Notes and Memoranda. 321 



from some similarity of properties, from identity of atomic weights and combining: 

 volumes, and from their being approximately of the same specific gravity. Such 

 facts as Mr. Kilgour adduces are well worth consideration ; but they do no more 

 than raise a presumption, to be confuted or confirmed by other considerations. 



Besuscitation of Snails. — Cosmos states that M. le Baron Aucapitaine has 

 recently informed the Societe de Climatologie Algerienne, that in 1858 he gathered 

 specimens of Helix lactea apparently dead, and lying on the route between 

 Touggourt and El Oued, exposed to a temperature of SO 3 to 55° C, or 122° to 131° 

 F. It was said that no rain had fallen in this district for five years. In 1862 

 the baron discovered some of the snails at the bottom of a box, in a paper bag 

 which had contained tobacco, and which was buried amongst books. He threw 

 the snails into water, intending to clean them anri present them to Commandant 

 Lache, and was much surprised at finding them alive the next morning. 



Aqueous Solution of Aniline Colours. — M. Gauthier de Claurry has a 

 paper in Comptes Rendus on the substitution of other substances for alcohol in 

 the solution of dyes obtained from aniline and its congeners. He finds that 

 gums, mucilages, soaps, especially almond, starches, including those from seaweed 

 and lichens, particularly fucus crispus, glycerine, gelatine, etc., impart to water 

 the property of dissolving these colours. The most advantageous substances are 

 decoctions of the root of an Egyptian soap wort {Q-ypsopliila strutium), or of a 

 bark known in commerce as Panama (Quillaia saponaria). 



Phosphorescence oe the Sea, — The Minister of Marine has transmitted 

 to the French Academy a report from the commander of the " Augustin," which 

 left Marseilles on the 7th March, 18S4, for Pondicherry, and returned to the 

 former place on Eeb. 14, 1865. He says that on 1st Jan., 1865, being from 

 13° 30' N. lat, and 30 D 50'* W. long., to 17° 20' K". lat., 33° 20' W. long., a dis- 

 tance of about 275 miles, the sea was so phosphorescent that at night he could 

 not distinguish the horizon. The light was bright blue, but in daytime the sea 

 looked yellowish. The water contained a great number of little white threads, 

 4 or 5 millimetres long (about 15 to 19 hundredths of an inch), which assumed 

 an ovoid form, after remaining for some hours in a glass, 3 millimetres long, and 

 half a millimetre thick, " in the midst of which a ring was formed, which dimi- 

 nished their thickness by half." Gradually these objects soldered themselves 

 together in groups of 12 to 15, " making a kind of worm" of a bright grey tint. 

 Some hours later a yellow spot and some bright orange spots were seen at the 

 ring, and the creatures then looked like some he had seen at various places, and 

 particularly at St. Helena, and which were known as frai de poisson, or frai de 

 baleine. 



Nature oe Yeast. — M. Hoffmann, of G-iessen, has sent a paper to the 

 French Academy on this subject. He says that wort, after a sufficiently prolonged 

 ebullition, neither ferments or gives rise to any organisms by mere contact with 

 air, provided no atmospheric dust is admitted. Beer yeast gives rise to the Peni- 

 cillium glaucum, or blue mould, while baker's yeast, from brandy distilleries, 

 either produces that plant alone, or the Mucor racemosus in conjunction with it. 

 By sowing the spores of these plants in sugar solution, he obtains a fresh crop of 



The Penguin at the Zoological Gardens. — This bird is a most inte- 

 resting addition to the collection of the Zoological Society. Its colours are much 

 handsomer than are shown in stuffed specimens, and its attitude and upright 

 mode of walking, or rather waddling, are remarkably grotesque. Although in its 

 natural condition it passes a great portion of its life in the water, it manifests no 

 disposition to swim in the little pond provided for it, but much enjoys a shower- 

 bath, frequently administered with a garden syringe, terminating in a fine rose. It 

 is very tame and good-natured. The wings are reduced to mere flappers, covered 

 with extremely short, close-set feathers, and the pupil of the eye is often seen 

 contracted to a minute spot. It feeds freely upon fish, taking several meals a-day, 

 judiciously regulated as to quantity. 



Experimental Prooe of the Identity of Heat and Light. — "Whatever 

 conviction may have been entertained hitherto as to heat and light being merely 



* According to French reckoning, our fir^t meridian at Greenwich is -j- Oh. £m. 21s. 



