Scientific Intelligence, — Physiology and Zoology. 423 



specimen in which it is seen filled with parasitic worms (Trichinae), 

 which have removed all the fibrillse. The adhesion of this sarco- 

 lemma to the outermost fibrillse is explained. R is also shewn that 

 there exist in all voluntary muscles a number of minute corpuscles 

 of definite form, which appear to be identical with, or at least analo- 

 gous to, the nuclei of the cells from which the development of the 

 fasciculi has originally proceeded. These are shewn to be analogous 

 to similar bodies in the muscles of organic life, and in other organic 

 structures. The author next describes his observations on the mode 

 of union between tendon and muscle ; that is, on the extremities of 

 the primitive fasciculi. He shews that in fish and insects the ten- 

 dinous fibrilla? become sometimes directly continuous with the ex- 

 tremities of the fasciculi, which are not taper, but have a perfect ter- 

 minal disc. In other cases the extremities are shewn to be oblique- 

 ly truncated, where the fasciculi are attached to surfaces not at right 

 angles to their direction. Lastly, he states his opinion, and gives 

 new facts on which it is founded, that in muscular contraction the 

 discs of the fasciculi become approximated, flattened, and expanded: 

 the fasciculi, of course, at the same time becoming shorter and thicker. 

 He considers that in all contractions these phenomena occur ; and 

 he adduces arguments to shew the improbability of the existence of 

 any rugae or zigzags as a condition of contracting fasciculi in the liv- 

 ing body. The paper is abundantly illustrated by drawings of micro- 

 scopic appearances. — Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 



23. Abundance of Wild Swans in the Highland Loclis does not 

 necessarily indicate a severe Winter in Iceland and Faroe. — In the 

 notice of the proceedings of the Wcrnerian Society in No. 56 of your 

 Journal, p. 411, 1 find it was stated at the meeting of December 21st, 

 that wild swans were abundant in the Highland Lochs, '• indicating a 

 severe winter in Iceland and Faroe." That this is not necessarily in- 

 dicated by the presence of an abundance of swans in this country, the 

 following extract from a letter I last month received from Faroe will 

 shew : my friend Mr Sohroter, who has resided there many years, 

 says, *' The winter has bpen without frost and in every respect the best 

 winter I or any body now living can remember. From the Solstice in 

 December till the Equinox (vernal) we had no storm, very little snow, 

 and less frost ; especially from January 28. till March 23., it was sur- 

 prising how dry the weather was without frost. You may imagine 

 it from this, that in many places the turf moor was cracked into 

 prismatic divisions, and some peats I had by chance dug up Fe- 

 bruary 11. were quite dry March 17-, so that I could use them 

 for fuel. I never heard of that before ; the frost commonly spoils 

 the pits in May, often in June, but there was no frost to be seen on 

 the pits in the heart of this winter." — W. C. Trcvelyan, 



24. Rare Zoophytes on the Coast of Arran. — We lately picked up 

 on the beach at Brodick in Arran, a specimen of the beautiful Gonias- 

 tcr Templet oni, and of the Luidia fragilissiina of Forbes in Werne- 



