1808. — 
are the horse-chesnut, acorns, and -the 
root uf the red-berried briony, commou= 
ly called mandrake, and of the cuckow- 
pint, or wakerobin, All of these yield a 
large proportion of tecula, which forms a 
nutritious, food for mau or other animals, 
At the last Meeting of the Wernerian 
Natural History Society of Edinburgh, 
Dre James Ocreny, of Dublin, read a 
very interesting account of the minera- 
logy of East Lothian, which appeared to 
have been drawn up from u series of ob- 
servations made with gregt skill, and was 
illustrated by. three hundred and fifty 
specimens laid upon the table. As the 
county js in general deeply covered with 
soil, and profusely clothed with vege- 
tables, the determination of the different 
formations must have heen a work of cou- 
siderable labour; and the skill, judgment, 
and perseverance of the observer, must 
have been frequently put to the trial. 
The author, after describing the physio- 
gilomy, or external aspect of the county, 
gave a particular account of the different 
formations of which itis composed. They 
are as follow:—iransition, independent 
coal, newest iloetztrap, and alluvial. 
When describing the different transition 
tocks, he alluded particularly to the sup- 
posed granite of Fassnet, described- by 
Professor Playfair in his Tilustrations of 
the Huttonian Theory, which he-proved 
to be a'stratified bed of transition green- 
stone, ‘The description of the rocks of 
the, newest floetztrap formation was par- 
ticularly interesting, not only on account 
of the beautiful transitions he pointed 
out, but also as it proved the existeuce of 
a considerable tract. of these rocks: in 
Scotland, where their occurrence had 
been disputed. ,, He enumerated and de- 
scribed the following members of this 
formation :—traptufl, amygdaloid, clay- 
stone, basalt, porphyry-slate, and por- 
phyry-slate inclining to green-stoue. He 
found the traptuff, which is a coarse me- 
ehanical deposit, forming the lowest mem- 
bev of the series, and resting immedi- 
ately on the cual formation;-on this tuff 
rests amygdaloid, containing fragments ; 
above this amygdaloid is.common amyg- 
daloid, free of fragments: this, in. its 
~-turn, js covered with basalt; the basalt 
gradually passes into, and is covered with, 
porphyry-slate; and the porphyry-slate, 
i some instances, appears to pass: into 
green-stone, which forms. the upjermost 
“part of the formation: so that we have 
thus a beautiful series of transitions trom 
the coarse mechanical, to the fine che- 
mical, that is, from. traptuff to porphysy- 
~ Monrury Mac., No. 174 
Literary and Philosophical Intelligence. 
467 
slate, inclining to green-stone. The doc- 
tor also remarked, that the amyedaluid 
contains crystals of feldspar, which have 
an earthy -aspect; the basalt erystals of 
feldspar possessing the characters of com- 
mon feldspar; and the porphyry-siate~ 
glassy feldspar; fucts. which coincide 
with, and are illustrative of, the imereas= 
ed fineness of solution from the oldest to 
the newest menrbers of the formation. In 
the course of lis paper, the author gave 
distinct and satisfactory answers to these 
questions proposed by Professor Jame- 
son:—1. Does the Bass Ttock in the 
Frith of Forth belong to the newest 
floetatrap formation? 2. Does the siem- 
tic creenstune of Fassnet, in. East Lo 
thian, belong to the transition rocks, or 
to the newest floetztrap formation? Ave ; 
the geognostic relations of the porphyry - 
slate, or clink-stone porphyry of Rast, 
Lothian, the same as in other countries? 
The doctor announced his: mtention of 
reading, at the next meeting of the So- 
ciety, a description of the ditlereat veius 
that eccurin East Lothian, and of giving 
a short statement of the geognosneal and 
sconomical inferences to be deduced 
from the appearances which he has in- 
vestigated with so much. care. It is in- 
deed only by investigations hke those of; 
Dr, Ogilby, that we obtain any certainty 
respecting the mineral treasttres of a) 
country, and such alone can afford us da- 
ta for a legitimate theory of the forma- 
tion of the ylobe. At the same meeting 
a communication trom Colonel Mon- 
tague was read, describing a new spe- 
cies of fasciela, of a red colour, and 
abont an inch long, which sometimes 
lodges in the trachea of chickens, and 
which the colonel found to be the océa- 
sion of the distemper called the gaupes, so 
fatal to those useful tenants of the poul- 
try-yard. "The knowledye of the true. 
cause of this malady will, it is hoped, 
soon be followed by the discovery of a 
specific cure. ln the mean time, avery 
simple popular remedy is employed in 
Devonshire: the meat of “the chicks, 
barley or catmeal, is merely mixed with, 
uriue, instead of water, and this prescrip~ 
tion is very generally attended with the 
best effects. 
RUSSIA. 
The Russian minister for the home 
department has recently published a pro- 
claination, inviting all persons conneeted 
with the manutacture of cloths of every 
deseription in foreign countries, to pro- 
ceed to Russia, where ‘they will be cor- 
ually received, either in the old Russian 
O 
towns, 
7 
