Notes and Memoranda. 479 



experiments made during the voyage of the " Becherche" to Spitzbergen, which con* 

 tradict the supposed increase of temperature in the depths of the polar sea. 

 Employing thermometers with the bulbs protected against the pressure of the 

 water, they met with no case of the kind. He found very little difference between 

 the temperature near the surface, and that of various depths down to 870 metres. 



Consumption by Inoculation. — M. J. A. Villemin states in Comptes Rendus 

 that he has in several instances produced tubercular disease in the lungs and 

 intestines of rabbits by introducing beneath the skin of their ears small quantities 

 of tubercular matter from a patient who died of consumption. 



Solar Eclipse in Chile. — The Astronomisclie NachricMen, No. 1555, contains 

 a long letter from Louis Grrosch, detailing observations made at Santiago de Chile 

 during the solar eclipse, 25th April, 1865, and accompanied by a drawing. We 

 translate the principal passages in his resume of what occurred. " The greater 

 part of the sky was covered with cirrus and stratus cloud. Before the beginning 

 of total eclipse, the sun disappeared behind thick stratus. Before the emer- 

 gence of the sun, the protuberances (red flames) appeared like a serrated border. 

 The protuberances altered in colour from carmine to cherry red : on the moon's 

 edge the colour was yellow. Before the bursting forth of the first sun ray, there 

 appeared from the heretofore sharp circular moon rim, serrations with three 

 greater projections. During the whole time of total eclipse, the dark disk of the 

 moon was sharply defined, and only surrounded by a milk white corona. In 

 the western part of the corona, one spot marked in the drawing was for a 

 moment very strongly illuminated, as if a bright pencil of sunlight streamed 

 behind the moon at this spot. The protuberances extended in a curve about 

 60°. The highest point of the protuberances was 0'13 of a division of the 

 micrometer (eines Theiles des mikrometers) . The protuberances were seen for 2^ 

 to 3 seconds." In another passage he says, that when the coloured appearance of 

 the protuberances vanished, thin dark projections appeared to start forth from the 

 moon just where the protuberances were highest. Were these, he asks, lunar moun- 

 tains ? They appeared and vanished in a moment, and if mountains must have been 

 of true sugarloaf form. In Comptes Rendus, No. 22, 1865, will be found a letter 

 from P. Secchi, with extracts from letter of P. Capelletti, giving his observations on 

 the echpse of 25th April (which he dates 15th Aprfl). He writes from Concep- 

 tion, Chile, and says, " The first impression I received after the disappearence of the 

 sun, was that of an immense mountain of fire, like a rose coloured horn, at 57° 

 from the zenith towards the W." This :was seen while the eclipse was total, 

 that is for 2m. 22s. Almost diametrically opposite to it was a smaller one of the 

 same shape, and of a somewhat lighter colour. About 38 seconds after this, 

 coloured flames appeared, so that the sun seemed to be on fire. It looked as if a 

 train of powder caught fire in rapid succession. This rose coloured arc was 90^ 

 broad. When the sun disappeared, three bands of light showed themselves in a 

 direction perpendicular to the moon's border. The most luminous was so 

 brilliant, as to dazzle the eye applied to the telescope, and in the same position as 

 the great protuberance ; with this peculiarity, that on its western side it was cut 

 straight like a prolongation of the lunar diameter ; on the other side it was 

 bounded, not by a curve, but by an inclined line. The darkness was greater than 

 he expected, and was increased by a fog. "An iridescent arc appeared at a 

 distance of more than 30 3 from the sun, and disappeared when the eclipse ceased 

 to be total. This arc had the form of a crescent, its extremities resting on a line 

 tangential to the lower limb of the sun. Several stars of first and second 

 magnitude were seen during the darkness." P. Secchi remarks on the novelty 

 of this arc, and cannot suggest an explanation, except by supposing it due to a fog 

 in the sun's atmosphere. With reference to the bright bands of light, he asks 

 whether such rays may not be seen on other occasions, and he states that on the 

 8th August, M. Tacchini being at sea, noticed a double jet of light after sunset, 

 which followed the sun and seemed to belong to him. On the same day, P. Secchi 

 observed on the sun a large facula, the" upper part of which was very brilliant, 

 and terminated in two jets like two leaves, which he considers may have been the 

 very objects seen by M. Tacchini under different circumstances. 



The Classification of Mollusca.— In the Annals of Natural History is a 

 paper by Dr. O, L. Morch on the " organs employed in the classification of the 



