52 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[2n'iS. No29.,JuLrl9. '56. 



iGeorge Lord Darfmouth (then Maeter-jreneral of 

 the Ordnance) to be colonel, by commission dated 

 June 11, 1G85. At this period the regular regi- 

 ments were composed of musketeers, armed with 

 muskets and swords ; of pikemen, armed with 

 long pikes and swords ; and of grenadiers, armed 

 with hand-grenades, muskets, bayonets, swords, 

 and small hatchets ; but in the ordnance regiment 

 every man carried a long musket called a fusil, 

 with a sword and bayonet — from which pecu- 

 liarity the regiment obtained the name of the 

 Royal Fusileers. Thus it will be seen that the 

 Royal Fusileers existed, as a regiment of the Line, 

 twenty years previous to the formation of the 

 Royal Regiment of Artillery, which never be- 

 longed to the Line, but was always a separate 

 branch of the army. G. L. S. 



PLANTS IN SLEEPING ROOMS. 



(2»'i S. i. 433.) 



There are two distinct and apparently opposite 

 processes going on in the plant: — L The decom- 

 position of carbonic acid — the fixation of the car- 

 bon for the purpose of building up its own tissues 

 - — and the liberation of the oxygen. This con- 

 stitutes vegetable nutrition : — 11. The exhaling 

 carbonic acid, the result of the union of the oxygen 

 of the atmosphere with the carbon of the vegetable 

 tissues. This is analogous to respiration. The 

 first of these processes is not only beneficial to 

 animal life, but absolutely essential to its existence, 

 for as the animal inhales oxygen and exhales car- 

 bonic acid in the process of respiration, if some 

 agency did not work out the reverse change, the 

 whole of the oxygen in the atmosphere would be 

 used up in a certain length of time (800,000 years 

 according to Professor Dumas), and animal life 

 consequently disappear. But as it is, animals and 

 plants are thus mutually dependent upon each 

 other; and this is the case, not merely with regard 

 to carbonic acid, but also some other compounds, 

 such as ammonia, water, &c., which are formed in 

 animals and decomposed in plants. So far, then, it 

 is healthy to have plants in rooms. But there is 

 the second process — a kind of decay, or by some 

 looked upon as true respiration ; and as this is 

 precisely what occurs in animals, it must of course 

 add to the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, and 

 thus produce an efiect prejudicial to animal life. 

 If both these processes were carried on to the 

 same extent, the one would, as a matter of course, 

 counteract the other, and neither would pro- 

 duce either good or evil as to its effects upon the 

 atmosphere. But as the former, under general 

 circumstances, preponderates excessively over the 

 latter, it is on the whole healthy to live amongst 

 plants. There are circumstances, however, in 

 which the respiratory process is active, and the 



nutritive at a stand-still, and here the influence of 

 the vegetable upon the atmosphere will be in- 

 jurious to animal life. One of these circumstances 

 is the absence of sunshine, or daylight (as these 

 stimuli are necessary to the carrying on the process 

 of nutrition in the plant). It is therefore in- 

 jurious, more or less, to sleep in a room in which 

 there are plants. Geo. Sexton, M.D., F.R.G.S. 

 Kennington Cross. 



In reply to C. T. B. I copy the following passage 

 from The Handbook of Gardening, by Edward 

 Kemp, p. 12. : 



" Plants convert tlie oxygen and carbon which they 

 receive from the soil and air into carbonic acid, which 

 they exhale at night. This being a deadh' and dangerous, 

 gas to human beings, plants and flowers are not con- 

 sidered healthy in a sitting or bed room during the night. 

 In the day they give off oxj'gen, especially in the morn- 

 ing, which is reputed to render the morning air so fresh 

 and exhilarating. They are very useful in absorbing 

 from the air the carbon which is so injurious to animal 

 life ; and they purify stagnant water in the same way." 



Are the above statements correct ? Do plants 

 perform by day and by night two contrary opera- 

 tions ? 



In The Flower Garden, reprinted by Mr. Mur- 

 ray, from the Quarterly Review, the fear of the 

 exhalations from flowers at night is treated as a 

 popular error. See the close of the treatise, p. 8 1. 



Stylites. 



FLEMING S " RISE AND PALL OF THE PAPACY. 



(2°'i S. i. 479.) 



In Fleming's Discourse on the Rise and Fall of 

 Papacy (edit. 1792, at p. 43.), is the following 

 observable foot-note by the " publisher : " 



" In calculating the difference betwixt the prophetic 

 and sydereal year (see p. 13.), our author reckons the 

 latter, according to the gross computation, to be only 

 365 days ; not regarding, as he says, ' the smaller mea- 

 sures of time.' But the fact is a complete annual revolu- 

 tion of the sun exceeds that calculation by several hours 

 and minutes, a sydereal j'ear being 3G5 days, 6 hours, 

 and about 10 minutes. In 1278 years, therefore, there 

 will be a difference of about 328i days, or nearly one 

 whole year: so that the great event predicted by our 

 author will fall out one year sooner than by his calcula- 

 tion, viz. in the year 1793, which brings it still nearer to 

 the present time." 



To the intelligent readers of your valuable 

 periodical, it need not be more than mentioned 

 that Louis XVI. suffered decapitation in the year 

 1793 ; thus verifying, it may be said, almost to a 

 day, the accuracy of the calculations of Fleming, 

 as well as in being a literal description of the 

 words of the latter (p. 4.S.) : 



" That whereas the present French king (1701) takes 

 the sun for his emblem, and this for his motto. Nee plu- 

 ribus impar, he may at length, or rather his successors 

 and the monarchy itself (at least before the year 1794), 



