Polytechnic Association Proceedings. 629 



phosphorescent animalcules. 



The beautiful luminosity seen on a summer's night in the ocean, 

 illuminating the track of a vessel, proceeds chiefly from inverte- 

 brate animals. Prominent among these is the noctiluca miliaris. 

 It has a gelatinous transparent body, nearly in the form of a peach, 

 but only about one-sixtieth of an inch in diameter. From the bot- 

 tom of an oval cavity in it is often protruded a delicate filament, 

 having an undulatory motion, which Khron supposes is for the 

 purpose of sweeping in nutritive matter. The illuminating power 

 of noctiluca does not serve the same purpose in each species. The 

 fire-fly {lampyris noctiluca) uses it to attract the opposite sex, and 

 can extinguish or renew it at pleasure; but in the miliaris it pro- 

 bably serves to attract more minute animal forms which are its 

 prey. 



COLORS FROM PROTEIN COMPOUNDS. 



Erdmann observed that some roast veal was superficially red; 

 he transferred a portion of the red matter to other substances, and 

 found that with moisture and a proper temperature, the coloring 

 matter increased. It is probably produced by infusoria, in the 

 same sense as alcohol is made by yeast. Researches on blue 

 milk, made by several German chemists, show results closely anal- 

 agous to those made by Erdmann. 



THE COAST OF SWEDEN. 



Thirty-two years ago. Sir Charles Lyell examined ancient sea- 

 marks in Sweden, and concluded the coast was gradually rising. 

 The Earl of Selkirk has recently examined the same sea-marks, and 

 arrived at an opposite conclusion. He believes the apparent 

 change is due to fluctuations in the level of the water, and not to 

 an upward movement of the land. This subject will doubtless be 

 investigated by other geologists. 



LOCAL ANESTHESIA. 



The London Lancet alludes to a case which has important refer- 

 ence to the question of local against general anaesthesia. An 

 abscess was removed from a young woman in the Middlesex hos- 

 pital, after congelation of the part had been rapidly produced by 

 the application of parafllne ether. The result has been, that a por- 

 tion of the skin, nearly an inch square, has sloughed, and its healing 

 will necessarily be attended by an unseemly scar. «^c. 



