240 Notes and Memoranda. 



The Epiornis : the Great Bird op Madagascar. — M. Alf. Grandidier 

 writes to the French Academy that his investigations in Madagascar tend to show 

 that the Epiornis is really extinct, and, not as M. Isidor Geoftroy St. Hilaire 

 hoped, still living in unknown pai-ts of the island. Though perfect fossil eggs are 

 rare, fragments are common. The oldest of the Antandrouis never heard of the 

 bird, and they have no traditions of its existence ; nevertheless, M. Grandidier 

 <loes not think it has been extinct for any long period, as its remains are found in 

 the most modern formations, whose development is still going on. " It existed," 

 he says, " perhaps, at the commencement of our era, and as the country became 

 peopled, it may have been quickly exterminated, like the Moa of New Zealand." 

 M. M. Joly, describing an Epiornis's egg holding more than eight litres, belonging 

 to M. Nau, states that that gentleman, who was for thirteen years a prisoner 

 amongst the Hovas, and who traversed the island in all directions, considers the 

 bird as totally destroyed, and the eggs are very rare. The Malgaches, he says, 

 pretend that the female died after laying a single egg, and they consider the 

 discovery of any remains of the bird to bode misfortune to the finder and to his 

 family. 



Action of Green Light on Plants. — M. L. Cailletet details experiments on 

 the influence of different coloured rays, and the decomposition of carbonic acid 

 by plants. He observes that green light afforded unexpected results, whether this 

 colour was obtained from a glass, vegetable leaves, or solutions. Under its 

 influence carbonic acid is never decomposed ; a fresh quantity of gas seems, on 

 the contrary, to be produced by the leaves. When a glass containing pure air and 

 a leaf was placed in full sunlight, under a green glass shade, after a few hours 

 a quantity of carbonic acid was obtained, scarcely inferior to that which the leaf 

 would have evolved in the dark. This experiment, he thinks, may explain the 

 sickly condition of vegetation under large trees. 



The Absorption op Obscure Heat. — M. Desains states (Comptes Eendus) 

 that chloride of carbon is more easily traversed by obscure heat than sulphide of 

 carbon, chloroform somewhat less, while benzine and glycerine, with a thickness 

 of Om. 01, almost entirely stops the heat radiated from a blackened sheet of 

 copper, heated to 400° (C.) 



Bichromate oe Potash and Albumen. Polariscope Object. — Mr. Thos. 

 D. Smeaton sends us the following note from Kobe, S. Australia. The action of 

 albumen in modifying crystallization and making polariscopes is well known, but 

 the particular plan adopted by Mr. Smeaton will interest our microscopic 

 readers: — "In trying some photographic experiments I had occasion to coat a 

 glass plate with the solution tised in the carbon process (bichromate of potash, 

 gelatine, and white of egg) ; this was left to dry slowly, when it presented a 

 beautiful crystalline appearance. From the edges of the plate, fine arborescent 

 shoot3 spread towards the centre, ending in larger twigs, enclosing ovoid loops. 

 These were sometimes filled in with a clear yellow, sometimes with a dark orange, 

 and occasionally with a feather of crystals so delicate as to challenge microscopic 

 examination. The evenness of the ramifications, the wonderful manner in which 

 they avoid crossing each other, and the varied colouring, tend to make the experi- 

 ment well worthy of repetition. The solution (being solid at ordinary temperatures) 

 must be floated on warm ; and as it is already on glass, all that is needed for the 

 preservation of the specimen is to place it face downwards on a piece of paper 

 rather larger than the glass, to turn the edge9 over, aud to gum them down. 



Poisonous Fisnras. — The Annals Nat. Hist, has a translation of a paper on 

 this subject by M. Dunu'ril, containing some curious particulars. llisso ascribes 

 the unwholesomeness of the Courpata found at Nice to its feeding on a highly 

 irritating species of the jelly-fish, Sleplienomia. Many species of fish are poisonous 

 at certain seasons, the Conger is said to occasion dysentery if eaten at the time of 

 depositing its eggs, and the eggs of pike and barbel are eilicient purgatives. The 

 "yellow-bill sprat" of the Antilles, in some instances, has caused death, with 

 frightf'ul]convulsions, in the space of half an hour ; another Mehlla (venenosa), is 

 almost equally formidable. A. Tetraodon found at the Cape is very dangerous, 

 and others of the same family aro poisonous ; andun Anchovy found in the Indian 

 seas {Eujrantis balama) will prove fatal when eaten, if the precaution has not 

 been taken of removing the head and intestines before cooking. 



