Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology. 188 



year; books bound with ill-seasoned, particularly with Hindoo- 

 «tanee, leather, and still more especially, if left to lie neglected 

 on a table for a day or two, become covered with a stratum of 

 white mould, at least an eighth of an inch thick ; and an ap^ 

 proach to this takes place even in the best European leather. 

 The boards are then soaked thmugli with moisture, whilst, in 

 the hot winds, they are parched and rolled, as if held before a 

 fire. Of course, all this renders their preservation extremely 

 difficult. After this, I leave it to be imagined, that the moths 

 among cloths, and the omnivorous white ants among almost 

 every thing, but particularly the timber of buildings, are fully 

 proportioned in numbers to their kindred plagues. The last 

 thing I have to mention, though it may appear in some degree 

 ridiculous, may yet serve to illustrate the nature of the climate. 

 Small mushrooms grow in every corner that is the least neglect- 

 ed, even in the most frequented rooms : left to themselves, they 

 would attain the height of about two inches, with a top rather 

 larger than a shilling ; but they are generally discovered and 

 brushed away before they reach maturity. — Tytler^ in Trans, 

 of Med. 4* Phys. Soc. of Calcutta, vol. iv. 



13. Further notice of Ehrenberg^s Observations on the Inftt>. 

 soria. — One of our late pupils, in a letter to Dr Duncan, says, 

 " As you may well suppose, I prized highly the kindness with 

 which Professor Ehrenberg of Berlin explained to me his diffe* 

 rent discoveries and researches. He spent nearly a whole fore- 

 noon in showing me the structure of the infusory animals ; his 

 investigations and drawings are what excited so much interest 

 at the meeting of naturalists in Hamburgh. In these minute 

 creatures, placed at the extremity of the animal scale, the deter- 

 mination of whose existence merely has hitherto formed the 

 limit of zoological research, he has succeeded in developing a 

 complete system of organs, by using one of Chevalier's micro- 

 scopes, of 2000 powers. These animals are quite transparent ; 

 so that the whole internal structure is visible externally. They 

 have one or more stomachs, mouth, oesophagus, intestinal canal, 

 anus, eyes, muscular fibres, division into head and trunk. Thus 

 far I saw distinctly ; but Ehrenberg goes further ; he gives to 

 certain white striae which are seen traversing the body of the 

 animal, in different directions, but for the most transversely, the 



