Miscellaneous. 467 



The cellulose is enormously dilated by the weaker solvent, and 

 expands the external membrane into beautiful beads, which are 

 doubtless the result of the spiral vessels acting as ligatures at the 

 points of strangulation ; at the open end of a fibre it can be seen 

 oozing out as a mucilaginous substance. The stronger solution 

 bursts the beads, or dissolves all the cellulose into a homogeneous 

 mass, amidst which the empty cuticular membrane and the spiral 

 vessels remain nearly unacted upon. 



The substance called medullary matter is seen occupying the axes 

 of the fibres ; it is nearly insoluble in the solvents. It may be well 

 seen projecting from the open end of a fibre where the cellulose is 

 exuding, and often remains in situ when the fibre has quite disap- 

 peared. It has many appearances of being a distinct body, but the 

 author m. some cases thought it might be only the thickened or 

 modified inner cell-wall ; in others it looked like a shrunk membrane, 

 probably the dried-up primordial utricle. It is generally absent or 

 indistinct in old cotton, or cotton which has been submitted to 

 bleaching agents. — Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical 

 Society of Manchester, April 1863. 



On a singular Malformation of the Beak and Foot in the Young of 

 the Domestic Fowl. 



" Dear Sir, — With this I send you the body of the chicken I 

 spoke to you about, the beak and feet of which bear a close resem- 

 blance to those of a Parrot, and I beg your acceptance of it. 



" It may perhaps be as well if I state the circumstances which, it 

 has occurred to me, may account 

 for this freak of nature. I had 

 one of the Parrot tribe, which, on 



account of the noise it made, was ^. 



frequently placed in the yard 

 where I kept a breed of white 

 bantam fowls. If any of these 

 came near the Parrot's cage to 

 pick up the food it scattered, it be- 

 came much enraged and screamed 

 violently. Soon after this I set 



two hens on eggs, and in each brood I had one chicken of this 

 strange form. My impression at the time was, and now is, that one 

 of the hens had been frightened by the Parrot, and an effect thereby 

 produced on some of her eggs. 



"When I first mentioned it to you, I thought it had but three 

 toes ; on closer inspection I perceive there is a fourth toe ; but th^ 

 form of the foot still very closely resembles that of a Parrot. 



" Yours very truly, 



"Wm. Horn." 



" P.S. The Parrot was never let out of the cage, and was, I be- 

 lieve, a female." 



" J. E. Gray, Esq., British Museum." 



—Proc. Zool. Soc. Feb. 2-i, 1863. 

 31* 



