SCIENCE LETTER FROM PARIS, 609 



pots; as for the latter, they contain less lead poison than sardines or fat liver. 

 Siphons are only dangerous when allowed to rest on the side,- and drinking-water 

 suffers no injury in leaden pipes so long as it keeps flowing. 



M. Hement draws attention to the fact, that when the dumb are trained to 

 speak, they do so in the accent of the locality where they have lived ; but M. 

 Blanchard denies the fact : there is no patois, but a uniformity of croaking, me- 

 tallic pronunciation ; a series of mechanical, muscular efforts, having nothing in 

 common with any known accent, but sufficiently intelligible to be comprehended 

 between the speakers themselves. M. Coeljo, a Portuguese gentleman, asserts 

 that the Creoles have patois so distinctly peculiar, that it remains ever the same, 

 whether pronounced by a Hindoo, Chinese, negro, or Red Indian. 



M. Alphonse Milne-Edward has drawn attention to the resistance of certain 

 animal-germs. In the environs of Paris, after unusually heavy rains or inundations, 

 quantities of crustaceae, called apias, are to be found in old cartruts, hollows, and 

 ditches ; dry and warm weather ensues, the water in these places evaporates, the 

 apias disappear, no trace of them can be found till like inundations ensue; then 

 new generations' spring into existence, which, too, in time also disappear. Sie- 

 bold has demonstrated that the eggs of these infusoria could, pending several 

 years, preserve their germinating power. M. Certes, in 1878, evaporated some 

 of the saline water in the province of Constantine, Algeria, arid preserved the 

 dry sediment till April, 1881, when he placed the residue in filtered rain-water; 

 soon numerous infusoria were developed, and also several larv^, presenting all 

 the characteristics of the animalcules pecuHar to the water originally taken from 

 the pool. The French Government commissioned M. Alphonse Milne-Edward to 

 execute some methodical dredgings in the Mediterranean, and which he has recent- 

 ly concluded. The results are interesting and curious; specimens of low organiza- 

 tions of life were plentifully discovered at depths of iioo and 2800 yards: one 

 species was found almost blind, since its eyes were deprived of pigment. At a 

 mean depth of 275 yards, the temperature of the Mediterranean is constant, be- 

 tween 32° and 53° F.; this fact explains the little development of life in the depths 

 of that sea. Further, the Mediterranean is isolated in a life sense from the At- 

 lantic by the Straits of Gibraltar, which form as it were an impassable bar. 

 However, all the beings that occupy the depths of the great island sea arrive from 

 the Ocean. Another circumstance which militates against development of life is 

 the absence of rocks, or the vast depots of sludge which cover them, rendering 

 the conditions for swarming most unfavorable. • 



Following up these details, M. Blanchard gave explanations, that the Medi- 

 terranean is a sea of only recent formation, anterior doubtless to the historic 

 period; indeed he would go the length of saying, its formation progresses still; 

 he confirms the results obtained by M. Milne-Edwards, that life in the abysses of 

 the Mediterranean is tenanted from the Atlantic, but goes on dwindling as we ad- 

 vance to the Orient; he added, that the flora and fauna of the north and south 



