Dec. 16, 1869 | 
NALORE 
20I 
me one to contain thirty drawers. These drawers were exposed 
to the air for twelve months, and very well sized inside, and 
papered, but the resinous vapour is still deposited on the objects 
in the drawers as before, and so far is a warning to every one 
never to use pencil cedar for such a purpose. I should not, 
however, have thought this matter worthy of mention before the 
Section, had it not been for the very curious and capricious way 
in which some objects are coated with this resin, while others are 
left entirely free, and for which I am totally unable to account. 
In shells the genera Cores and Oliva are never touched by it, nor 
are Cyfrea or Afitrea, whilst Helix, Bulimus, and Fecten, are 
coated over : this is the case when there are specimens of these 
and other genera in the same drawer. As this deposit is on the 
genera I have named, and never on the others, it would seem to 
indicate that the texture of some shells would attract the vapour 
and not others. But in the case of bird’s eggs, the very strange 
manner in which some species are picked out as it were and others 
left, is most remarkable. In the owl's eggs, for substance, the 
barn owl is always free, while the tawny owl is covered with the 
varnish, although side by side. The song thrush is never attacked, 
and the missel thrush always.” ‘Trays exhibiting these peculiarities 
were passed round for inspection—Mr. Sidebotham also sent a 
living Death’s Head Moth, bred from a pupa, which he had 
obtained at Lytham, and exhibited that the members might hear 
its curious cry or squeak when touched.—Mr. H. A. Hurst 
deposited in the Library a copy of a rare botanical work by a 
Jesuit priest, the Rey. J. Barrelier, which contained upwards of 
thirteen hundred carefully engraved plates of plants, which he 
had collected in France, Spain, and Italy. The work was edited 
by Antonio de Jussieu, and published in Paris in1714. Mr. Hurst 
also exhibited some dried plants, recently collected by Mr. 
Wanklyn in the Southern States of America. Mr, Coward 
exhibited species of Podostemaceze, collected by Gardner, in 
India and Ceylon. The Podostemaceze, a little-known order of 
Tropical Aquatics, closely resemble the Liverworts in habit and 
general appearance, but possess phanerogamous flowers and 
dicotyledonous seeds. The order was placed by Von Martius 
amongst Endogens, in the near neighbourhood of the Naiadacez, 
and by Lindley in his Rutal Alliance of Exogens. Gardner 
considers it to be nearly allied to the pitcher plants, Nepenthacez. 
The difficulties attending the position of the order were well 
illustrated in the specimens exhibited, which presented a singular 
resemblance in foliation to Jungermannia and Riccia, and in the 
first view of the pedicillated ribbed capsule to the fructification 
of a moss, but in essential characters the true place appeared to 
be amongst the aquatic Endogens, with the anomaly of possessing 
a dicotyledonous seed. 
November 30.—The Rey. William Gaskell, M.A., vice- 
president, in the chair. Mr. J. B. Dancer, F.R.A.S., communi- 
cated a paper on the Microscopical Examination of Milk under 
certain conditions, giving the results of observations made with 
the view of checking those of M. V. Essling, who states that 
vegetable organisms, like those found in putrefying substances, 
make their appearance in milk, before the milk gets sour, On 
examining a sample of unadulterated milk, Mr. Dancer was 
unable to detect the appearances described by Essling. The 
smallest oil globules exhibited as usual great molecular activity, 
but there was no appearance of dotted matter, or any fungoid 
growth when the milk was examined by powers varying from 200 
to 1,500. A bottle was filled with some of this milk and securely 
corked ; other portions of the milk were placed in open cups: one 
cup was kept in a cabinet which was closed during the day; the 
milk of the second cup was placed in a closet, the atmosphere of 
which was known to be favourable to the growth of fungi, the 
Mucor Mucedo being the most abundant and of the same family 
as that mentioned as having been found in cream by M. V. Essling. 
The milk in the bottle and that in the cups was examined daily, 
precautions being taken to close the bottle speedily after a portion 
was remoyed. On the third day the milk in the open cups was 
sour to the smell, but no change appeared visible under the 
microscrope; the upper portion of the milk in the bottle had 
become very rich in oil globules by the formation of cream. On 
the fourth day the casein had coagulated in the milk in the open 
cups, and the flaky precipitate was visible under the microscope ; 
the pellicle surrounding the oil globules now appeared to be very 
easily ruptured, and with the slightest pressure some of the 
globules could be joined together—sometimes a number of 
globules which had been ranged in line by a current would 
coalesce by a slight movement of the fluid, and form an elongated 
mass. Fifth day, no appreciable alteration. Sixth day, the milk 
which had been placed in the closet had patches of mould visible 
on its surface : a microscopical examination of this mould showed 
it to be the AZucor Mucedo, such as had been frequently found 
on fruit which had been left in this closet. The fungus appeared 
on the surface only, no trace of it could be found in the milk 
taken from various depths. The milk in the cup kept in the 
cabinet exhibited no appearance of the M/ucor M/ucedo or any 
other vegetable or animal organism; it had become thickened 
into a pasty mass with an intensely sour odour. These obser- 
vations were continued for eleven days, and the only difference 
observable was in the oil globules—they began to lose their 
spherical form, as if the investing pellicle had been weakened 
in parts and had become expanded. ‘These experiments were 
repeated with a second supply of milk, and the results were alike 
in both cases. The range of temperature during the experi- 
ments was from 45° to 63° Fahr. These experiments led Mr. 
Dancer to believe that vegetable organisms do not as a rule make 
their appearance in pure unadulterated milk unless it is exposed 
for some time to atmospheric influences ; most probably the 
spores are supplied by the atmosphere. He, however, con- 
sidered M. V. Essling’s suggestion to bottle the milk very good, 
and thought that cream pans with covers would be a very great 
improvement on the open ones as at present employed, at the 
same time having due regard to the cleanliness of the apartment 
and vessels in which the milk is kept. 
BRIGHTON 
Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society, De- 
cember 9.—The president, Mr. T. H. Hennah, inthe chair. A 
paper was read by Mr. C. P. Smith on the Gemmez of Mosses. 
Besides the ordinary mode of generation from a spore, which 
gives rise to a prothullus, from which the perfect plant is deve- 
loped, mosses have another mode of generation, by means of 
gemmez or sprouts, which have been defined as loose granular 
bodies, capable of becoming plants. As yet, none of the P/euro- 
carpi or side-fruiting mosses have, in Britain, been found pro- 
ducing gemmz, whose situation on the plant varies in different 
species. Thus, in Zortula papillus, which grows on trees in Sussex 
and elsewhere, and has a thick spongy nerve, the gemmez are 
found in the upper parts of the inside of the leaf—the fruit of 
this moss is unknown except in Australia ; Didymodon gemmas- 
ces, having the nerve excurrent, has the tip crowded with 
gemme ; in 7etvaphis pellucida they are in pedicellate clusters 
at the ends of separate stems; in Bryum atropurpureum they 
form tubercles or bulbs in the axils of the leaves. On the leaves 
of Orthotrichum Lyellii grow little strings of cells, which, pre- 
senting a confervoid appearance, were named Coz/erva castanea: 
they have, however, been demonstrated to develop into young 
plants of mosses. Ovcophorus glaucus has a great number of 
cells forming a dense mass at the tip of the leaf: these in 
the damp season give rise to young plants, so that this moss 
is common in counties where it never fruits. The subject of 
the growth of gemmz has not yet been thoroughly worked out : 
he purposed investigating the phenomena, when he hoped to 
have some new facts to lay before the society. The paper was 
illustrated by drawings and microscopical specimens prepared 
by Mr. Smith, and exhibited by the following gentlemen, the 
most striking of which were—by Mr. Hennah, Az72ume cuspi- 
datum, MM, Hornum, Polytrichum commune, and Neckera 
oligocar~a, showing flowers ; Mr. Smith, Ceratodon purpureum 
and Cinclidium stygium, showing peristomes, and Aphemerunt 
serratium, with prothullus and young buds ; Mr, Sewell, section 
of leaf of Pottia cavifolia and Orthotrichum Lyellit, with con- 
fervoid gemmz on the leaves, the Cozjferva castanea of the 
early botanists ; Mr. Wonfor, Azocomnion androgyum, Ullota 
phyllantha, and Tetraphis pelluctda, exhibiting gemmez. 
Paris 
Academy of Sciences, December 6.—M. Andral commu- 
nicated a memoir on the relation of the variations of the tempe- 
rature of the human body to variations in the quantities of 
some constituent principles of the blood and urine. In this 
paper the author discussed the proportion to be observed between 
the temperature of the body taken under the axilla and the 
amount of fibrin, albumen, and globules contained in the blood, 
and that of urea eliminated by the kidneys. He treated of the 
comparative phenomena presented in various diseases.—MM. 
Bouillard and Becquerel remarked upon this communication. 
M. Faye communicated extracts from letters from MM. B. A. 
Gould and L. Respighi upon the solar atmosphere and promi- 
