468 Scientific Notices-^Miscellaneous, [June, 



at St. Bartholomew's Hospital on the 1st of March, said, when 

 speaking of the rupture of the teudo achillis, " it sometimes 

 happens when a person is dancino-, and so loud a noise is pro- 

 duced by it, as to be distinctly heard at the other end of the 

 room. This may be urged as an argument in favour of the 

 opinion, that somid is a disti/ict substance, and not the result of 

 the vibrations of the air, as some have supposed ; for here is 

 sound produced in a situation to which the air has not access." 

 Not being able to reconcile this observation with what I 

 understajid to be the opinion entertained by modern philoso- 

 phers, 1 take the liberty of addressing you on the subject; and 

 if through the medium of your valuable journal, you will inform 

 me how far Mr. Stanley's notion be correct, it will oblige. 



Gentlemen, yours, &c. 



A Bartholomew's Pupil. 



*** We are quite as much at a loss to comprehend Mr. Stan- 

 ley's doctrine (if it be correctly stated) as our correspondent. 

 Wepubhsh the Bartholomew's Pupil's letter, therefore, thatMr. S. 

 may, if he please, enter more fully into an explanation of his 

 views concerning sound, in our next, or any future number of the 

 Annals of Philosophy . — Ed. 



3. Phosphorescent Plants. 



Several cryptogamous subterraneous plants have been observed 

 to be luminous in the dark. M. Nees, of Esenbeck, cites after 

 M. Heinzmann, the rhizomorpha phosphorescens found in the 

 mines of Hesse, in the north of Germany : the light is visible at 

 the extremities of the plant, especially when it is broken. This 

 phosphorescence disappears in hydrogen gas, oxide of carbon, 

 and chlorine gas. Some other rhizomorpha, as the subterranea 

 and the didula, have also appeared phosphorescent to several 

 persons working in the mines. — (Journal de Pharraacie.) 



4. Paininz Trees. 



In the ancient histories of travellers in America, and 

 also by Thevet in his Cosmographia, mention is made of a tree 

 which attracted the clouds from the heavens, and converted 

 them into rain in the dry deserts. These relations have been 

 considered as fables. There has been lately found in Brazil a 

 tree, the young branches of which drop water, which fall almost 

 like a shower. This tree, to which Leander has given the name 

 ofcnbea pluviosa, is transferred by M. DecandoUe to the genus 

 Cccsalpinia (pluviosa), in his Prodomns, vol. ii. p. 483. Also 

 many vegetables, as the calamus rotang, and tender climbing 

 plants, the vine, and other twigs, at the season of sap, par- 

 ticularly when they are cut, loeep abundantly. This genus 

 Caesalpinia, which furnishes the dyeing wood of Fernambuco 



