Notes and Memoranda. 79 



found very handy. Mr. Proctor has devoted great labour to their 

 production, and he deserves the sincere thanks of all who wish to 

 see the elementary facts of stellar astronomy simplified. They will 

 be of important value to amateur telescopists. 



A Handy Book to the Collection and Preparation op Fresh 

 Water and Marine Algj:, Diatoms, Desmids, Fungi, Lichens, and 

 Mosses, and other op the Lower Crtptogamia, with Instructions 

 for the Formation op an Herbarium. By Johann Nave. Trans- 

 lated and Edited by the Rev. W. W. Spicer, M.A., E.R.M.S. 

 (Hardwicke.) — This is really what it calls itself, a " Handy Book," 

 with twenty-six plates, and elaborate directions for collecting and 

 preserving the objects to which it alludes. It will be found of 

 much use to beginners. The information is conveyed in a very 

 clear and simple manner. 



A Treatise on Punctuation, and on other Matters relating to 

 Correct "Writing and Printing. By an Old Printer. (Pitman.) 

 — Good punctuation is an immense aid to the intelligibility of a 

 book, and many works of merit are quite puzzling to read for the 

 first time, because their punctuation has not been made upon a good 

 system. The little book before us is well conceived and judiciously 

 executed. We recommend it to all who desire to learn a simple but 

 necessary art. 



NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



Heptune's Gbotto. — Under this title some ingenious person has brought out 

 a pretty chemical toy, which we saw in operation at Messrs. Home and Thorn- 

 thwaite's. A white solid is put into a clear solution, and thereupon beautiful 

 arborescent and other forms are seen to grow in the course of a few minutes. If the 

 experiment is performed on a small scale in a little zoophyte trough, under the 

 microscope, and viewed by reflected light, with a 1^-inch objective, the effect is 

 singularly beautiful. A chemist will easily recognize the materials employed. 

 They give rise to a double decomposition, and the precipitation in crystalline form 

 of an insoluble salt of lead. 



Voicawic Action in the Azoees. — M. St. Claire Deville read to the French 

 Academy a letter, dated Angra, June 7, 1867, published in the journal " A Per- 

 suaso," at St. Michel, in the Azores, stating that, from May 26, they had 

 experienced strong earthquakes, and that in the night of June 1-2, a volcanic vent 

 was formed nine miles north-west of Serreta, which continued active, and occupied 

 a zone of more than 2\ miles in a westerly direction. The writer states, " It was in 

 the sea, lat. 38° 52', and long, west of Greenwich 27° 52', in a line from Tercera 

 to Gracioza. It constantly emits great stones and enormous masses of lava, the 

 accumulation of which may produce a new islet, likely to be dangerous. Jets of 

 vapour and boiling water appear in different positions, and for a considerable 

 distance a strong odour of sulphur is noticeable. From time to time noises are 

 heard like repeated discharges of artillery. The Intendant of the Marine, various 

 civil and military engineers, and others, have gone off to survey these phenomena, 

 but the danger has kept them at a considerable distance. 



Medicines theotjgh the Nose. — M. Eaimbert recounts to the French 

 Academy various experiments in administering medicines in the form of a snuff, 

 to act by absorption through the membrane of the nose. Sugar powdered with 

 hydrochlorate of morphia, and taken in this way, he found useful in violent 



