Notes and Memoranda. 147 



their extremities the anthera, which, as in all the Compositee, are conjoined into a 

 complete tube. At the time of flowering this anther tube is closed at the end, 

 and envelopes the pistil which arises at the base of the corolla from the inferior 

 ovary. At this period the anther tube rises about four m. m. above the summit 

 of the corolla. When touched pollen masses are extracted from its apex, 

 and at the same time the tube exhibits a peculiar twisting movement. After 

 about five minutes the experiment can be repeated ; the pollen is again forced 

 out of the tube, and the twisting movement will be again witnessed." When 

 the filaments are extended they appear as if longitudinally striated ; when con- 

 tracted, as if transversely striated. He considers the fibres to correspond in their 

 behaviour essentially with unstriped muscle ; but he regards their shortening as 

 of a passive nature, and due to elasticity, and their lengthening an active con- 

 dition which is the opposite to what takes place in muscular fibre. He considers 

 that we may now be said to be acquainted with plants which, so to speak, have 

 muscles ; and in the lowest animals which possess no muscles their contractile 

 parenchyma behaves after the manner of contractile vegetable cells. 



Respiration oe Ruminants. — In a paper which will be found in Compies 

 Eendus M. M. J. Reiset shows that a proto-carburet of hydrogen is emitted during 

 their respiration. He regards it as arising from the changes which their food 

 experiences during digestion. They likewise emit a small proportion of nitrogen. 

 He shows that the consumption of oxygen and emission of carbonic acid gas 

 goes on so quickly that cattle stables require much more ventilation than is generally 

 allowed on old French farms — a remark equally applicable to many in this 

 country. 



Functions of the Ear. — Professor Helmholz, author of an elaborate work 

 entitled Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen, regards the snail shell or cochlea, as 

 the special organ for transmitting musical sounds to the nerves, while noises affect 

 other portions of the ear. The so-called " fibres of Corti," of which there are about 

 3000, he considers each capable of being affected by a simple sound, while a 

 compound sound acts upon several, and produces a corresponding impression on 

 the nerves. Each filament of the acoustic nerve is united to an elastic filament, 

 which he supposes to be thrown into vibration by appropriate sounds. 



Muscles oe the Heart. — The Archives des Sciences, ~No. 67, contains a brief 

 account of Dr. Grartaldi's researches on this subject, and which are published in 

 the Wwrzburger Naturtoissenchaftliche Zeitschrift. It appears that Weissman 

 established a great difference between the muscles of the heart and other striated 

 muscles. He demonstrated that the hearts of the invertebrata, of fishes, and of 

 batrachians are composed of cells during their whole existence ; while in reptiles, 

 hirds, and mammals, including man, the cells only exist during the embryonic 

 period, and at a later stage are transformed into muscular fibres. Weissman 

 thought this change took place by fusion of many cells, a theory not according 

 with observations of Reinak, Lebert, and Kolliker. Gartaldi's observations on 

 the hearts of pigeons show that the muscular fibres do not result from the fusion 

 of cells, but that they must be considered as primitive fasciae. With respect to 

 the nucleus he has always seen it in the axis of the fibre in the birds and 

 mammals which he has examined, a character which is only found in the em- 

 bryonic fibre of voluntary muscles, and he therefore concludes that the muscular 

 structure of the heart in the vertebrata presents a phase of development inferior 

 to that of the fibres of the muscles of voluntary motion. 



Babinet on the Lunar Eclipse, June 1. — M. Babinet states in Cosmos 

 that this eclipse presented a peculiarity not before noticed. When the moon left 

 the earth's shadow and formed a crescent, whose greatest breadth was equal to 

 one quarter of the moon's semi- diameter, the eastern half was illuminated while 

 the western half remained in shade. This appearance lasted so long as to leave no 

 doubt that at the end of the eclipse the shadow of the earth extended further on 

 the western than on the eastern side of the meridian of Paris. M. Babinet 

 explains the reason of this phenomenon as follows : — He states that at a pressure 

 of seventy-six centimeters, the refraction of the atmosphere amounts to thirty- 

 five minutes with regard to rays that reach us from the horizon, and seventy 

 minutes for those solar rays which pass close to the earth's surface, and traverse 



