detail of the mycodermata which are met 

 with in that disease. These mycodermatous plants, or porrigophytes, 

 have their seat in the cells of the epidermis, and consist of articu- 

 lated filaments, of a diameter varying from the y^jLo to the 2 jo ^^ ^ 

 millimetre. Dr. Bennet has confirmed Gruby 's researches. 



In the aphthw, or thrush affecting the mucous membrane of the 

 mouth in children, as well as in the disease called mentagra, which has 

 its seat in the hairs of the face and chin, vegetable productions have 



