146 Notes and Memoranda. 



were passed through. The characters of this singular mineral were 

 fully described in the second volume of the Intellectual Observer, 

 page 145, and the peculiar qualities of the hydro-carbon oil obtained 

 by its destructive distillation were alluded to. Since that period, 

 this oil has undergone further examination at the hands of Mr. 

 A. H. Church, Professor of Chemistry in the Agricultural College, 

 Cirencester. He finds that, submitted to careful fractional distilla- 

 tion, this oil, though fluid, and nearly colourless, exhibits several 

 remarkable peculiarities, for it does not commence to boil till the 

 thermometer has risen to 338° Fahrenheit, while no less than one- 

 third of the whole material remains in the retort when the tempe- 

 rature has been raised within a few degrees of the boiling-point of 

 mercury. The following table presents at one view an approximative 

 idea of the relative quantities of distillate obtained at intervals of 

 50', 50°, 30', and 15° centigrade :— 



170° to 220° C. = 338° to 428' F. 2. 



220° to 270° C. = 428° to 518° F. 4. 



270° to 300° C. = 518° to 572° F. 5. 



300° to 315* C. = 572° to 599° F. 2. 



Above 315° C. Above 599° F. 7. 



The residual oil in the retort contained some quantity of solid paraf- 

 fine. We have before alluded to the excellence of Albertite oil as an 

 illuminating material and substitute for paraffine oil : the readiness 

 with which it rises in the wick, and the whiteness of the light which 

 it gives, are certainly remarkable, considering the very high inflaming 

 and boiling-point of the oil. It would be a fortunate circumstance 

 if Albertite should be found to exist in quantity in Scotland, as it 

 unquestionably yields a mineral oil that for illuminating purposes is 

 far superior to any hydro-carbon oil now in use. 



The next meeting of the Society will be held on November 

 4th, 18G3. 



NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



Karsten on Organic Cells. — Dr. Arlidge lias published in Annals of Na- 

 tural History a paper on the Development of the Organic Cell, by Karsten, 

 translated from Poggendorfs Annalen. Among other statements, we find that 

 " the cell wall is not simple, but composed of several cells placed one within Iho 

 other, which aro frequently regenerated from within outwards by the unfolding 

 of the neuclear cell, and each of which cells passes through a course of develop- 

 ment peculiar to itself. .... The so called nucleus is a nuclear cell. " . . 

 . . The so called constrictions or segmentations of the cell-nucleus belong in fact 

 to the same category aa the so termed germinating cells. These forms arc pro- 

 duced by the excessive development of daughter cells in a fully vegetating parent 



cell which is in course of destruction The rotation OI the OftU juices 



appears to bo a mere phenomenon of d illusion — endosmosis co-operating on the 

 one hand, and the property of iissiniil.it ion possessed by the inclosing cell wall on 

 the other, in a continuous act of intermingling the materials concerned." 



Contractile Fw laments op the Thistle Tribe. — The Quarterly Journal of 

 Microscopic SbteikW contain! a translation of a paper by Dr. F. Colin on this 

 subject. " Professor Colin proceeds to remark that in the Cynan\e (or Thistlo 

 Tribe) the five filaments arc inserted into the tube of the corolla, and support at 



