Notes and Memoranda. 



admit of being looked into. The interior is blackened, and there is 

 an opening in the side to admit a strong light to pass across the tube. 

 When looked into from the end, the tube is perfectly dark despite 

 of the light passing across it ; but on raising a small white ball into 

 the course of the rays of light, they instantly become visible from 

 being reflected so as to enter the eye of the observer. 



NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



Sugar from Serpents' Skins.— M. S. de Lnca obtains small quantities of 

 sugar by chemical transformation of a substance existing in the skin of serpents, 

 and which is isomeric with vegetable cellulose. The existence of this substance 

 under such circumstances aflords another connecting link between auimal and 

 vegetable organic bodies. 



Poisonous Effects of Thallium.— M. Lamy calls the attention of the 

 French Academy to the poisonous properties of thallium, to which he ascribes 

 pain and lassitude chiefly iu the lower members, which he experienced while ex- 

 perimenting on that metal and its compounds. He dissolved five grammes of 

 sulphate of thallium in milk, and offered it to two puppies, who tasted ft and left it 

 alone. Two fowls, six ducks, and a moderate-sized dog obtained accidental 

 access to the milk. The dog was soon taken ill with sharp pains, and Ins hind- 

 quarters were partially paralyzed, alter exhibiting convulsive movements. Iodide 

 of potassium was administered as an antidote, but the animal died in sixty-lour 

 hours, having been affected neither by vomiting nor alvine dejections. In the 

 evening after the milk had been swallowed one fowl and six ducks died. Four 

 days afterwards the two puppies died. All the creatures suffered paralysis of 

 their lower limbs. The second fowl was killed on the eighth day, having for 

 three days been in a bad state, and unable to stretch its neck sufficiently to luck 

 up food. J r 



The August Meteoes.— M. Coulvier-Gravier has a short paper on this sub- 

 *l e o-o m Com P tes Bendus - He says that " in August, 18fil, he pointed out, the year 

 I808 as terminating the descending period, since 1848, when the phenomena 

 were at their height, and on the tlth, 10th, and 11th August 110 shooting stars 

 appeared per hour. In 1858 the number had descended to 393, while in August 

 1863, he noticed GG7 per hour." lie adds that we may soon expect the August 

 showers to re-appear in all their magnificence. 



13BEAD from Pompeii.— In August last year a baker's oven was discovered 

 in Pompeii, closed with an iron door, and containing eighty-one loaves of a 

 brow„i-h clour. II. S. de Luca, who examined some of ° this bread and re- 

 ported to the Fr< neh Academy, found that, the loaves still contained some moisture 

 winch they parted with at 110' to 120° C. The central portion contained about 

 23 per cent, of water and the exterior only 19 to 21 per cent. The quantity of 

 iminuhed from the circumference to the centre, while the hydrogen 

 followed an opposite rule; thus it would seem that the decomposition look place 

 \i;ry slowly, and wag not affected by sudden and strong heat. The central parte 

 w-re [east affected, and contained the largest quantity of the elements of 

 nutrition. 



„ 1 '" l " N| '-' f: nY Nrrao-BsrooEB.— J*» TfoettdSngv 0/ tie Xoval Society, No. 

 N, contain an important paper by Dr. Letheby on the above subjeel h appears 

 that if a do e oi mtro-beMok be not too large, its poisonous action will not be 



<-ly apparent, but u ma; "destroy life byalmgerine illness, which shall 



not. only defy the jkiU of the physician, l>ut shall also baffle the researches of 



the iurirt. After death the blood of animals so killed is black and rurbid and 



'ted, and no nitro-benzole can be discovered if sufficient 



n*"elap will than be converted into aniline. Buoh feats show the 



ol having medical men well trained in chemistry. Aniline produces 

 Symptoms very similar to mlro-bonzole. The conversion of the latter into the 



