402 Notes and Memoranda. 



Use of Coffee in Cretinism.— Dr. Chabrond states that during the last 

 twenty years cretinism has been on the decrease in the arrondissement of Briin^on, 

 and, amongst other causes, he attributes the amelioration to the use of coffee. In 

 a Bohemian village, in which the people were very poor, lived chiefly on potatoes, 

 and exhibited a very low state of vitality, the medical men advised the use of 

 coffee, and it has been found highly beneficial. 



Secchi and Herschel on the "Willow Leaves" in the Sun. — The 

 Monthly Notices of the Astronomical Society contain a letter from Father Secchi 

 to the effect that he observes on the solar surface a multitude of bodies " like 

 oblong filaments, or rather like bits of cotton wool of an elongated form." He 

 thinks it very difficult to compare them with any terrestrial object, but considers 

 the term " leaves" not badly chosen, except that they do not possess the regu- 

 larity and uniformity of leaves. He observes likewise a great quantity of black 

 pores, which seem to show that the photosphere is not a continuous stratum. 

 He compares the sun's photosphere to what he once saw from Monte Cassino, 

 when the valley beneath was full of clouds, and the sun darted his rays on an 

 ocean of mi^t, except that the shadows are deeper in the sun than they were in 

 the terrestrial clouds seen from above. He concludes that the luminous stratum 

 of the sun is really made up of clouds, the only difference being, that while ter- 

 restrial clouds are composed of water-drops, or crystals, the sun-clouds are of 

 some other substance. When a spot dissolves, he notices forms of cumuli, cirri, 

 and strati, such as are seen in our skies. Sir J. Herschel, commenting on this 

 letter, expresses the opinion that the floating bodies are " permanently solid 

 matter, having that sort of fibrous or filamentous structure which fits them when 

 juxtaposed by drifting about and jostling against one another to collect in flocks, 

 as flue does in a room." Sir John does not assign any reason for regarding them 

 as permanent solids. The non-luminosity of the medium they float in he ascribes 

 to its being colourless and transparent. He adds, " colourless gases or trans- 

 parent liquids give off no light from their interior. To convince yourself of this, 

 take a dish or crucible, and melt a quantity of nitre, and bring it to a full red 

 heat. You will see the whole surface of the nitre uniformly bright by the red 

 heat of the crucible seen through it, whereas if the liquid emitted light from its 

 interior, the deeper portions should appear the brightest. 



New Hygroketer. — M. Babinet lately exhibited to the French Academy a 

 new hygrometer contrived by MM. Engard and Philipon. It is made of a spiral 

 ribbon of ivory, cut perpendicular to the axis of the tooth. It is stated to be a 

 very sensitive instrument, and to contract and dilate in a circular way. 



New Source of Theine. — Dr. Attfield, F.C.S., Director of the Labora- 

 tories of the Pharmaceutical Society, has a paper on this subject in the Pharma- 

 ceutical Journal. He finds theine to the extent of two per cent, in dried Kola- 

 nuts, which form a favourite article of food and medicine in West Central Africa. 

 Coffee, he states, contains from - 5 to 2 - per cent, of theine, and tea from - 5 to 3 - 5 

 per cent. Dr. Attfield remarks that the presence of theine shows an analogy 

 between the Kola-nut, and coffee, tea, Paraguay tea, and Guarana. " Infusions of 

 one or other of these beverages are used probably by three-fourths of the human 

 race, and each contains the same active principle — theine." 



Axolotls in Paris.— These curious reptiles, belonging to the Batrachian, or 

 frog division, and remarkable, amongst other things, for having persistent gills, 

 have been successfully treated in the Museum ale Histoire Naturelle in Paris, 

 which possesses five males and one female. The latter laid a quantity of eggs on 

 the 19th of January last, attaching them in parcels of twenty or thirty to solid 

 bodies in the tank. The eggs resembled those of other batrachians, and the first 

 hatching took place from twenty-eight to thirty days after the laying. The gills 

 were at first much simpler than in the adult. In a few days the mouth opened, 

 there being at first no aperture, and the little creatures eagerly devoured animal- 

 cules swimming in the water. 



