174 Dr. T. Anderson on the Products of the 



was induced to assume. I believe, however, that in the deserts 

 of yellow clay an occasional oasis of animal life may be found 

 in much greater depths, depending upon some favourable local 

 condition or accident. 



I cannot close my remarks without noticing the singular 

 fact of the decrease in temperature in marine depths in these 

 parallels being about equal to the increase of temperature 

 in terrestrial depths at 200 fathoms below the surface ; in the 

 one case decreasing from 78° and 80° to 55°, and in mines, it 

 is said, increasing to 80° at the same depth. (See Ansted's 

 Geology, vol. ii. p. 294.) 



These reasonings and observations on the deeps of the 

 iEgean Sea seem to point out the key to the distribution of the 

 marine fauna generally ; and as they are of evident geological 

 importance, I am induced to present them to the notice of the 

 British Association, although so imperfectly carried out, and 

 attended with so little research as to what is already known of 

 the temperature of the sea in other localities. The temperature 

 of great depths in high latitudes was first ascertained by Sir 

 John Ross in 1818, which he found to be 29 degrees at the 

 depth of from 200 to 1000 fathoms. I hope, however, that 

 these observations may lead to an extension of similar obser- 

 vations in each zone of depth, in connexion with the fauna of 

 those zones in other and distant localities, by those members 

 of my profession who have means at command, and more zeal 

 in uniting science with duty. 



XXVI. On the Products of the Destructive Distillation of 

 Animal Substances. Part I. By Thomas Anderson, Esq., 

 M.D.* 



IN April 1846 I communicated to the Royal Society a paper 

 on a new organic base, to which I gave the name of pi- 

 coline, and which occurs in coal-tar, associated with the pyrrol, 

 kyanol, and leukol of Runge. In that paper I pointed out 

 that the properties of picoline resembled, in many respects, 

 those of a base which Unverdorben had previously extracted 

 from Dippel's animal oil, and described under the name of 

 odorine ; and more especially mentioned their solubility in 

 water, and property of forming crystallizable salts with chlo- 

 ride of gold, as characters in which these substances approxi- 

 mated very closely to one another. And further, I detailed a 

 few experiments on the odorine of Unverdorben extracted 

 from Dippel's oil, with the view of ascertaining whether or 



* From the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol.xvi. 

 part 4. Read April 3, 1848. 



