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THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



from their position, they must have occasioned the animal's death, by entering the 

 head, or piessin^; so firmly upon it, at either side, as to wound the flesh and pene- 

 trate in. It thus appears clear, that a beautiful provision of Nature is exhibited in 

 the formation of these teeth; their continual increase enables them to preserve a fine, 

 even, cuttintr edge, always set to a particular angle with each other, so long as they 

 remain truly in opposition ; the motion of gnawing or cutting their food having also 

 the effect of'keeping the teeth sharp, by means of their constantly slipping over eacn 

 other. If, however, by any accident, or malformation of parts, these teeth cease to 

 act against each other, their growth still going on, they form a curved line, extend- 

 ing to an indefinite length during the animal's life, and occasioning, no doubt, in 

 many instances, premature disease and death. So perfect is Nature in all her me- 

 chanism, that the slightest deviation from it, by accident or other causes, produces 

 fatal efrects. — The Naturalist. 



BOTANY. 



T^OTES E.ESPECTING THE Value OF SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. — M. "Wiegmann, in a 

 letter addressed to the Editor of the Flora (1835, p. 106), communicates some ob- 

 servations made by him on this subject. The results obtained by him give little 

 countenance to those authors who raise the slightest deviation of form to the rank 

 of a species. Certain genera, of which numerous species are cultivated in the gardens, 

 such as Veronica^ Verhascum, Dalphinunn, and Thalictrujn, are rich in species of 

 which the native country is unknown. The origin of multitudes of nominal species 

 in our catalogues may easily be accounted for by the changes caused by cultivation, 

 and the numerous hybrid forms whose production is favoured by the proximity in 

 which species of the same genus are placed in Botanic gardens. In 1833, the author 

 saw a plant of the onion, AUhtm Cepa, bear a bulb in place of seeds. In the follow- 

 infT spring, he put this bulb in the ground, and was astonished to find, that from it 

 sprung up the Allium proliferum of Schrader, with a nearly naked, flexuous, and 

 feeble stem, supporting a proliferous umbel, having sterile flowers on long pedicles. 

 He refers to the numerous forms of Iris produced by SI. Berg, and to the multipli- 

 city of the Calceolaria and other ornamental plants. Taraxacum palustre he has 

 found, under cultivation, to assume the appearance of the common species ; and seeds 

 of Myosotis sylvatica of Ehrart, on being sown in the same spot, furnished five dif- 

 ferent forms, which authors consider as so many distinct species. Seeds of Veronica 

 agrestis gave rise to six different forms. He is of opinion, that the numerous spe- 

 cies into which the genus Ruhus has been divided by Weisse, have been produced in 

 the same manner. 



Plants of the North of China. — M. A. Bunge, who resided in China, during 

 1831, with the Russian missionaries, brought with him on his return a valuable bota- 

 nical collection, the principal species of which he briefly desciibed in a small work, at the 

 same time communicating specimens to the Botanists, and especially to the herbarium 

 of the Paris JMuseura. But as among these plants there w^ere several very interesting 

 species, he has thought proper to give more detailed descriptions, and to illustrate 

 some of them by figures. As this work, which was printed at Casan, is not easily 

 procurable, the Editors of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles have given an abstract 

 of it in their number for July 1836. 



GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 



MiCROscoric Fossil Animals in Tru'Oli Slate. — M. Ehrenberg has dis- 

 covered that the friable siliceous slate, commonly called Tripoli, or polishing slate, is en- 

 tirely composed of remains of Infusory animalcules of the family of BacilariEe. These re- 

 mains retain their form so that they can be very distinctly seen with the microscope, 

 and compared with living species. Bog iron-ore is also almost entirely composed of 

 the species named GalUonella ferruginea. If a piece of one of these substances be 

 rubbed a little on a glass plate, and the powder thus obtained mixed with water, thou- 

 sands of animalcules may be seen with a good microscope. 



OxiDULOUS Copper. — Mr G. B. Sowerby, in Loudon's Magazine for March 

 1837, gives an account of the occurrence of detached cubes of this mineral in Corn- 

 ■wall. — " They vary in dimensions from a quarter to nearly three quarters of an 

 inch : they are of a very dark colour ; many of them are nearly complete at all 

 their angles, more particularly the smaller ones. Occasionally two or three are 

 grouped together ; some of them ai'e accompanied by a small quantity of green car- 

 bonate of copper. Very few are slightly modified, having some of the planes which 

 tend to the rhombic dodecahedron ; and one very large crystal, being exactly half 

 an inch long, which is adhering to a like quality, has the planes of the octohedron as 

 its solid angles." 



METEOROLOGY. 



Luminous Meteor. — Mr Couch, in a paper on Shooting Stars, published in 

 Loudon's Magazine, mentions the following singular phenomenon, which he states 

 to be incapable of explanation on any principle '* of our philosophy," — " On July I, 

 1S32, riding homeward in the evening, whilst the lightning was vivid, and thunder 

 loud and frequent, a ball of light, of about the size of a large orange, met my view 

 on the right, towards the north-west, distant about twenty yards. As if projected 

 from a cannon, it passed straight and rapidly across the lane, close before me, and 

 was instantly lost sight of on the other side. The whole was the work of an instant ; 

 the ball, of a steel blue, passing but at the elevation of my head, unattended by 

 any noise or explosion, and evidently unconnected with the lightning that glared 

 around." 



Storm of the 29th Novesiber 1836 Mr W. H. White, in his Meteorolo- 

 gical Retrospect for 1836, in Loudon's Magazine, gives the following account of this 

 memorable hurricane: — ** The violent gusts of wind, chiefly from the N.W.. did 

 much damage, leaving many a sad memento behind, both by land and sea. From 



the most authentic accounts of this gale which have reached me, it appears that it 

 commenced on the 23d, on the eastern shores of North America, off St Lawrence. 

 A ship from Poole fell in with it on the 26th, in lat. 47" N., long. 32° 20' "W., 

 and was thrown on her beam ends. It continued its progress across the Atlantic, 

 and reached the Land's End about 7| a.m.; Plymouth, 8^ a.m ; Exeter, 9h 

 A.M.; Weymouth, 10 a.m.; Poole, 10^ a.m.; Farnham, 12 noon; London, 

 H p.m.; Suffolk coast, 2^ t.m. ; and Hamburg, at 6 p.m. Thus the storm 

 travelled at the rate of about 50 miles per hour ; but the circular motion of the wind 

 had a velocity of from 120 to 150 miles per hour. The fury of the gale was most 

 felt on the coast of France and Belgium. At Ostend there was scarcely a house 

 which was not unroofed ; and so great was the demand for tiles, that they arose 

 from 16 to 30 florins per 1000. The motion of the mercury in the barometer, 

 during the most violent part of the hurricane, attracted great attention. On the 

 morning of the 29th, at 9, the mercury stood at 29.30 in. ; it soon afterwards be- 

 gan to sink very rapidly, exhibiting much a:jitation during the violent gusts of wind 

 for which this huriicane was particularly remarkable, till 12 at noon, when it stood 

 at 58.82 in. At 2 p.m., the barometer had risen to 29.35. soon afver %Yhich the 

 wind lulled into almost a calm, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Fidelity of the Dog, a Pattern to Man. — In the Rev. Dr Duncan's Sacred 

 Philosophy of the Seasons, recently published, is the following interesting anecdote 

 of Burns : " While yet a school-boy, I enjoyed an opportunity of hearing, in my 

 father's manse, a cc-nversation between the poet Burns and another poet, my near 

 relation, the amiable Blacklock. The subject was, the fidelity of the Dog. Burns 

 took up the question with all the ardour and kindly feeling with which the conversa- 

 tion of that extraordinary man was so remarkably embued. The anecdotes by which 

 it was illustrated have long escaped my memory ; but there was one sentinfent ex- 

 pressed by Burns, with his own characteristic enthusiasm, which, as it threw a new 

 light into my mind, I shall never forget. * Man,' said he, Ms the god of the Dog: 



he knows no other ; he can understand no other. And see how he worships him ! 



with what reverence he crouches at his feet — with what love he fawns upon him 



with what dependence he looks up to him — and with what cheerful alacrity he obeys 

 him. His whole soul is wrapt up in his god; all the powers and faculties of his 

 nature are devoted to his service ; and these powers and faculties are ennobled by the 

 intercourse. Divines tell us that it ought just to be so with the Chrisrian; but the 

 Dog puts the Christian to shame 1 ' The truth of these remarks, which forcibly struck" 

 me at the time, have since been verified by experience ; and often have events occurred, 

 which, ^vhile they reminded me that * jMan is the god of the Dog,' have forced from 

 me the humiliating confession, that * the Dog puts the Christian to shame !' " 



Uses of the Saliva, — M. Alp Donne has recently published a pamphlet on the 

 saliva, very little light on the nature of which, he remarks, has been thrown since the 

 time of Haller, physiologists being satisfied with attributing to it two uses: 1st, that 

 of moistening the mouth, favouring the motion of the tongue, and facilitating speech 

 and deglutition ; 2d, that of penetrating the food, altering its condition, and aiding 

 the solvent action of the gastric juice. M. Donne adds to these uses that of neutra- 

 lising, by means of the free alkah which it contains, the excess of acid of the o-astric 

 juice, in the intervals betwepn digestion. This fact serves to explain a difficulty re- 

 specting the gastric juice, w^hich, although examined by the best chemists, has been 

 found to vary much in its composition, being sometimes acid and sometimes alkahne. 

 These difi"erences M. Donne shows to be owing to the circumstances under which it 

 is obtained. Thus, when procured in the morning, it must be but slightly acid or even 

 alkaline, in consequence of being mixed with the saliva which has been swallowed 

 through the night; whereas, when obtained by exciting the stomach of Dogs, it 

 must contain a large proportion of acid, being then pure and unmixed. 



Mode of Preventing Beer from becoming Aczd — A patent has been taken 

 out in America, for preserving beer from acidity in hot weather, by IMr Storewell, 

 who gives the following statement: — To every 174 gallons of liquor add one pound 

 of raisins, which are put into it inclosed in a bag, previous to fermentation. The 

 liquor may then be let down at 65'', or as high as 70°. The bag must remain in the 

 vat until the process of fermentation has so far advanced as to produce a white ap- 

 pearance or scum all over the surface of the liquor, which will probably take place in 

 about twenty-four hours. It must then be taken out, and the liquor left until fer- 

 mentation ceases. The degree of heat in the place where the working vat is situated 

 should not exceed QQ^^ nor be less than 60^*. — Journ. of Fraiiklin I/istitut. 



Greatest Waterfall in Europe. — In the raineralogical report of Lapland 

 presented to the Swedish Government, amongst other curious facts, the discovery 

 of a great Waterfall in the River Lulea is particularly mentioned. It is said to be 

 one-eighth of a mile broad, and at its greatest height to fall four hundred feet. 

 It is probable, that the measurements in this document are according to the German 

 standard, a mile being equal to four and a half English miles. 



Gas from Resin. — It has been ascertained by experiments, that five cubic feet 

 of gas from resin gave as much light as nine of oil-gas. Respecting the products of 

 combustion, or the purity of the gases, the advantages in favour of gas from resin 

 are incontestable. 



Effects of Magnetism on Chronometers. — When Harrison's timekeeper was 

 under trial at Richmond, it did not go as was expected. No one suspected the 

 cause, till Geo. III., who interested himself much about the machine, suggested that 

 it was affected by a magnet which was lying near it. The magnet was removed, and 

 the timekeeper recovered its rate, 



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