466 Notes and Memoranda. 



Action of Tobacco ok the Pulse. — M. Decaisne states, in Compte* Sendus, 

 that in the course of three years he has met with twenty-one cases of intermittent 

 pulse occurring among eighty-eight incorrigible smokers, and independent of an 

 organic disease of the heart. He calls the affection thus induced by the abuse of 

 tobacco, " Narcotism of the heart." 



Bolide of Mat 14. — At Nerac, on this date, a very luminous bolide was seen 

 in the evening, and four or five minutes after its passage a powerful detonation 

 was heard, accompanied by a rumbling like thunder. At St. Clar the light was 

 so brilliant at 8h. 13m. as to give rise to the idea that the village was in flames, 

 and the meteor looked nearly as big as the full moon. It left a train behind it, 

 which gradually disappeared, and in the course of ten minutes a noise was heard 

 like the discharge of a cannon. Letters from Astaffont, Sauzon, and Blois 

 reached M. Le Verrier with analogous particulars. The Cure of la Magdeleine 

 describes the meteor as opening like a bouquet of fireworks. Superstitious folks 

 thought the world was coming to an end. M. Daubree observes that the interval 

 between the appearance of the meteor and the noise was two minutes at St. Clar 

 (G-er), three to four at Agen, and at Astaffont (Lot et Garonne) four minutes. 

 From these data he concludes that the explosion took place at a great elevation 

 and in a highly rarified atmosphere. M. Brongniart made observations at Fisors 

 (Eure), from which he estimated the meteor's height when the explosion occurred 

 at about 30,000 metres. He states that at the close of the phenomena there 

 was a fall of stones, several of which were picked up. M. Flammarion, writing 

 in Cosmos, states that this meteorite contained carbide of iron, and belonged to 

 a rare type. Numerous letters on this subject will be found in Comptes JRendus, 

 No. 1, 1864 ; and also in No. 21, in which M. Laussedat details his efforts to com- 

 pute the size and trajectory of the meteor. He finds many of the reports irre- 

 concilable, but by combining an observation made at Nerac with another at 

 Tombebceuf, near Miramont, he considers the bolide must have been near the 

 meridian of Nerac, and about 100 kilometres high. 



The ANAcnAEis in Flowed. — It is commonly, though not correctly, said 

 that the Anauharis alsinastrum does not flower in this country. It will, therefore, 

 interest our readers to learn that Mr. Mumbray, of Richmond, has recently ob- 

 tained specimens in flower from the Hampstead ponds. The flower, which is 

 borne at the end of a thread-like stalk, is an elegant object when viewed with an 

 inch power. The ponds on the Lower Heath contain abundance of specimens. 

 The Anacharis belongs to the Hydrocharis family, in which the flowers are uni- 

 sexual, and it is the male flowers that have not been seen in England. 



Cuke of Febiule Cephalalgia. — M. Guyon communicates to the French 

 Academy cases in which the acute head pains in fever have ceased on the applica- 

 tion of pressure to the temporal arteries. A steel band, passing half round the 

 head and furnished with little cushions, ho finds a convenient mode of making 

 the application. 



§3H®«@ 



