102 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[May 1, 1865. 



vealed to ns from their tombs in a stratum of 

 peculiar earth, extending through considerable 

 tracks in the island of Barbados. Sir Robert 

 Schomburgh,in his "History of Barbados," describes 

 this track of deposit as having been thrown up from 

 some old sea-bottom by volcanic action, through 

 rents in the coral-reefs of which the island is 

 formed. 



Dr. Davy, writing on 14th March, 1865, says, 

 speaking of these Polycystinic forms : — " I find, on 

 referring to my note-books, that I first detected 

 them on the 12th of January, 1846, in the chalk 

 beneath the coral-rocJc, of which that remarkably- 

 formed peak, the Peak of Teneriffe, consists." This 

 was before Sir R. Schomburgh came to Barbados. 

 During Ms visit I informed him of this fact, and of 

 other localities in which this same chalk-like matter 

 occurred, and showed him with my microscope the 

 skeletons of the infusoria in qu.estion; that they 

 were not known before, is not surprising, as there 

 was no microscope in the island, except the one I 

 had, capable of showing them. Sir R. S. states in 

 his work (p. 560), how he had sent specimens of this 

 mud and marl to Professor Ehrenberg for examina- 

 tion, and adds in a note that I had previously dis- 

 covered them, and had made mention of them in a 

 discourse I delivered to the Agricultural Society of 

 Barbados, in July, 1846. 



Among the specimens from this seemingly inex- 

 haustible mine of Barbadian fossils (the same which 

 has yielded also the subjects for many of Dr. Gre- 

 viUe's most exquisite figures of diatoms) are found 

 some symmetrical forms of Polycystins, the most 

 perfect of which have doubtless been selected by 

 Professor Ehrenberg, for his most beautiful and 

 elaborate delineations given, among other objects, 

 on a few of the plates of that rare and costly 

 work, the "Mikrogeologie," and the drawings 

 for which have been copied into Sir R. Schom- 

 burgh's book and other works. But though some 

 of the Polycystins are nearly symmetrical in 

 figure, they are by no means universally so ; in fact, 

 the greater number assert their near relationship 

 with amehce and sponges by displaying the most 

 grotesque polymorphisms. Eor instance, you find a 

 iniopalocanimn of Ehrenberg, with the flowing out- 

 line of some elegant Etruscan vase with a tapering 

 base ; the next specimen you see may have ugly 

 nose-shaped handles, adhering to its sides in a 

 clumsy way ; in another example, the noselike pro- 

 tuberances enlarge, thicken, become wrinkled, and, 

 however droll-looking, militate sadly against one's 

 ideas of elegance. Yet look again and again, and in 

 some favourably well-grown individual, lo ! there 

 are the clumsy excrescences, lengthened out, curved, 

 refined, and developed into supports worthy of the 

 famed Delphic tripod of the Pythian priestess ; the 

 geuLly-swelling ends of the feet meanv/hile indi- 



cating appearances as of little reservoirs or deposits 

 of material accumulating for future use, either as 

 buds or for some further development. 



Again, in some of the pyramid or obelisk shapes, 

 the fenestras, small at the apex, widen more and 

 more towards the base, and a fine inner lattiee-woik 

 is seen to line these too wide open windows. But 

 the variations in form assumed by these cunning 

 artificers are far too numerous to mention; and 

 although they do not work by mathematical rules 

 and compasses, as has been sometimes represented, 

 they have within themselves a mysterious unerring 

 rule, which guides every thread, every particle of 

 internal sarcode, or external silex, into the position, 

 shape, and size, best suited to the situation, sur- 

 rounding circumstances, and requirements of each 

 individual organism. We call these loio forms of 

 existence ; yet they are influenced by the same 

 unceasing All-pervading Power, that " teaches the 

 rose to draw her crimson from the dark brown earth, 

 and the lily her shining white," and has breathed 

 into man the spuit and capacity for investigating 

 even a sm.all portion of these marvels, with feelings 

 of wonder, love, and praise ! 



RIVER-WATER IN BRAZIL. 



"TXTHILST in the Brazils about four years since, 

 ^ ^ I was rather astonished on awakening after 

 my first night's sleep in the little town of Malta de 

 Sao Joao, about 60 miles inland from the town of 

 Bahia, to find my hands swollen to such an extent as 

 to appear very much as though ensconced in boxing- 

 gloves, entirely preventing my closing them, at 

 which state of things I was naturally greatly 

 alarmed, imagining some serpent had stung me in 

 the night. I therefore summoned our two native 

 servants to see if they could solve the mystery, 

 which they quickly did, by saying that the swelling 

 was due entirely to my drinking the water obtained 

 from the little river Jacuinverim, which ran close 

 by, to which I was not yet acclimatized ; they like- 

 wise said that most Europeans on drinking its water 

 for the first tune were affected in the same manner. 

 The water was perfectly pure, and as good as could 

 possibly be vvdshed for, very diflerent to what since 

 then I have been glad to drink from the swamps, 

 almost putrid, but which drunk with a little brandy 

 I have never found to cause any unpleasant effects 

 whatever; and although I continually drank from 

 rivers and swamps during the subsequent twelve 

 months, my hands have thereby never since been 

 disfigured, so as to warrant the inference which any 

 one unacquainted v/ith my antecedents v/ould have 

 formed tliat sms dotife I was a member of a pugilistic 

 society. A. I. 



