80 Notes and Memoranda. 



to them. M. Camille Schnaiter details in Cosmos some fresh experiments, in 

 which the gain of this process appeared to be about 15 per cent. Repeated trials 

 are, however, necessary in such a case. 



Remaeeable Thttne-eestoem in France. — M. Camille Flammarion states 

 in Cosmos that on the 8th of June at Huy (Meuse), a shepherd and his flock 

 were struck by lightning. Out of 152 sheep 142 were killed, and the sheepdog 

 could not be found. The lightning fell like a rain of fire oyer a space of more 

 than 15 metres. 



G-as Woeks and Respiratory Disorders. — We mentioned in a former 

 number that a French physician recommended whooping-cough patients to inhale 

 the exhalations of the purifiers in gas-works. A commission now reports to the 

 French Academy that the medicative action may be obtained by placing 60 or 70 

 grammes of the " brown ammonia," obtained from gas works, on a plate, and 

 allowing it to evaporate in the chamber of the patient. They report it as useful 

 in many respiratory disorders. 



New Patent Bubble Blower. — Three years ago, when the subject was 

 quite new, we gave an account of Plateau's films and bubbles (see vol. i., p. 309). 

 Messrs Myers, of Berners Street, have now imported a neat little apparatus, adapted 

 to blowing the large and comparatively permanent bubbles which were so much 

 admired for their magnificent colours when first exhibited in this country by 

 Dr. Frankland. A globular tin vessel is partly filled with the soap compound — 

 oleate of soda and glycerine — described in the notice above alluded to. By pressing 

 the thumb upon an India-rubber valve closing the mouth of this vessel a suffi- 

 cient quantity of the compound is thrown up into a little cup, below which a 

 flexible tube enters. On blowing steadily through the tube, a fine bubble may 

 be formed, and detached with facility. This apparatus is neater and easier to 

 manage than a tobacco pipe, and if Messrs Myers sell the soap compound pro- 

 perly prepared, they will no doubt popularize M. Plateau's beautiful experiments. 



Collins's Dissecting Miceoscope. — Mr. Collins has made for Dr. Lawson 

 a very convenient dissecting microscope. It consists of a small neat mahogany 

 box carrying dissecting instruments, and having, instead of an ordinary stage, a 

 gutta-percha trough to which the object to be dissected can, when necessary, be 

 pinned, and covered with water. When transparent illumination is required, 

 the object can be brought over a glass disc let into the trough, and placed over 

 an adjustible mirror, by which light from a natural or artificial source can be 

 thrown up. The magnifiers are binocular and fitted to a sliding adjustment. Dr. 

 Lawson finds that when both eyes are employed, and the object well-illuminated, 

 very small parts can be dissected with a slight magnifying power, and in the 

 present apparatus two convenient wrist supports draw out, one on each side. 

 This form of instrument is excellently adapted to the average wants of students, 

 and amateur preparers of microscopic objects. It would also do well for botani- 

 cal investigations. 



*&" 



Impboved Waeeington's Miceoscope. — Mr. Collins has improved the 

 admirable portable microscope devised by Mr. Warrington, by converting the 

 lid of a small oblong mahogany box into the stand, and giving two grooves for the 

 stage to be fixed in, so as to be in its right position at different angles to which 

 the instrument may be inclined. Mr. Collins has also made an addition that 

 will be exceedingly welcome to possessors of aquaria and large glass cells. He 

 fixes the Warrington microscope to the glass by means of a pneumatic holder, 

 which is instantly attached or detached. Thus filed, and furnished with a two 

 or a four inch power, the habits and proceedings of the inhabitants of glass tanks 

 or celJB can be very conveniently watched. Every possessor of an aquarium 

 should have a microscope of this sort. The object-glasses having the universal 

 screw will work with any other microscope, and the Warrington microscope in 

 its present form is by no means expensive. 



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