76 Miscellaneous. 



Dr. Balfour mentioned the discovery by IMrs. Balfour, ia August 

 last, of Ginannia furcellata of Turner, in Lamlash Bay, Arran. This 

 is the first Scottish station for the plant. 



Dr. Balfour exhibited a recently invented apparatus for drying 

 plants, which has been fully described in the * Botanical Gazette.' 



INIr. Charles Lawson exhibited a large plant of Tussac Grass, grown 

 in Orkney. Some recently received tufts of this grass, when fresh, 

 weighed about one cwt. 



Dr. Balfour exhibited specimens illustrating the production of 

 Vinegar. 



1. The so-called Vinegar-plant, with vinegar produced by it. 



2. Syrup into which the plant had not been introduced, but which 

 had been left for four months undisturbed. In it a peculiar fungus- 

 like growth similar to the vinegar-plant was foimd, and the fluid had 

 become vinegar. 



3. A specimen of vinegar produced by the Vinegar-plant which 

 had been filtered, and then allowed to stand for several months, and 

 in which a fungus similar to that called the Vinegar-plant had been 

 formed. 



Dr. Balfour thought the so-called Vinegar-plant must be considered 

 the mycelium of some fungus produced in a peculiar fluid, and which 

 acted as a ferment. The addition of any ferment would probably 

 cause a similai production of vinegar. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



RESUSCITATION OF FROZEN FISH. 



To the Editors of the Annuls of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, 5 Barge Yard, City, Nov. 15, 1850. 



In the last number of your excellent Magazine there is a short no- 

 tice by Prof. O. P. Hubbard on the resuscitation of frozen fish, and 

 as he invites the record of facts, probably the fact recorded by Sir 

 John Franklin in his first overland expedition to the Polar Sea may 

 not have come under his observation, and I therefore append it : — 



" It may be worthy of notice here (he says) that the fish froze as 

 they were taken out of the nets, and in a short time became a solid 

 mass of ice ; and by a blow or two of the hatchet were easily spUt 

 open, when the intestines might be removed in one lump. If in this 

 completely frozen state they were thawed before the fire, they reco- 

 vered their animation. This was particularly the case with the carp ; 

 and we had occasion to observe it repeatedly, as Dr. Richardson oc- 

 cupied himself in examining the structure of the different species of 

 fish, and was always, in the winter, under the necessity of thawing 

 them before he could cut them. We have seen a carp recover so far 

 as to leap about wdth much vigour after it had been frozen for thirty- 

 six hours." —First Overland Journey to the Polar Seas, vol. ii. 

 J). 234. 



Mr. Hearne, Mr. Ellis, and other travellers in the icy regions, also 



