214 EXTRACTS AND ABSTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 



linear traces. The delicate experiments of M. Payen, aided by micro- 

 scopic observation, have proved that the oxalate of lime, of which these 

 acicular crystals are composed, is lodged in very minute cells, joined 

 end to end in a linear series ; and, consequently, that when the salt 

 is dissolved, the membranous sheath which contained it becomes a flex- 

 ible filament. 



From this it is evident, that under the influence of the vegetable 

 organism, the same crystallizable matter, oxalate of lime, may assume 

 forms of great diversity, by the varied arrangement of its integrant mole- 

 cules. M. Payen has, by incineration of the organ secreting the oxalate 

 of lime, obtained a result no less remarkable than the above : he found 

 that the cells which form the matrix, when destroyed by combustion, 

 left on the plates of glass a silicious skeleton, which, under the micro- 

 scope, was seen to retain the form of the organic tissue. Fragments of 

 the stalks of Graminece, of Equisetaceff, of Cactus, and of various leaves, 

 petals, and grains of pollen, subjected to washing with acid, and to inci- 

 neration, presented the same phenomena ; delicate traces of silica repro- 

 ducing the minutest details of the organization. 



M. Payen, from these and similar researches, deduces the following 

 law : 



" That mineral substances contained in vegetables, even when they assume 

 polyhedric crystalline forms, are not isolated or scattered at hazard, but are 

 always deposited in the cells of an organic tissue, which determines and 

 limits their agglomeration." 



Ehrenberg on the Paper-like Substance from Silesia. At the meeting 

 of the Berlin Academy, 24th June, 1841, "M. Ehrenberg read a report 

 upon the paper-like substance from Silesia, of 1736, which had been 

 sent by Prof. Goppert from Breslaw." 



The Academy had commissioned the author, on the 4th of March, to 

 report upon this substance which had been sent to it for examination 

 by M. Goppert. 



Since the microscopical analysis of the meteoric paper which fell in 

 Courland in 1686 in a snow storm, and which was found to consist 

 merely of a paper-like web of terrestrial Conferva and Infusoria, it has 

 appeared advisable to the author to institute a comparison between 

 this and other similar and purely terrestrial phenomena which have 

 been authentically recorded. 



A similar appearance was especially that of the formation of a paper 

 and a kind of wadding, which was left upon the surface of low-lying mea- 

 dows and fields in Silesia, upon the subsidence of a great flood of the 

 Oder, which lasted all the summer, and broke down the dykes in more 

 than sixteen places. This caused so much distress in the country, by 

 its preventing the growth of the later grass, that it excited great atten- 

 tion ; and it was thought fit to send some of the paper-like substance 

 to Vienna for the inspection of the Emperor. 



This account is given by Dr. Kundmann, who then lived in Bres- 

 law, in a work entitled, " Rariora Naturae et Artis," &c. P. 556. 



