Notes and Memoranda. 65 



Common Telescopes. Those localities marked (412, 3, 4, 7, 24) are unrepre- 

 sented in Beer and Madler's large map, but some very imperfect indications of 

 them exist. The authority for the Selenographical Co-ordinates is Beer and 

 Madler's map. They however require a careful redetermination. It is proper to 

 add to this list "Le Verrier," the name given in Le Couturier's map to Beer and 

 Madler's Helicon A. in N. lat. 40° 11' and E. long. 20° 25'. 



Snow Fall and Wind Storms. — Marshal Vaillant says that the storm from 

 which the fleet suffered in the Black Sea, in November, 1854, was caused by a 

 heavy snow fall on the Caucasian Mountains. He imagines that the storm of 

 2nd and 3rd December, 1863, may have arisen from a great snow storm in Scot- 

 land, producing intense cold, that acted on the warm south wind that was 

 prevalent in Europe. Such snow storms might doubtless exert such an effect, 

 but is there any evidence that a sufficient snow fall did occur in Scotland at the 

 time? 



Hitman Fossils from Bruniquee. — M.M. G-arigon, Martin, and Trutat 

 describe in Comptes Rendus, two fragments of human jaws discovered in the 

 cavern of Bruniquel (Tarne et Graronne). This cavern is in a Jurassic limestone, 

 and the soil found in it is formed by the superposition of several layers, which 

 the writers examined at a depth of three metres. First was a stalagmite deposit 

 of 22 centimetres ; then an osseous breccia lm. 48 ; then black clay beds repeated 

 several times, in the midst of which was a pell mell of wrought flints of all known 

 shapes ; barbed arrow points ; bones of carnivores, ruminants, and birds, ard 

 rounded pebbles. The writers remark that " the reindeer is characteristic of the 

 age of this cavern, and that bearing in mind the four divisions established by M. 

 Lartet for the quaternary epoch, we see at once that it is to the third palaeonto- 

 logical epoch that we must refer the filling up of this excavation." The two 

 human jaw fragments were found in the presence of several witnesses, at a depth 

 of about two metres, in a bed of clay, containing quantities of charcoal, wrought 

 flints, and bones of ruminants. After various anatomical details, the writers 

 observe — " Three human jaws are thus referred to the same type — brachy cephalic 

 — although they belong to epochs completely separated one from the other ; that 

 of Aurignac, with which was found the TJrsus spelceus ; that of Moulin Quignon 

 bedded with JSlephas primigenius ; and that of Bruniquel lying in the midst of 

 bones of the reindeer." Amongst the bone fragments of this cave was found the 

 humerus of a big bird, on which was roughly sculptured different parts of a fish. 



Are Different Bodies Luminous at the Same Temperature ? — M. F. 

 de la Provostaye details in Comptes Rendus a process of theoretical reasoning, by 

 which he arrives at the conclusion that different bodies progressively heated, do 

 not become luminous at the same temperature. 



Beale on Blood Corpuscles. — In a paper which will be found in the 

 Quarterly Journal of Microscopic Science, Mr. Lionel Beale says — "It is most 

 remarkable that the red colouring matter of the blood corpuscles of different 

 animals should crystallize in different forms ; and there are instances of animals 

 closely allied to each other, the blood crystals of which are quite distinct ; for 

 example — the red colouring of the guinea pig assumes the form of tetra-hedra, 

 while that of the squirrel crystallizes in six-sided plates, and that of the hamster 

 in rhomboidal crystals." With reference to the condition of different portions of 

 the blood, Professor Beale observes — " In man and in mammalia there are circular 

 coloured corpuscles without a nucleus, and the so-called white or colourless cor- 

 puscles, which are spherical. Now I believe that the ' colourless corpuscles,' and 

 the 'colourless nuclei' of the red corpuscles, consist of matter in a living state, 

 while there are reasons for the conclusion that the coloured material has ceased 

 to exhibit vital properties." While admitting that under certain circumstances 

 the appearance of a cell-wall is produced, Professor Beale alleges various reasons 

 for denying that such a structure is essential to a blood corpuscle. In concluding 

 his paper he expresses his belief that " the red material is not living, but results 

 from changes occurring in colourless living matter, just as cuticle, or tendon, or 

 cartilage, or the formed material of the liver cell, results from changes occurring 

 in the germinal matter of each of these cells. The colourless corpuscles, and 



