480 Notes and Memoranda. 



Preserving- Star-eishes, Crustacea, etc. — Mr. Verrill, writing in Silli- 

 nian's Journal, recommends that these objects should be immersed in alcohol of 

 moderate strength for about a minute, and then dried rapidly by artificial heat, 

 taking care not to let the temperature come too near the boiling-point, at which 

 green shades change to red. 



Age at which New Moon is seen. — Mr. D. A. Freeman writes to us 

 fromMenton (Alpes Maritimes), stating, in reply to the query of a correspondent, 

 which we published in a former number, that on the 28th of January he ob- 

 served the moon shortly after sunset, when it was but thirty-two hours old, and 

 he was informed by the bailiff of the property on which he is residing, that about 

 twelve years ago he saw the thin crescent of the old moon above the horizon 

 before sunrise, and on the same evening, at the same height above the sea- 

 level— from 100 to 150 feet — he saw the thin crescent of the new moon after 

 sunset. 



Goddard's Microscope Cabinets. — Mr. Goddard has devised, and Messrs. 

 Ford and Sharratt have made, a new pattern cabinet for microscopic objects, one 

 of which has been sent to us for examination. The outside of this cabinet is of 

 mahogany, and the trays which, according to size, hold twenty-four or forty- 

 eight slides lying flat, are of millboard, strengthened by mahogany edges. This 

 construction'enables the cabinets to be offered considerably below the price of the 

 best mahogany patterns, and the Goddard cabinets come into competition with 

 those of varnished white deal, which were, we believe, first introduced by Messrs. 

 Crouch, and which were noticed in a former number. In point of workmanship, 

 those of Messrs. Crouch appear to us the best, but the outer case being of maho- 

 gany in Mr. Goddard's pattern, is an advantage in point of strength. 



Steinheil on Dividing Bright Double Stars. — In the Astronomische 

 Nachrichten, No. 1525, is a letter from Steinheil, in which he remarks that " it is 

 a known consequence of the diffraction of light that fixed' stars appear as light 

 discs of measurable diameters. These diameters stand in relation to the intensity 

 of the light, and the proportion that exists between the aperture of an object- 

 glass and its focal length," so that a telescope of eight inches aperture and twelve 

 feet focal length, with which Dr. Engelmann could not divide y 2 Andromedse, 

 "would necessarily give to the component stars larger diameters than one of the 

 same aperture, and shorter focal length." Dr. Steinheil gives a diagram to show 

 the ratio in which the apparent discs of stars — as seen through telescopes — in- 

 crease in proportion to their brightness, and he states that by reducing the 

 brightness, with the aid of a light moderator he has introduced, the discs may be 

 diminished, and difficult stars divided. This light moderating glass is held in the 

 hand between the eye and the eye-piece. As an illustration of the fact that 

 dividing power increases with the ratio of aperture to focal length, Mr. Webb 

 mentions that he has this spring seen the close pair of f Cancri distinctly sepa- 

 rated with a black interval, with one of Mr. With's 8-inch silvered glass specula 

 ■of 6 feet focus (power about 300), which Dr. Engelmann's achromatic of S 

 (French) inches aperture and 12 feet focus would only elongate, and that not 

 very distinctly, in April, 1864. Dembowski gave its distance about that time 

 = 0" - 5, but this was probably too small, as it has been recently measured by Mr. 

 Dawes = 0"'63, and seems to have been closing up for several years. In the 

 Astronomical Register for June, Mr. Dawes affirms that nothing can be easier than 

 to prove that the diameter of star discs does not depend on the ratio of aperture 

 to focal length. As Dr. Steinheil is a mathematician as well as a famous maker of 

 telescopes, Mr. Dawes should furnish the disproof he mentions. 



Respiration oe Plants. — It has been found by recent experiments that 

 carbonic acid is not decomposed by plants, even in the light, unless it is diluted 

 with atmospheric air, oxygen, hydrogen, or nitrogen. Analogous conditions are 

 required in other cases ; thus phosphorus is not oxidized nor rendered luminous 

 by oxygen, unless atmospheric air, nitrogen, or hydrogen also is present ; 

 neither will oxygen support respiration, but, on the contrary, will cause asphyxia, 

 unless it is diluted. 



Great Hail Storm, Mat 7, 1865. — In Comptes Bendus, No. 20, will be 



