Notes and Memoranda. 159 



communicated to the ball, after it has begun to move. The charge 

 is ignited by a needle, the explosion commencing at the end next 

 the ball, but between the latter and the powder, are placed five 

 pads of felt, those next the ball having been for the sake of lubri- 

 cation, moistened with a fatty matter. This arrangement altogether 

 changes the nature of the explosion. A white smoke escapes from 

 the muzzle, instead of flame, and the penetrative effect is so great 

 that with a charge consisting of 6*5 grammes of powder and a cylin- 

 dro-spheric steel ball weighing fifteen grammes, a plate of steel 

 twenty-nine millimetres thick was perforated at the distance of one 

 hundred metres. Omitting any of the pads causes a proportionate 

 increase in the recoil. 



NOTES AND MBMOEANDA. 



The Woem Phenacia Pulchella. — We are indebted for the following 

 remarks to Mr. Jonathan Coueh, F.L.S. : — '■' The Intellectual Observes, No. 

 55, informs us, in a note copied from the Annals of Natural History, No. 103, 

 that this has been described as a new species, which it may be to the generality 

 of naturalists, but it is far from new to myself or to Mr. W. Laughrin, A.L.S., 

 who long since sent them to the British Museum, and who has lately dredged a 

 considerable number from sandy ground off the coast of Cornwall, at a depth of 

 about forty fathoms. They appear to be not attached to the bottom, or to any 

 substance at that depth ; and that they are even capable of rising high in the 

 water by their own action, appears from a note that I made long since, of one 

 which was obtained, in its case, high in the water over a considerable depth. 

 From the thinness and transparency of the case with the marks of rings, I have 

 supposed that it was formed from an exudation from the surface of its body. 

 This worm readily quits its case, or shrinks into it when afraid." 



Specteum or Apatite. — Mr. W. G-. Lettsom writes to us from Monte Video 

 (12th June, 1866) : " With reference to the letter of Professor Church, contained 

 in No. 52 of the Intellectual Obseevee, I beg leave to remark that the 

 apatite which occurs in Spain, I believe at Villa Eica, in nearly colourless trans- 

 parent crystals, exhibits the absorption bands as distinctly as zircon does. Pive 

 of these bands are very clearly defined. One, the second from the red end of 

 the spectrum, is nearly as dark as the black zircon band." % 



The Rapid Inceease op the Stae in Coeona. — Mr. Lynn, of the Green- 

 wich Observatory, noticing, in Astr. Nachr., a letter from Herr Schmidt, of the 

 Athens Observatory, stating that between half-past eight and half-past nine, 

 Athens time, on the 12th May, he was surveying the heavens near Corona, and 

 must have seen the so-called " new star," if it had been as large as 5 mag., applied, 

 through Mr. Huggins,? to Mr. Birmingham, of Tuam, to know at what hour on 

 the same night he saw this remarkable variable as of the 2nd mag. The reply 

 was, not later than 11.45 p.m., local time, whence Mr. Lynn draws the im- 

 portant conclusion, that at S p.m., Greenwich time, the star must have been less, 

 and may have been much less, than 5 mag, and that it increased to the 2nd mag. 

 in four hours, either suddenly or with great rapidity. This star was noticed, on 

 the 4th May, by Mr. Barker, of London, Canada West, as brighter than e Corona. 

 He thinks he saw it one or two years ago. 



New Planets. — Mr. Pogson discovered a new planet, 11.5 mag., on the 16th 

 of May. Professor Peters, of Hamilton College, United States, also discovered 



one on the 20th of June of the same size. The numbers will be (&J and (j B J. 

 They are named Sylvia and Thisbe. 



