Notes and Memoranda. 403 



"broader, and then the slender extremity which carries the month recedes in the 

 centre of a circular disk or pad, from which the rudiments [of eight tentacles 

 speedily grow. In addition to multiplication by ova, the coral polyps increase by 

 budding, and thus build up their well-known reefs. The living coral is composed 

 of an axis, or central solid portion, and the external soft polypiferous layer, which 

 M. Duthiers tells us owes its colour to the multitude of spicules which it contains. 

 In tracing their growth it appears that, after exchanging the elongated worm shape 

 for the disk form, the young coral animals pass quickly from white to rose colour, 

 and then to a lively red, as the calcareous corpuscules are formed. They have as 

 yet no axis, and the solid portion is represented entirely by the corpuscules. The 

 little creatures are elegant objects with their expanded tentacles, although exceed- 

 ingly minute — a quarter or half a millimetre in diameter. They are at first single, 

 but bud freely, and as each bud repeats the same process, a large compound family 

 is soon produced. At first the solid particles are uniformly distributed through 

 the tissues, but after the budding they multiply in particular directions, and are 

 surrounded and united by a calcareous cement, and thus the axis is produced. 

 This mode of producing a polypary is not restricted to the individuals who com- 

 mence a colony, but takes place at the extremities of old branches, where juvenile 

 members always exist, and it always happens that towards the base of adult 

 branches the cement is deposited faster than the corpuscules (spicules), and in 

 regular concentric layers. 



A Modern Cyclops. — Doctor Depaul lately exhibited to the Academy of 

 Medicine at Paris the body of an infant, which lived a short time. It had only 

 one eye in the centre of its forehead. The nose was wanting, and the mouth, 

 reduced to a small orifice. The mother of this monstrosity was twenty-three 

 years old, and had previously given birth to a properly-formed child. 



Vegetable Amoeboid Bodies. — Dr. Hicks states he has verfied his observa- 

 tions on the Amoeboid state assumed by zoospores of Volvox Grlobator. He 

 also finds that when mosses are kept in water, the endoplast of the elongated cells 

 in their radicles is apt to become detached, and collect in ovoid masses, which 

 comport themselves like Amoeba?. Watching some for several hours, he found the 

 whole exterior to become covered with minute cilia. — Quarterly Journal of Micro- 

 scopic Science. 



Dr. Beale on the Tissues. — In summarizing his conclusions, Dr. Beale 

 regards every living structure as composed of matter formed and matter forming. 

 The latter he denotes as " germinal ;" a cell he describes as matter in these two 

 states. The " germinal matter" sometimes corresponds with the " nucleus," in 

 others with the " nucleus and cell contents," in others to the matter lying between 

 the "cell wall, and the cell contents," in others to "intercellular substance," or to 

 the fluid or viscid material which separates cells, nuclei, or corpscules from each 

 other. Thus the nucleus of the frog's blood corpiiscle is "germinal matter," the 

 external red portion being "formed material." — Quarterly Journal of Micro- 

 scopic Science. 



A Portable Styptic. — The Moniteur des Sciences Medicales recommends 

 country surgeons and others to soak amadou or German tinder in a solution of 

 perchloride of iron of a density about l - 250. It should then be dried in the sun 

 and be rubbed between the hands to restore its suppleness and porosity. Small 

 pieces applied to leech bites soon stop their bleeding. They may be held in their 

 place by strips of plaister. 



New Alloys. — The cannons recently cast for the Austrian navy are composed 

 of copper 600 parts, zinc 382 parts, iron 18 parts. This alloy is reported to be 

 excessively tenacious, and easy to forge and drill. It is called after its inventor, 

 Aioh metal. We also notice in Cosmos a description of an alloy of block tin 375 

 parts, nickel 55, regulus of antimony 50, and bismuth 20 parts, which M. Trabuc 

 of Msmes proposes as a substitute for silver, as it resists the action of vegetable 

 acids. It is prepared by placing in a crucible one third of the tin, together with 

 the nickel, antimony, and bismuth ; over this is laid another third of the tin, and 

 above that a layer of charcoal. The crucible is then closed and brought to a red- 

 dish-white heat, and its contents examined with a red-hot rod of iron to ascertain 



