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THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY 



to go to Iceland in the summer of 1837, to procure a collection of the 

 birds of that island. Three months were passed in the most northern 

 part of the island. Skins of fifty-two species of birds were brought home, 

 besides skins of the Rein-deer, three species of Seals, two large fishes 

 (Anarrhicus), and a Porpoise. Frederick Faber, in his Ornithology of 

 Iceland, published at Copenhagen in 1822, enumerates 84 species of birds, 

 of which about twenty are land birds, and 60 water birds. Faber adopted 

 the nomenclature of Linnaeus, but an examination of the skins brought 

 home has led to the belief that several of Faber's birds are not identical 

 with the Linnsean species. The Iceland Falcon is considered as distinct 

 from the whiter Falcon of Greenland. The Iceland Grouse is considered 

 as peculiar to that island. The Bridled Guillemot, Uria lacrymans, Lapyl., 

 is for various reasons believed to be a species distinct from the Common 

 Guillemot. U. trtiile, Lath., Clangida Barrovii, was found breeding on 

 the ground, in a nest formed of its own down, and placed among aquatic 

 plants a little above high water mark. Some rare eggs were also obtained, 

 namely, those of the Iceland Falcon, Little Auk, Bridled Guillemot, and 

 Sclavonian Grebe {Proceedings of the Linncean Society.') 



EELS VIVIPAROUS. 



M. de Joanxis, Lieutenant of the Navy, has lately presented a memoir 

 to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and which has been reported 

 upon by Messrs Dumeril, de Blainville, and Milne Edwards. M. de 

 Joannis' object is to establish that Eels are viviparous, and not oviparous, 

 or ovoviviparous. We have only room for the following passage: — " A 

 peasant came to me one day," says the author, " for the purpose of in- 

 forming me, that the evening before he had observed something which 

 had greatly surprised him, and the like of which he had never before seen. 

 He informed me that the day before, being the 20th of March, he caught, 

 while fishing, a large Eel, immediately went home, put his Eel into 

 a large hollow dish, covered it with a plate, and returned to his 

 work. He went home again in the evening, and great was his aston- 

 ishment, when, in lifting up the upper plate to take out the Eel, he found 

 it surrounded with perhaps 200 small ones, which were from an inch and 

 a half to two inches long, with the thickness of a thread, and nearly 

 white." This fact appeared to M. de Joannis so interesting and decisive 

 that he very carefully interrogated the man ; supplying a summary of the 

 information he received. When the man first noticed the fact, the Eel 

 was still in the act of depositing her young, for he saw them actually issu- 

 ing from their mother ; a small quantity of glary matter was at the bottom 

 of the dish, but very little. The young ones which had most recently 

 appeared, moved in a serpentine form, and endeavoured to mount up the 

 sides of the dish; some of them were glued to it by the hinder part of 

 their bodies, and could only raise the head with a convulsive effort ; others 

 were dead, whilst others were tolerably active, especially at the bottom 

 of the vessel. Their eyes were very distinctly perceived, as two large black 

 points. In general, it was remarked that those which glided along the 

 sides of the dish were impeded in their movements by a coloured matter 

 enveloping their bodies, and which made them more or less adhere. After 

 the man had satisfied his astonishment, he ate his Eel, and threw the little 

 ones away, not being deeply versed in the Natural History controversy. 



"These are the facts, of which," adds Lieutenant Joannis, " I am as 

 thoroughly convinced as if I had myself seen them. I know the man, and 

 he is truly moral, his character is steady and serious, and his very igno- 

 rance in such matters supplies most ample proof for the establishment of 

 the veracity of his recital. Accordingly, I do not fear to advance it as a 

 fact which I regard as demonstrated, that Eels are viviparous. I will not 

 say that they are oviviparous, since, so far as I know, the eggs have not 

 hitherto been noticed." — (Comptes Rendus, Fevrier, 1839.) 



BOTANY. 



UPON THE RESPIRATION OF PLANTS. 



Those two distinguished French Naturalists, Messrs Edwards and 

 Colin, have commenced reading to L' Academie des Sciences a series of 

 papers developing their views upon the interesting subject of the Respira- 

 tion of Plants, which go far to overturn the received doctrines upon this 

 interesting function of vegetable physiology. These gentlemen having 

 been long dissatisfied with the popular theory, undertook an extensive set 

 of experiments which throw quite a new light upon the subject. With 

 the prevailing theory, we presume that many of our readers are so fami- 

 liar, that any lengthened exposition is unnecessary; and we shall, there- 

 fore, merely remark, that it maintains that the process consists solely, and 

 directly, in the mutual action between the plant and the atmosphere ; that 

 so far as the leaves are concerned, carbonic acid is disengaged during the 

 night, and absorbed during the day, oxygen appearing under the direct 

 rays of the sun, whilst, as it regards the seeds in germination, there is a 

 mere combination of the oxygen of the air with the carbon of the seed, 

 forming carbonic acid gas ; the influence of water in this process being 

 either nothing, or wholly secondary ; it is, in short, that the absorbed 



carbonic acid is decomposed by the plant, which appropriates the carbon, 

 oxygen being disengaged. 



The experiments of these Naturalists were carried on, not in the air, but 

 in water. They selected some very large round-shaped bottles with a 

 narrow neck ; to this neck a bent tube was attached, the other end of 

 which was introduced into a receiver; and the whole apparatus was com- 

 pletely filled with fresh water. Into the bottle were introduced forty 

 garden beans, in a perfectly healthy state, well washed and shaken in 

 water to free them from air ; so that the seeds were in contact only with 

 water, and with the air which it contained. 



For a time nothing could be remarked. Ere long, very minute bubbles 

 of air were observed on the surface of the beans ; these insensibly became 

 larger, and in the space of twenty-four hours they were very conspicuous ; 

 and finally, many of the beans floated on the water, upborne by the air, 

 falling to the bottom only when the bubbles burst. No doubt is enter- 

 tained that the gas issued from the beans, as it was actually witnessed is- 

 suing from the internal substance of some which had been cut. 



The quantity of water which, during this process, was absorbed, was 

 very great. After being four or five days in the water, the weight of the 

 beans was more than doubled ; and on being taken out, they manifested 

 they were in a healthy state, by germinating in the ground, and more 

 conspicuously when kept in moistened paper, between two plates. 



The quantity of gas which accumulated in the receiver was very small, 

 amounting only to a few cubic inches. Not so, however, with that dissolved 

 in the water, and subsequently disengaged by boiling. The water, when put 

 into the bottles, was found to contain about five cubic inches of air ; and after 

 the experiment had lasted for five days, it contained more than thirty-three, 

 leaving twenty-eight cubic inches produced solely by the action of the water 

 and the beans. This gas consisted of more than nine-tenths of carbonic 

 acid gas, a very minute quantity of nitrogen, and a mere trace of oxygen. 

 In the production of this enormous quantity of carbonic acid gas, the air 

 naturally in the water must go for nothing, and it must have been derived 

 from one of the elements of the water. The water, therefore, is decom- 

 posed ; its oxygen unites with the carbon of the seed, and forms the carbonic 

 acid, which disengages itself, in whole or in part ; and the hydrogen, the 

 other element of the water, not being evolved, must be absorbed by the 

 seed, in whole or in part. The important fact, then, brought out by these 

 experiments, is the decomposition of water, a fact which does not enter 

 into the popular theory of the subject at the present time. Messrs E. 

 and C. have obtained corresponding results by experimenting upon the 

 bulbs, stems, leaves, and flowers of plants, as from the seeds. And hence 

 it follows that respiration is not, as has hitherto been considered, a func- 

 tion of secretion merely, but it, moreover, exhibits a fundamental fact 

 concerning the nutrition and development of the embryo seed by the ab- 

 sorption of hydrogen. To this highly interesting subject we may probably 

 again revert — (See Ann. des Scien. Nat. December 1838.) 



MISCELLANIES. 



A Prolific Ewe — In the park at Cardross, this season, 1839, a Ewe, 

 belonging to Mr Erskine, dropped five lambs ; the same Ewe last year 

 had three lamhs, and the year before three ; making the extraordinary 

 number of eleven produced in the course of three years Newspaper Pa- 

 ragraph. 



Lace made by Caterpillars A most extraordinary species of 



manufacture has been contrived by an officer of engineers, residing at 

 Munich. It consists of lace veils, with open patterns in them, made en- 

 tirely by Caterpillars. The following is the mode of proceeding adopted : 

 Having made a paste of the leaves of the plant, on which the species of 

 the Caterpillar he employs feeds, he spreads it thinly over a stone or 

 other flat substance, of the required size. He then with a camel-hair 

 pencil, dipped in olive oil, draws the pattern he wishes the insects to leave 

 open. This stone is placed in an inclined position, and a considerable 

 number of the Caterpillars are placed at the bottom. A peculiar species 

 is chosen, which spins a strong web ; and the animals commence at the 

 bottom, eating and spinning their way up to the top, carefully avoiding 

 every part touched by the oil, but devouring every other part of the paste. 

 The extreme lightness of these veils, combined with their strength, is 

 truly surprising. One of them, measuring 26 J inches by 1 7, weighed only 

 a grain and a half, a degree of lightness which will appear more strongly 

 by contrast with other fabrics. One square yard of the substance of 

 which these veils are made weighs 4J grains, whilst one square yard of 

 silk gauze weighs 137 grains, and one square yard of the finest net 



weighs 262J grains No mention is made of the particular species of 



Caterpillar employed in the manufacture (From " The Naturalist") 



Edinburgh : Published for the Proprietor, at the Office, No. 13, Hill Street. 

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

 Scotland : John Smith and Son ; and John Macleod. Dublin : George 

 Young. Paris : J. B. Bailliere, Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine, No. 13 bis. , 



THE EDINBURGH PRINTING COMFANT. 



