320 Notes and Memoranda. 



London from a Balloon. — In Mr. Glaisher's October ascent, the long lines 

 of gaslit streets produced a very splendid effect, like a brilliant milky way, but 

 more golden. The reflection of the gaslights from the clean pavement of Regent 

 Street had the appearance of a glistening silver band. Observations of this 

 class may assist us in interpreting some of the telescopic appearances of the 

 moon, as regards their luminosity and colour. 



A Magnesium Battery. — M. Bultinck, of Ostend, describes to the French 

 Academy, experiments which he made, substituting magnesium for zinc, in a 

 voltaic combination. A chain of twenty elements, combined like those of Pulver- 

 macher, gave striking effects when simply moistened with water. 



Animal Grafts. — M. P. Bert gives to the French Academy further accounts 

 of his remarkable animal grafts, such as making the tail of a rat grow on another 

 creature. The end of the tail is skinned and introduced in the subcutaneous 

 tissue. An effusion of plastic fluid takes place, and fibres soon appear. On the 

 fourth or fifth day, capillary vessels have united the vessels of the graft and the 

 creature in which it is placed. At a later period these vessels became larger. 

 In the course of twenty days, the muscular fibres experience fatty degeneration. 

 The nerves exhibit a double process of degeneration and regeneration. The bony 

 and cartilaginous parts undergo little change. If the tail is a young one it 

 completes its growth in its new position, and may even surpass the dimensions 

 it would have normally reached. 



Clarification of Water. — Mr. Jennet states that in the well known plan 

 of clarifying muddy water by the use of alum, that the alum doubles itself into 

 sulphate of potash, which is found in the clear water, and into sulphate of 

 alumina, which exerts the clarifying action as it decomposes, its earthy base 

 forming an insoluble precipitate which drags down with it the mechanical impuri- 

 ties. Sulphate of alumina is equally useful as alum (sulphate of alumina and 

 potash), and in smaller quantities. Alum being used in the proportion of four- 

 tenths of a gramme to a litre, and sulphate of alumina as a substitute for alum 

 in the proportion of seven to ten. 



The Long-Eared Bat. — Mr. Sowerby, writing in the Annals of Natural His- 

 tory, describes how one of these animals, confined in a wire gauze cage, captured 

 his prey. The wing membrane extends from the hind legs to the tail, " forming 

 a large bag or net, not unlike two segments of an umbrella, the legs and tail 

 being the ribs." To catch a large fly the bat threw his body on it, drove it into 

 this bag, and devoured the fly at leisure. 



The Water Shrew. — Mr. N. L. Austen describes in the Annals of Natural 

 'History the habits of a pair of water shrews, which he kept in a large cage, like 

 a dormouse cage, with a bath in it. They did not appear timid, and readily ate 

 their food. When minnows were put in the bath, they plunged in after them, 

 each securing a victim, which he killed by biting through the head. In feeding 

 they held the fish firmly between their fore paws, as an otter does. The ears of 

 shrews are furnished with three valves, which fold together when they dive, and 

 keep the water out. 



Variations of Human Muscles. — Mr. John Wood describes in the ^Proceed- 

 ings of the Royal Society, No. 77, cases of variations in human myology observed 

 during the dissection of thirty-six subjects in King's College Hospital. The 

 paper is too technical for its details to be understood by any but those acquainted 

 with anatomy ; but it establishes two interesting facts — first, that important 

 variations from the normal type do occur, and, secondly, that in some cases they 

 exhibit characteristics found in monkeys, bats, moles, birds, and sloths. 



85th Planet. — Dr. Peters, of Clinton, U.S., has discovered another planet, 

 10 mag. At the end of September its position was R. A. 12' 43' 5" 3, D. 4- 

 11= 22' 5" 9. 



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