186 Miscellanies. 



fectly dissolved in oil of turpentine, and the solution coagulates in 

 coolinff. The alkalies do not turn it into soap. Sulphuric acid car- 

 bonizes it, even at a temperature which causes it to melt. It does 

 not emit a flame when exposed to a candle. M. Paravey has been 

 seeking among Chinese authors for an account of this fossil wax. 

 He states, that in the book of Pen-Tsao, the hou-jpe or Ichou-pe, is 

 said to be formed as follows : the resin or grease of the wild pine or 

 larch, left in the earth a thousand years, gives the fouling, a sort of 

 excrescence from the roots of these pines or larches, which have 

 been cut down even with the soil, and the presence of which is dis- 

 covered by a luminous vapor rising over the spot. It is a rare and 

 expensive substance, employed in medicine, and when combined 

 with the still more precious roots of the guiseng, and left a thousand 

 years, or a very long time, in the earth, gives the hou-pe, and if, 

 after becoming hou-pe, it is again left for a thousand years, it gives 

 the black stone to, or to-pe (evidently jet.) M. Brongniart says, 

 in his "■ Mineralogy,' " that with the Prussian amber, are often found 

 the fruits of the Pinus abies ; and the tree called in Chinese Song, 

 from which the hou-pe is said to come, is the Pinus abies." — Id. 



38. Circulation in Insects. — M. de Blainville has, in his own 

 name, and that of MM. Dumeril and Bory, reported to the French 

 Academy of Sciences some observations on circulation in insects. 

 If the foot of a young insect of the genera Notonecta, Naucoris, and 

 those of the family of Hydrocorisae, order Hemiptera, of Linnaeus, 

 be magnified one hundred times, taking care that the foot be always 

 attached to the living animal at the articulation with the thigh, a 

 motion, more or less distinct, will be seen, varying in rapidity, but 

 always regular, and capable of being accelerated or retarded, and 

 even suspended for a time. It is to be observed as long as the an- 

 imal lives, and even a short time after the limb has been separated 

 from the body. M. Dufour, who has attempted to verify these ob- 

 servations, thinks, that this motion is merely vibration of the muscu- 

 lar fibres, and is even of opinion, that it is impossible there should be 

 any thing like circulation in Hexapoda. — Id. 



39. Iron. — Twenty years back, Dr. Portal, when analyzing some 

 fragments of ancient lava near Mount Etna, found iron ore in them ; 

 more recently. Dr. Benedetto has discovered, close to the volcano, 

 an extensive vein of this metal, presenting groups of octahedral fig- 

 ures. — Ath. No. 423. 



