April 21, 1870] 
NALORE 
635 
mens of the particles floating in the air, and falling as 
dust, were collected en plates of glass, and were examined 
under the microscope. The proportions of the different in- 
gredients varied, but the same substances were found in all 
the specimens. The composition of the matter subjected to the 
microscope was as follows:—‘ The dust of the streets in its finer 
or coarser particles, according to the height at which it had 
been collected, with a large proportion of organic elements; 
particles of sand, quartz, and feldspar; of carbon, from coal- 
dust and lampblack; fibres of wool and cotton of various tints; 
epidermic scales; granules of starch of wheat, mainly the tissues 
of plants; the epidermic tissue, recognised by \the stomata or 
breathing pores; vegetable ducts and fibres, with spiral mark- 
ings; vegetable hairs or down, either single or in tufts of four or 
eight, and of great variety, and three distinct kinds of pollens. 
Fungi were abundant, from mere micrococcus granules to fila- 
ments of mould. When water was added to a portion of dust 
from whatever source, and exposed in a test tube to sunlight or 
heat for a few hours, vibriones and bacteria made their appear- 
ance, and the fungous elements sprouted and multiplied, showing 
that they maintained their vitality, and proving that the germs 
of fermentation and putrefaction are very widely diffused.’ ” 
Ir is said that Professor Nordenskiold is organising another 
Polar Expedition for 1871-2, and that he intends, amongst other 
things, to attempt to reach the North Pole by starting from 
Spitzbergen, or its neighbourhood, in the spring, and travelling 
by sledge over the frozen sea. It is reported that he intends to 
visit Greenland this year to procure dogs for his enterprise. We 
fear that if he relies upon dogs, he will not succeed better than 
his predecessors, and he may even experience great difficulty at 
the outset in obtaining the requisite number for his purpose ; 
for, by the latest accounts from Greenland, the disease among 
the dogs in that country (which proved such a hindrance to Mr. 
Whymper in his attempt to penetrate to the interior in 1867) 
has spread, in spite of all efforts to check it, from one district to 
‘another, and is still continuing its fatal ravages. 
THE new number of the Lroceedings of the Royal Institution, 
commencing the sixth volume, includes Professor ‘Tyndall’s 
lecture ‘‘ On Dust and Disease,”’ Professor Odling’s ‘‘ History of 
the Scientific Work of the late Professor Graham,” and Dr. 
Carpenter’s lecture on the ‘‘ Temperature and Animal Life of 
the Deep Sea,” with briefer notices of the other Friday evening 
discourses before Easter. 
AT the meeting of the French Academy on the 11th inst., 
Marshal Vaillant communicated the curious fact that Cuvier’s 
name was not George, but Fean Leopold Nicolas Fi rederic. 
According to M. Dumas, this circumstance was well known to 
persons familiarly acquainted with Cuvier, but no reason is given 
by him for such a singular change of name. 
THE second of Sir Edward Sabine’s conversaziones as ~Presi- 
dent of the Royal Society will be held on Saturday evening 
next, 
THE Lygineer states that a new method of warming first- 
class carriages in express trains has been adopted in Bavaria: a 
special van is attached to the train and contains a powerful 
** calorifere,” and the heated air is conveyed to all the carriages 
of the train by means of india-rubber tubes. The experiment 
with first-class carriages is reported upon so favourably that the 
authorities have determined to apply it to all the carriages on 
the Bavarian lines, and it is expected that it will soon be adopted 
on all the German railways. 
THE herbarium of the late Von Martins, which was offered to 
and refused by the Bavarian Government, has been purchased for 
30,000 fr. by the Belgian Government to form the basis of a national 
collection, to be located at Brussels. It consists, 1st, of the general 
herbarium, containing 60,000 species, represented by 300,000 
specimens, nearly half of which are Brazilian ; 2nd, of the great 
collection of palms; 3rd, a collection of fruits and seeds ; 4th, 
a series of woods; 5th, a collection of drugs and economic 
specimens, in great part formed by his brother Theodore Martins, 
Professor of Pharmacy at Erlangen. 
ACCORDING to the Photographic News, the oft-reiterated 
statement that the eye of a dead animal has impressed upon it an 
image of the last object seen in life has been the subject of 
serious investigation in Germany. Americans have gone so 
far as to state that the eyeof a murdered man had been 
found in which a portrait of the murderer was distinctly traceable. 
In the investigation in question the eyes of thirty different animals, 
all of which had been killed with a view to subsequent examina- 
tion, were carefully inspected; but in no case was there any 
evidence discovered to warrant the statement referred to. 
A coMPAct and valuable {little ‘‘ Route-map and Index to the 
more interesting objects in the Royal Gardens, Kew,” is about to 
be issued under official sanction by Messrs. Macmillanand Co 
It contains an excellent map of the gardens, and index to someo 
the more interesting plants: and as it is to be sold for the low 
price of 2d. it will doubtless have a very large circulation. 
Dr. E. Symes THompson, Gresham Professor of Physic, 
will deliver his two courses of three Jectures each at the Gresham 
College, Basinghall-street, after Easter. The first course on 
April 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, will be on Cough, on Tonics, and 
on Climate and Health Resorts. The second course, on June 
2nd, 3rd, and 4th, on the Epidemics of the Middle Ages, on 
Sedatives, and on Narcotics. The Lectures are illustrated with 
diagrams, and chemical experiments, and are free to the public. 
They commence at 7 o'clock. 
Dr. CLARK, assistant to the late Dr. Penny, who continued 
the winter course of lectures on Chemistry after that gentleman’s 
death, will deliver the summer courses. Further arrangements 
are dependent upon the proposal of Mr. Young, the President, 
to endow a chair of Technical Chemistry. 
THE statistics of the American Pennsylvania crude oil industry 
for the past year are now published. The total production of 
the year was the enormous amount of 4,215,142 barrels, being 
a daily average of 11,548 barrels. The production of 1868 was 
3,715,741 barrels, the increase during 1869 over the previous 
year thus being 499,401 barrels, or about 1,460 barrels per day. 
Pror. H. Wurtz has presented to the New York Lyceum of 
Natural History a report of an extraordinary outburst of gas in 
the township of West Bloomfield, co. of Ontario, State of New 
York. It issues from a bore-hole in the solid rock, about five 
inches in diameter, and when burning, gives in a still atmo- 
sphere a flame some thirty feet in height, the flow amounting to 
400,000 cubic feet per day, which has now been going on for 
more than four years, without any perceptible diminution of 
rapidity. The density is 0°693, and the result of several 
analyses shows the following composition :— 
WIRES 5 Gg 9 6 Oo) © 82°41 per cent. 
Carbonic acid . IO'IL 35 
Nitrogen 4°31 5 
ORG7HH Gg oO od ao 9 © 0°23 Fy 
Illuminating hydrocarbons . DOA WT 
100°00 
The most remarkable feature of the discharge is the lack of 
diminution of the flow for so long a time in connection with the 
low pressure indicated, corresponding to that of but a few inches 
of water. Dr. Stevens has examined the geological formation 
of the rock from which the oil proceeds, and finds it to belong 
to the Hamilton Group, the gas proceeding doubtless from the 
“*Marcellus Shale,” which is highly charged with bitumen and 
