Notes and Memoranda. 241 



after exposure to a not blast {coup defeu), the fragments in the first crucible 

 preserved their original condition, except that they were slightly welded together, 

 while those in the second were fused into a lamellated button. — Comptes Mendus. 

 Volcanic Phenomenon in Manilla. — A letter to Dr. Hooke, communicated 

 to the Geological Society, states that on the 1st of May, 1861, a portion of the 

 river Pasig was subject to a violent commotion, which continued for four hours. 

 For the space of a quarter of a mile the water was covered with air-bubbles and 

 foam, the temperature being raised to 100° and 105', other parts of the river 

 being at 80'. Mounds of mud were raised several feet above the surface of the 

 water, and gave out an offensive odour. At the expiration of the time mentioned 

 the mounds disappeared, and the river resumed its ordinary aspect. 



The Divining- Eod. — M. Chanoit, director of the hydraulic works of the 

 Paris and Lyons Eailway, announces that he has in service a young man so well 

 practised in discovering springs or masses of water with the divining rod, that he 

 would undertake that if he were taken blindfold through Paris, he would indicate 

 the various water channels and their relative importance. He has such con- 

 fidence in his hydrologist, that he begs the Academy to appoint a commission to 

 witness his performances. — Cosmos. 



Physiology op the Nerves of Insects. — M. Tersin has communicated to 

 the French Academy the results of observations on the field-cricket (Comptes 

 Mendus, February 10th, 1862). He finds the power of co-ordinating movements 

 not affected by cutting through both cords of the ganglionic chain. On the con- 

 trary, the motions became abnormal every time a single cord was severed at any 

 point anterior to the ganglion of the meta-thorax, and likewise when two or more 

 divisions were made, each of one cord, between different ganglia, one at least of 

 the sections being anterior to the meta-thorax. He regards the cephalic and 

 thoracic ganglia as together presiding over the co-ordination of locomotive move- 

 ments, so that it is impossible to assign this function to any one ganglion, to the 

 exclusion of the others. In this he traces a relation to the cerebellum of verte- 

 brate animals, and he remarks that it is probable that it is in the " reunion of 

 ganglia that we must look for an analogy to the brain of the vertebrata." 



Electrical Phenomena of Vesuvius. — M. L. Palmieri first observed the 

 flashes of volcanic lightning at a distance of a few hundred yards from the new 

 crater at Torre del Greco. They always originated in large "globes of smoke," 

 and were followed by explosions like pistol discharges. Afterwards from the 

 Observatory he noticed similar flashes between the smoke and cinder masses and 

 the aqueous vapour above them, but very seldom between the " globe of smoke" 

 and the earth beneath it. At each violent projection of smoke, his instruments 

 indicated a strong tension of positive electricity, and when this reached a certain 

 force, tlrunder and lightning occurred. If the discharge occurred in the direction 

 of the zenith of the Observatory, a sudden increase of positive electrical tension 

 was produced ; while, if the discharge was directed towards the earth, or to a 

 distant region in the air, the tension became negative. The vapour which moved 

 towards the Observatory, if free from cinders, was strongly positive ; but the 

 cinders which fell when the smoke of a superior current deviated from the 

 zenith were negative. 



M. Pasteur on Fermentation. — We find in the Comptes Mendus of the 

 10th of February a further account of M. Pasteur's laborious researches on fer- 

 mentation, of which the following are the chief particulars. He began his inves- 

 tigations by experimenting on the Mycoderma vini or cervisice, popularly known 

 as the " mother of wine." Causing this plant to develop in various alcoholic 

 liquids in contact with air, he never obtained acetic acid ; and if he introduced a 

 small portion of that acid, it usually disappeared. When the Mycoderma aceti, 

 or vinegar-plant, was grown in alcoholic liquids, acetic acid was always formed, 

 with the intermediate production of small quantities of aldehyd.* In both cases 



* " The alcohols may all be regarded as compound oxides of hydrogen, and 

 of a peculiar hydro-carbon. . . . The alcohols, by imperfect oxidation, furnish 

 aldehyds; and these bodies, by the further absorption of oxygeD, yield acids." — 

 Miller's Chemistry t vol. iii. p. 119. 



