480 Notes and Memoranda. 



The Crater Linne.— M. Chacornac sees divergent rays like the glory of a 

 saint round this object.. P. Secchi writes to the French Academy that Professor 

 Resphighi and his assistant, P. Ferrari, of the Capitoline Observatory, Rome, 

 find that with a power of 500, which diminishes irradiation, a funnel-shaped 

 cavity can still be discerned, so that the lower cavity has not disappeared, although 

 the crater is very flat. This appears to correspond with the statement of the 

 Astronomer Royal in bis recent report to the Board of Visitors, " that draw- 

 ings of the spot Linneus on the moon leave no doubt that it is still a very' 

 shallow cup." 



The Opals of California. It is stated in Cosmos that the Californian 

 opals are found in ancient decomposed lavas, and that the matrix of the gem is 

 saturated with water, and the opals themselves soft enough to break between the 

 fingers when first dug. Exposure to the sun for several days hardens them and 

 brings out their lustre. The best are enveloped in a ferruginous crust, while 

 those which are white and of feeble colour are without this covering. 



Observations on Chlorophyll. — M. Marc Micheli has a paper on this 

 subject in the Archives des Sciences, and he thus sums up his conclusions : 1. 

 There is not sufficient proof to admit Fieiny's hypothesis, that chlorophyll is 

 decomposable into phyllocyanine and phyiloxan thine. 2. Chlorophyll appears to 

 be formed of a yellow sub>tance, which transforms itself into a green one in a 

 manner which is unknown. 3. All acids destroy the colour of chlorophyll, and 

 turn it yellow. 4. Two of them, S0 3 and HC1, possess the property of changing 

 this yellow into blue or green, according to which is employed, and baryta acts in 

 an analogous manner. 5. Light does not discolour the green and blue obtained 

 by S0 3 < r HC1 ; it is not therefore the same colour which is found in chlorophyll. 

 6. Many leaves become transparent in full sunshine, an effect which seems to arise 

 from the contraction of the chlorophyll granules. 



Ehrenbekg on the Hyalonema. — The Annals Nat. Hist, contains a trans- 

 lation of a paper by Professor Ehrenberg, on the Hyalonema Lusitanicum, dis- 

 covered by Professor Borboza da Bocage. His conclusions are that the 

 Hyalonema is not a polyp, but a sponge. He considers, which can scarcely be 

 justified by facts, that the essential character of sponges coincide with that of 

 vegetable bodies, and he imagines the "supposed normally protruding tufts of 

 Hyalonema, when they occur on true sponge structures, to be mutilations by the 

 loss of the apices of those sponges, like the dead points of horny corals, just as 

 the deciduous trees in the north, or on elevations, often bear antler-like dead 

 summits, while the trunk is still well furnished with foliage." 



The Motor Clock op the Greenwich Observatory. — The following 

 passages occur in the report to the visitors : " this clock is compared and verified 

 by an easy practical process. It maintains various clocks in sympathy with 

 itself, it regulates clocks in London, sends signals through Britain, drops the 

 Deal time-ball, fires guns at JNewcastle and Shields (I think also at Sunderland), 

 and puts communications in such a state that we cau receive automatic reports 

 from the signal-places as we may desire. I may, however, specially mention that 

 daily signals are now sent to some places in Ireland ; and that, during the expe- 

 dition of the Great Eastern for laying down the Atlantic cable, time signals were 

 sent on board twice a day, to enable her constantly to determine her longitude." 



The Houses op Parliament Clock. — The Astronomer Royal reports that on 

 38 per cent, of the days of observation, the clock's error was below l 8 ; on 38 per 

 cent, of days of observation, between 1 B - and 2 8 - ; on 21 per cent., be ween 2 s and 

 3 8 ; on 2 per cent., between 3 s and 4 8 ; on 1 per cent., between 4 8 and 5 8 - 



Artificial Respiration and Strychnine.- M. J. Rosenthal states, in 

 Comptes Rendus, that by exciting artificial respiration, and maintaining It for 

 three or four hours, it is possible to save the life of an animal to which a poisonous 

 dose of strychnine has been administered. 



