06 Notes and Memoranda. 



those small corpuscles ■which are gradually undergoing conversion into red 

 corpuscles, are living, but the old red blood corpuscles consist of inanimate 

 matter." 



Lead Rings for Microscope Slides. — Mr. John Butterworth, of Moor- 

 side, near Oldham, writes to us that he cuts rings from lead tubes with a tenon 

 saw, and finds them answer very well. Any inequality left by the saw can be 

 removed by a file. Similar rings could easily be punched out of sheet lead of 

 various thicknesses, but they would not be adapted for fluids, most of which 

 would corrode them. 



Me. Glaisher's 12th January Ascent. — This ascent took place from the 

 Arsenal, Woolwich, at two p.m., and the descent shortly after four at Lakenheath 

 Warren, near Brandon. On the ground at starting the temperature was 42°, but 

 at the height of half a mile it was nearly 4° -warmer. At this height, Mr. Glashier 

 had usually found it from 12° to 16° colder. The warm stratum of S.W. wind 

 •was fully 3000 feet thick. The greatest height reached was 13,000 feet, when the 

 darkness and fear of drifting seaward rendered a descent prudent. At starting, 

 dew was deposited at 35° ; at 36', between 1500 and 3000 feet elevation ; and at 

 zero, near 9500 was reached. 



Strange Weather Fact at Milan. — We learn from the Presse Scieniiftque 

 that on a date not given, although the sky was quite clear, the earth was covered 

 with moisture, and the houses dripped as if drenched with rain. The supposed ex- 

 planation is that the houses and soil had previously grown cold, and that a warm 

 current of moist air was impelled against them. It is curious that no mist is 

 reported as seen near the ground. 



Loss of Memory. — " The celebrated Professor Lourdat, of Montpellier, was 

 obliged to recommence his medical studies from the very beginning after termi- 

 nating them with distinction, a typhoid fever having destroyed the fruits of five or 

 six laborious years." — Presse Scientifique. 



Sponge Spicules. — Dr. Wallich, in a paper on Mineral Deposit in Rhizopods 

 and ^Sponges in Annals of Natural History, gives a new view of this subject, 

 according to which, when a spicule is to be formed, a vacuole of similar shape 

 makes its appearance in the sarcode, and its long axis is traversed bv a 

 thread of sarcode, which he calls a vacuolar stolon. The stolon and the walls of 

 the vacuole each secrete a layer of silex, after which the stolon usually diminishes 

 in size, and secretes fresh layers of silex to occupy the vacancy. Layers of silex 

 may, however, in some cases be deposited externally, and to make room for them 

 the walls of the vacuole must recede. The mode of growth he considers different 

 from what takes place in the mineral deposits of rhizopods. 



The Liverpool Explosion.— On the 15th January, at 7.25 p.m., the "Lotty 

 Sleigh," containing about eleven and a half tons of gunpowder in 940 quarter 

 kegs, blew up between Monk's Ferry and the Tranmere Slip, in the Mersey. 

 The Liverpool Post described two distinct explosions ; but three separate shocks 

 were felt at Ross, where also the sound was heard. Tremendous air wares wore 

 produced at Liverpool and Birkenhead, bursting open strong doors that were 

 locked and barred, smashing an immense quantity of glass, and putting out the 

 gas lights. At Gloucester the shock was felt, and likewise at Blockley, in Wor- 

 cestershire. Tho report was so loud at Chester, that the authorities telegraphed 

 to Liverpool to know what was the matter. For many considerations belon^inc 

 to such concussions we must refer our readers to the article on " The Philosophy 

 of Earthquakes," in our number for December, 18G3. We may add that Mr. 

 Mallet found that the wave of the Neapolitan earthquake, which he investigated, 

 travelled at the rate of Cyh&Z feet per second. How does this coincide with 

 British experience in the Liverpool explosion shock ? Perhaps the Ross ob- 

 server felt the two shocks directly arising from the two explosions, and a reflected 

 shock resulting from one or both. 



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