306 Scientific Intelligence. [April, 



them is so strong that, independently of the aqueous vapour 

 formed by the heat, and which issues from the apertures, a 

 great quantity of sulphureous air is emitted, and the black 

 muddy substance contained in the basins is thrown up as high as 

 seven or eight feet. The efflux of water from the springs is 

 very scanty, and in some of them the whole supply is converted 

 into vapour by the subterranean heat. 



After a long course of dry weather, these springs are almost 

 wholly dried up, and when rain falls, they boil out again with 

 redoubled fury. 



There are large mounds of finely ciystallized sulphur in the 

 vicinity of these springs, and quantities of a white earthy sub- 

 stance are also found m their neighbourhood. 



The colour of the liquid discharged by the springs is very 

 various ; and what renders this remarkable is, that some of them 

 are situated within a yard of each othei", and throw out water of 

 a different colour ; in one only it is hmpid ; in the rest it varies 

 from a milky whiteness to a thick dark-black. The hills in the 

 neighbourhood of these springs are high, and some of them bear 

 evident marks of having formerly been the seats of volcanic 

 eruptions. 



II. Singular Calculi said to he from the Urinary Bladder of a 



Dog. 



A gentleman of great respectability from Canada, and a mem- 

 ber of the Colonial Assembly at Quebec, lately presented a 

 number of round bodies to the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, 

 ivhich he had received from a person residing on the banks of 

 the river St. Laurence. This person assured him that they had 

 been taken after death out of the urinary bladder of a dog. 



As soon as I saw these bodies, I suspected them to be pearls. 

 They are perfectly spherical, about the size of mustard seed ; 

 they have the lustre and the weight of pearls ; but their colour 

 is not good, being rather dark, and inclining to yellow. Like 

 pearls, they are composed of very thin concentric coats ; and I 

 found them composed of lime united to an animal matter. Thus 

 in their composition, as well as their appearance, they agree 

 ■with pearls. Pearls indeed, according to the analysis of Mr. 

 Hatchett, are composed of carbonate of lime and an animal 

 matter. When I put one of these bodies into nitric acid, it 

 dissolved slowly, but completely ; and I did not perceive any 

 sensible eft'ervescence. Here then appears a difference between 

 our concretions and pearls. But my experiment was made upon 

 so small a scale, and the solution was so slow, that I consider 

 the difference to be only apparent and not real. The matter 

 dissolved by the nitric acid was pure lime ; for it was not preci- 

 pitated by pure ammonia; but was readily precipitated by oxalic 

 acid. I think, therefore, that it probably exists in the concre- 

 tions in the state of carbonate of lime. 



