Notes and Memoranda. 399 



cardboard trays, lined with white glazed paper. Each tray is divided into six 

 compartments, to hold six slides in a horizontal position. When the box is closed, 

 and the lid held down by an elastic band, each slide is retained safely in its own 

 place, and the whole can travel without inj ury. As these very excellent cabinets 

 can be sold at a very moderate price, they will, no doubt, come into general use. 

 Mr. Piper's covered slide is exactly what is wanted for opaque objects, which it is 

 desirable to view without the intervention of covering-glass. It consists of a 

 mahogany slide with the usual central cavity, over which a cover is fastened by a 

 small brass pin. When the object is to be viewed, the cover turns on the pin on 

 one side, and can be rotated back again as often as required. 



Pseudoscopic Appearance op the Moon. — Most observers are annoyed more 

 or less frequently with the tendency of hollows in the moon to appear in the telescope 

 like elevations, and elevations to look like depi'essions. Mr. K. Hodgson, in a com- 

 munication to the Monthly Notices, ascribes these effects to the " position of the 

 shadows being the reverse of what we usually see," and he states that by using a 

 reflecting diagonal eye-piece he can change the appearances from reliefs to intaglios 

 or vice versa by revolving the whole eye-piece 180°. We do not feel satisfied with 

 the explanation, as we are accustomed to see shadows in all directions ; but we re- 

 commend our telescope-using readers to try the experiments Mr. Hodgson suggests. 



Peculiar Disengagements op Gas. — M. Babinet states in Comptes Bendus 

 that when cold water is poured on the powder of roasted coffee, a considerable 

 quantity of gas is disengaged. This gas, he adds, is probably common air, and 

 equals in volume the mass of coffee employed. If a bottle is half-filled with 

 coffee-powder, and cold water poured in up to the place of the cork, which must 

 be inserted, an explosion takes place, by which the cork is driven out, or the bottle 

 broken. The roasted coffee-powder acts like charcoal in absorbing ah, and the 

 water drives it out again. 



Secchi on Double Stabs. — In Aslronomische Nacliricliten, Father Secchi gives 

 the following positions, measurements, and dates : — For 36 Andromeda?, 1866,052 

 P 349°-ol D 1"314. C Cancris AB, 1865, 213 P 245°"30 D 0"-641. Do. 1866, 285 

 P 234° 62. D 0"-40. e Bootis 1865, 482 P 324°70 D 3"'292. y Corona? 

 1863, 592 P 23°-26 D 0"'827. Do. 1865, 504 P 26 3 -26. D 0"-792. Do. 

 1866, 538 P 33°-13 D 1"-122. /x • Bootis 1866, 578 P 180°-30 D 0"3. 

 (,'Herculis 1865, 55 P 86°+ single " Position of a little prominence (P). 1 " p' Librae 

 (| Scorpii) A B he could not well separate in 1864, he now gives them 1866, 519 

 P 161°-00. D 0-4+ "well separated." 



Human Remains in the .Rhine Valley. — Mr. Faudel describes in Comptes 

 Bendus the discovery of portions of a human skull at Engisheim, near Colmar, 

 in the formation termed lelim Alpin, and in conjunction with bones of the Elephas 

 primigenius and Bos priscus. He considers these remains to show that man lived 

 in Alsace and in the Upper Valley of the Rhine at the period when the loam 

 (lehm) was deposited, and before the country had reached its existing form. 



Paper Substitute por Lint. — The Italian Medical Gazette states that the 

 Viennese surgeons employ a white blotting-paper, locally known as papier de soie, 

 as a cheap and efficient substitute for lint. 



A Monster Aerolite. — Marshal Vaillant informs the French Academy that 

 Marshal Bazaine has found a Mexican aerolite, weighing not less than 860 kilo- 

 grammes. It is on its way to France, and will figure in the exhibition of 1867. 



ISTinety-pirst Planet.— M. Le Verrier informs the French Academy that 

 another planet, the ninety-first, has been discovered at the observatory, Marseilles. 



A Light por Photographers. — Cosmos states that M. Sayers recommends 

 twenty-four grammes nitrate of potash dried and powdered, seven flowers of 

 sulphur, and seven red sulphurate of arsenic as giving a light with great photo- 

 graphic power. 



The Glass Eope op the Hyalonema. — In our last number we mentioned 

 some remarks of Dr. Gray on this subject to which Dr. Bowerbank replies in 



