1823.] • Royal Society. 67 



J -300th of an inch in length, by between l-800th and 1 -900th 

 in width ; in one hour and a half after exudation, the young 

 worm peeps out, and by twisting about, and other active 

 exertion, wholly extricates itself in about an hour more. 

 The worms just extricated from the eggs look like fine glass 

 tubes full of water, with air-bubbles corresponding to the annuli 

 of the older ones, but no indentations. The large egg- 

 bearing worms, which were one-fourth of an inch long by l-8(Jth 

 wide, have no other motions than those of moving their heads 

 and tails ; they present no external marks of sex, and are consi- 

 dered to be hermaphrodites. In the grains which also contained 

 smut, there were two or three large worms surrounded with 



So me of these worms were revived m wheat which had been dry 

 for five years and eight months; the longest period of revi- 

 •viscence observed, was six years and one mouth ; the large 

 worms do not revive. If kept in water longer than 35 days, 

 they all die, and become as straight as needles, but remain a 

 very long time without decaying. If merely kept moist in a 

 watch-glass, they may be kept alive for three months ; if too 

 much water be applied to them, they cannot be so readily 

 revived as when a little is used, which soon evaporates ; and 

 the longer their periods of desiccation have been, the longer 

 they require to be kept moist for reviviscence. They appear to 

 be preserved by a mucus in which they are imbedded, and which 

 appears to be of an oily nature. This, however, remains for 

 years when the worms can no longer be revived. 



Mr. Bauer had completed his investigation of the vibrio tritici 

 in 1810, and conceived that it had not been noticed before, 

 when he met with some references to former descriptions of it ; 

 these, however, being very vague, and his time having been 

 6ince occupied with researches of a different nature, he had no 

 opportunity of consulting the authors referred to until lately : 

 upon so doing, he found no occasion to alter any of his conclu- 

 sions on the subject. 



Dec. 12.— On Metallic Titanium, by W. H. Wollaston, MD. 

 VPRS. 



This paper commenced with a review of the results hitherto 

 obtained in experiments on the reduction of this metal, of which 

 even the most satisfactory are of a doubtful nature ; hence Dr. 

 Wollaston conceived that an account of some metallic crystals 

 of titanium would be acceptable to the Royal Society. In the 

 slag of the iron works of Merthyr Tydvil, there are minute 

 cubes, which, from being imbedded in and possessing the colour 

 and lustre of iron pyrites, have been considered to be that sub- 

 stance. They are not, however, like the striated cubes of 

 pyrites, which often pass into the pentagonal dodecahedron; 

 but have indented squares on their faces, like the cubes of com-, 



f2 



