306 Notes and Memoranda. 



got it from the schoolmaster, and found out the fact and its reason." This 

 was at Lexington, U.S. It is probable tbat if persons with keen sight would 

 watch their opportunities in exceptionally still and clear states of the air, the 

 crescent of Venus might be more frequently seen. The minuteness of the object 

 may not be so great a difficulty as the ordinary tendency of the atmosphere to 

 blur definition. 



The 80th Planet. — This little object has been named Sappho by its dis- 

 coverer, Mr. Pogson, of the Madras Observatory. 



A Strange Surgical Accident. — Cosmos quotes from V Union Medicate a 

 strange story of an accident, resulting in the death of a woman sixty-three years of 

 age, who was under M. Guerin, at the Hopital St." Louis. The patient suffered 

 from luxation of the shoulder of three months' duration. She was placed under 

 chloroform, and force steadily applied by four assistants, who worked some 

 machinery (les lacs contra-extenseur, and extenseur), the precise nature of which 

 is not explained. All of a sudden a dull sound was heard, and the poor woman's 

 arm snapped off at the elbow. On examination it was found that the bones, 

 muscles, and tissues possessed very little cohesion. 



Flint Implements from Syria. — The Due de Luynes, accompanied by M. 

 Louis Lartet, has obtained numerous flint implements, accompanied by the bones 

 of herbivorous animals, from the caverns on the river Lycus, in Syria. 



Fecundity in Cuba. — M. Kamon de la Sagra communicates to the French 

 Academy illustrations of the enormous families resulting from marriages in Cuba. 

 In Trinidad, with a population of 14,463, ten couples had 13 children, one couple 

 24, two 21, one 18, one 16, and two 15. In St. Espiritu, with 12,850 population, 

 fifteen marriages resulted in offspring to the extent of from 13 to 26 children, 

 while in Yilla-Clara, with 10,511 population, twelve happy pairs had produced 

 147 young ones. Many Cuban children become mothers at thirteen, and reappear 

 in that character up to the age of fifty. M. de la Sagra compliments the Cuban 

 ladies upon their extreme amiability, and fitness for all the duties of maternity ; 

 but, we fear, inquiry would show that there is very little intelligence among them, 

 and that they lead the lives of well-fed, contented animals. 



Larval Keproduction in Insects. — Siebold and KolUker's Zeitschrifl, for 

 1863, relates a curious discovery by Professor K". Wagner of some worm-like 

 insect larva? filled with smaller larva; of the same kind. Except in the remarkable 

 fact that the mothers are themselves only larva;, these instances resemble the 

 asexual reproduction of the aphides. The larva; were obtained from under the 

 bark of elms in Kasan, and appear to belong to some species of diptera. The 

 Archives des Sciences remarks, " That amongst tho asexual plant-lice the pseudova, 

 or false eggs, are found in an organ which is tho homologuo of the ovary in the 

 sexual individuals ; whilst in the apodal larvae observed by M. Wagner the pseudova 

 are formed in the fatty body. This organ divides [itself into a certain number of 

 lobes, which surround each one with a special membrane." 



Ozone and Antozone. — Tho Archives des Sciences for March contains an in- 

 teresting account of tho views of Clausius on oxygen. Ho considers that ordinary 

 oxygen consists in atoms united two and two, and activo oxygen in single, or dis- 

 united atoms. Tho two atoms which constitute a moloculo of ordinary oxygen he 

 regards in opposiir electric states. Referring to M. Soret's opinions, M. Clausius 

 observes that they coincide with his own, as his reasoning is not affected by tho 

 supposition that 020116 is formed of elementary atoms not united in pairs, winch 

 may combine witli molecules of non-decomposed oxygen as soon as they become 

 free. 



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