468 Notes and Memoranda. 



tation of grape juice ; and If. Pasteur states that if the must is artificially aerated 

 it ferments much more rapidly. He considers that in certain cases this artificial 

 aeration might be beneficially employed, especially when wine remains too sweet 

 after a tumultuous fermentation. When wine is put in casks the oxygen of the 

 air reaches it through the wood, with more or less rapidity, according to the thick- 

 ness of the staves, the warmth of the cellar, etc. Without this action M. Pasteur 

 considers it would remain new wine, green, harsh, and not fit to drink. When 

 the wine is bottled the facility for oxydation is greatly diminished. It might be 

 possible to accelerate the oxydation in casks so as'to ripen the liquor sooner, but, 

 as M. Berthelot ha3 shown, rapid oxydation produces mischievous effects. 



The 2nd and 3rd December Storm. — M. Marie-Davy states that on the 1st 

 December this great storm was 50 or 60 leagues from the N.W. coast of Ireland, 

 at 8 a.m. On the 2nd December, at the same hour, its centre was at Shrewsbury, 

 and the cyclone, instead of its following its customary march towards the east, 

 was bent back towards the south. In Paris the barometer fell with extreme 

 rapidity, and the tempest raged in that city with great violence. Twice since the 

 first fortnight in November a hurricane traversed England and France almost 

 from north to south, and it seemed as if this were about to happen the third time, 

 when about one o'clock the barometer rose as quickly as it fell, and the storm took 

 a northward course. The southern movement was not, however, completely 

 arrested, and a violent wind blew in the gulfs of Lyons and Genoa, and in the 

 Adriatic. On the 3rd December, the centre of the hurricane in England was near 

 York, from whence it moved in its habitual course towards the east. On the 4th, it 

 was a little north of Copenhagen ; on the 5th, it appeared to quit the Baltic, be- 

 tween Libau and Konigsberg, after which its course was not traced at the date of 

 liis paper. The centre of the hurricane moved with a velocity of ten leagues an 

 hour, being the rate at which slight cyclones often move across Europe. It will 

 thus appear that the cause of their progress is independent of their violence. 

 M. Marie-Davy considers that this storm may have started from the Oulf of 

 Mexico, and he suggests that if a telegraph cable should ever join Europe and 

 America, and pass the Azores, those islands would make an excellent station, from 

 which we might have two or three days' warning of the coming of great storms. — 

 Comptes Rendus. 



M. Blondeatj on Acetification. — This observer tells us that if casein bo 

 added to a saccharine solution, mycoderms are developed, and acetic acid formed. 

 Referring to M. Pasteur's statements concerning the acetifying action of certain 

 mycoderms, M. Blondeau remarks that his experiments show that the plants per- 

 form this function only when they assume a membranous form, and that the pro- 

 perty of taking oxygen from the air, and with it transforming alcohol into vinegar 

 belongs to tho membrane as such, and is not a physiological action. — Comptes 

 Rendus. 



Supposed New Planet. — It was announced that M. Schmidt had discovered 

 a new planet on the 13th November. He found it a little east of rj in the Pleiades, 

 and it appeared of 10th to 11th magnitude. In a subsequent number of tho 

 Astronomische Nachrichten that astronomer states that, according to the sup- 

 plement to the Nautical Almanack for 1866, the little body appears to be Hygeia. 

 On the 18th November it was very faint, and about 12th magnitude. 





