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THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



The circumstance, in a geological view, most remarkable is, that it now hes on a 

 point, which, if it be not absolutely the highest eminence of the surrounding hill, is 

 yet so nearly at the same elevation with the other summits, that it could not have 

 travelled from any of them to its present place ; supposing the surrounding parts to 

 have always been in the state in which they now are. The nearest summit is too 

 little elevated to have permitted a stone of so irregular a form to have moved over 

 the intermediate surface ; and that which is higher, is now separated by a hollow or 

 depression, which would equally have prevented its transportation from that point, 

 unless the intermediate ground were restored to an uniform declivity. The integrity 

 of the mass is indeed sufficient to prove that it has not been carried far ; and it 

 affords, in fact, a singular example, rather of the results which follow from the de- 

 gradation of hills, than from the transportation of blocks. Its appearance may 

 probably be explained by imagining that the summit on which it now stands was once 

 higher ; and that, in the progress of waste, this mass has now fallen from its origmal 

 position, on the solid rock on which it now lies ; overwhelming in its fall a heap of 

 small materials or rubbish, of which the three supporting stones are the last re- 

 mains. 



We are indebted to Dr Macculloch for the principal part of the above observations. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Hazel Nuts found in a singular state at a great Depth. — These nuts 

 were found upon one of the farms at Bonnington, the property of Sir John Hay, 

 Bart., about one mile south from Peebles, in a bog about eight feet below the surface. 

 The top soil was three feet of meadow clay, beneath which was a layer of gr.iyish 

 coloured gravel about four and a half feet thick. The bottom of the bog consisted 

 of a mixture of gray sand and brown moss, with some branches of stumps of trees 

 quite decayed, and the nuts were found near the bottom of this substance. The bog 

 is part of a meadow about 1500 yards long, by about from 300 to 600 feet broad, 

 having a declivity of about one foot in 400. 



Upon opening these nuts, it was found that the kernel in all of them had entirely 

 dbappeared, though the membrane which enclosed it, and the nut itself, were as 

 entire as if they had been fresh and ripe. By opening the nut carefully, the membrane 

 could be taken out in the form of a perfect bag, without the least opening. The 

 substance of the kernel must, therefore, have escaped through the membrane and the 

 shell in a gaseous form, or must have passed through them when decomposed or 

 dissolved by the water. In some of the nuts that had not arrived at maturity, 

 the bag was very small, and was surrounded, as in the fresh nuts, with the soft 

 fungous substance which had completely resisted decay. 



Magnetism The attention of the " Westminster Medicil Society" has lately 



been directed to the supposed influence of magnetism in the cure of various diseases. 

 This subject was brought forward by Dr Schmidt, when he pointed out the distinc- 

 tion between mineral and imiversal magnetism, and contended that that fluid acted 

 solely on the nervous system. 



Contrary to the opinion entertained by the greatest authorities on this science, he 

 conceived that more magnetic influence existed between the friendly poles than the 

 opposite ; but this opinion was successfully overturned by Dr Ritchie and other 

 members, from experiments made at the time. 



Dr Schmidt exhibited a very simple instrument for obtaining the magnetic spark. 

 This consisted of a piece of soft iron, round which copper wire was twisted. The 

 extremities were amalgamated with quicksilver, and placed over the poles of a mag- 

 net ; on one was fixed a plate of copper, and the connexion then being forcibly 

 broken, a vivid magnetic spark was evolved. 



Anomalies in the Hen's Egg In a former Number we described a remarkable 



instance of three shells in the same egg. Since that communication was made, we 

 have been favored with the following observations by an intelligent Correspondent : — • 



" It is not an uncommon circumstance to find two yolks -n a single egg ; and it is 

 much rarer to find one egg surrounded with its shell, contained in-another egg of a 

 larger size. But I am not aware that there was any Case on record, before your 

 notice appeared, of i/iree shells bemg in the same egg. Schurigio has collected 

 many interesting facts relating to anomalies of the Hen's epg, which had been ob- 

 served from the time of Bartholin to his own. Harvey, Ruisch, Haller, and many 

 others, have also collected a number of similar cases. 



= ' Mery showed to the Academy of Sciencesat Paris in 1706, a boiled Hen s egg, 

 in the white of which he found another Egg surrounded with shell, having an internal 

 membrane, and filled with a white substance without yolk. 



" Other instances have been recorded by Petit in 1742, and by M. Meniere in 

 September 1810." 



Dissection or a Female Mummy. — In the year 1825, Dr Granville dissected 

 a female Mummy before the Royal Society. After depriving the body, by ebuUition 

 and maceration, of the bees-wax, myrrh, gum, resin, bitumen, and tannin, with 

 which it had been impregnated and preserved, the parts resembled recent pathological 

 preparations; and though the body must have lived 3000 ye^J:s ago, Dr Granville 

 ■was enabled to ascertain the age at which the lady died of ovarian dropsy, and also 

 'that she had borne children. Dr Granville gave the dimensions of its various parts, 

 'and it is truly singular that these happen to be precisely the same as of the Venus <Je 

 Medicis, whose claims to be considered the most perfect model of the Caucasian 

 female are undoubted. 



The Study of Nature. — The Mind of man, if it work upon Matter, which is 

 the contemplation of the creatures of God, worketh according to the stuff, and is 

 limited thereby ; but if it work upon itself, as the Spider worketh its web, then it is 

 endless, and brings forth indeed cobwebs of learning, admirable for the fineness of 

 thread and work, but of no substance or profit — Bacon. 



Cat Hospital at Damascus — When M. Baumgarten was at Damascus, he saw 

 there a kind of hospital for Cats ; where they were kept in a large house walled 

 round, and it was said that the apartments were quite filled with them. He wafl 

 told, when he inquired into the origin of this singular institution, that Mahomet, 

 when he once lived there, brought with him a Cat, which he kept in the sleeve of 

 his gown, and carefully fed with his own hands. His followers in this place, there- 

 fore, ever afterwards paid a superstitious respect to these animals ; and supported 

 them in this manner by public alms, which were very adequate to the purpose. 



REVIEWS. 



Apergu d 'Histoire NatureUe, ou Observations sur les limites qui separent le Regnc 



Vcgttal du Regne Animal^ par Benj. Gaillon. Boulogne-sur-Mer. 1833. In 



Sfo. Imprimerie de Lerog-MahiUe. 



(Sketches of Natural History, or Observations on the limits which separate the 

 Vegetable from the Animal Kingdom, by Benj. Gaillon, kc.) 



The author of this Aper^u has long been engaged in studying the characters of 

 Microscopic beings, and some of the results to which he has arrived exhibit no small 

 degree of perseverance and talent. He has discovered some curious facts relating to 

 the marine body hitherto called after LinnsEUs the Conferva comoides. While ob- 

 serving the mucous filaments of this supposed water-plant, he saw some small yellowish 

 bodies like mere points issue from the filaments. They gradually became oval, and 

 disengaging themselves from these mucous filaments, were finally deposited in immeuFe 

 quantities under the form of a chocolate brown paste, upon the salt water vase which 

 contained them. There they expanded and emitted a globule of small coloured grains, 

 which is evidently their fry. Each of these grains acquired motion and development ; 

 the small globular mass gradually extended and ramified itself, and ultimately produced 

 that elongated and plant-like form, which has deceived all Botanists into the belief 

 that it is a plant. 



Such is the theory of M. Gaillon, who here proposes to remove the Conferva 

 comoides from the vegetable to the confines of the animal kingdom, towards that 

 point which the illustrious Lamarck has represented by the apex of the letter V, 

 where the two branches approach indefinitely near at the base, without ever being 

 confounded. 



jM. Gaillon proposes to give this new group of animals the name of Girodella, and 

 to preserve its specific name comoides. He is also convinced, from his Microscopic 

 investi2;ations, that fresh water is still more abundant in productions of this nature 

 than salt. Thus, the bodies which Botanists call Corfervce, and included by them 

 in the vegetable kingdom, are, according to M. Gaillon, microscopic animalcules, to 

 which he assigns the name of Ntmazoaires. 



These new views have met with much opposition from several Naturalists of emi- 

 nence ; but the observations of MM. Desmazieres of Lille and Chauvin of Caen 

 have confirmed the remarks of M. Gaillon. The former of these able observers has 

 declared the pellicules, called Mgcodermes, which grow on beer, ink, paste, or sour 

 wine, to be composed, like the Nemazoaires, of an innumerable quantity of corpuscles, 

 endowed at a certain period with the power of locomotion. M. Chauvin also con- 

 firms them by his remarks on the Conferva zonata. He observes that the green 

 matter, which fills the interior of its filaments, is at first collected in spheroidal masses, 

 and then forms corpuscles, which grow, burst their tube, escape from the envelop, 

 and disperse themselves over the field of the microscope, where they move about with 

 a swiftness of motion, of which none but an observer can form an adequate idea. 



M. Gaillon publishes several elaborate tables of the families and genera of the 

 Nemazoaires. He also announces that he will receive, with pleasure, fresh samples 

 of any not included in that table, a? well as observations either for or against the 

 animal nature of these bodies ; and requests all who make their communications to 

 add microscopic drawings, in order to render their arguments more clear. The last 

 is a gentle hint to non -microscopic Naturalists, which they will readily understand. 



WORKS ON NATURAL HISTORY, AND THE PHYSICAL 



SCIENCES. 



Flora Boreali- Americana, or the Botany of the Northern Parts of British North 

 America, by Dr AV. J. Hooker, part 7, price 21s. — Botany of Captain Beechey's 

 Voyage, by Dr W. J. Hooker and G. A. W. Arnott, Esq., part 4, 15s. — Icones 

 Filicum; Pio-ures, and Descriptions of Ferns. Faisciciili 1 to 12, by Drs W.J. Hooker 



and R. K. Greville, L.l, 5s. each plain, or L.2, 2g. each colotired Transactions 



of the Geological Society of London, vol. 3, part 2, L.I, os. — Sections and Views 



illustrative of Geological Phenomena, by H. T. De la Beche, Esq., L.2, 2s Virey 



Philosophic d'Histoire Naturelle, 1 tome. — M. Romer Handbuch der Allgem. Bo- 

 tanik, Iste Abethl, Istes Heft, 8vo, 3s. 6d. — A. Breithaupt, Handbuch der 

 ' Mineralogie, Ister, bJ. 8vo, 12s. — Dr H. F. Link, Propylaen der Naturkunde, 

 Ister Thl. 8vo, Ss. — D. L. F. Froriep, Notizen aus dem Gebiete der Natur-und 

 Heilkunde, 47ster, bd, 4to, 10s. — Paolo Savi, Studii Geoligici Sulla Toscana, 8vo. 



Dr W. Petermann, Handbuch der Gewachshunde zum Gebrauche bei Vorlesungen, 



8vo, 18s. A. Buchmiiller, Handbuch der Chemie fiir angehende Thierarzte und 



Oekonomen, 8vo, 7s. — J. A. Buchner, Lehrbuch der analytischen Chemie und 

 Stochiometrie, Mit 1 Kupf, 14s. — C. C. Persor, Elemens de Physique, al'usage des 

 eleves de Philosophle, Ire partie, 8vo, 4s. — Illustrations of Indian Zoology, by 

 .lohn Edward Gray, parts 19 and 20, L.l, Is. each. — Plantae Asiatics Rariores, or 

 Descriptions and Figures of Unpublished East India Plants,' by D. N. Wallich, L.36. 



Edinburgh: Published for the Proprietoks, at their Office, 16, Hanover Street. 

 Lokdon: Smith, Elder, and Co., 65, Cornhill. Glasgow and the West of 

 Scotland: JoiiN Smith and Son, 70, St Vincent Street; and Joay MacLeod, 

 20, x^rgyle Street. Dublin; W, F.Wakeman, 9, D'Olier Street. 



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