1865.] Zoology and Animal Physiology. 327 



rails and over a roller in the locomotive. With respect to this plan 

 an American paper enters into some curious calculations as to what 

 such an engine would do in the way of jumping. The velocity is 

 181-825 feet per second; the square of ^th of which is 516*55, which 

 is the height to which a body moving upward at this speed would rise. 

 Were this electrical horse to make a turn upwards at an angle of 45°, 

 he would describe a parabola 258 feet high and 1,032 feet long. 



In connection with this subject we may mention an electric brake 

 which has been recently under experiment on the Strasburg Eailway. 

 A system of brakes attached to any number of carriages in a train is 

 brought into operation by interrupting an electric current by means of 

 a little apparatus attached to the tender, and thus under the control of 

 the driver. When contact is made, and the current is established 

 again, the brakes cease to act. Connected with this is an arrangement 

 by which the guard and even the passengers can communicate with the 

 engine-driver. The experiments made showed that all the contri- 

 vances were perfectly effective, trains going at great speed being 

 brought to rest in a distance of 250 to 300 metres, instead of from 

 1,200 to 1,500 as by the usual system of brakes. 



With an improved method of pointing pins and needles, we will 

 conclude our chronicles of physics for this quarter. It is known that 

 if the two electrodes of copper, iron, or steel, are set vertically in 

 acidulated water, and reaching nearly to eaeh other, the positive very 

 quickly becomes pointed. The experiment can of course be made by 

 making the positive pole of a number of wires, and carefully regu- 

 lating the negative pole. Two or three Bunsen's cells only are re- 

 quired to do the work. Considering the diseases which arise from 

 pointing pins and needles in the usual way, this method, which is a 

 discovery of M. Cauderay, certainly deserves attention, although 

 some supplementary polishing would seem to be inevitably required. 



X. ZOOLOGY AND ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



{Including Micro-Zoology and the Proceedings of the Zoological Society.') 



At the annual meeting of the French Academy, on the 6th February, 

 the awards were made to the successful competitors for prizes, and 

 new prizes were proposed on various subjects. The prize for Expe- 

 rimental Physiology was carried off by M. G. Balbiani, who has 

 already distinguished himself by his researches and discoveries in 

 regard to the sexuality of the Infusoria. His present work has been 

 devoted to the constitution of the germ of the animal ovum before 

 fecundation. He has shown that, contrary to the usually-received 

 notions, the germinating element is formed round a different vesicle to 

 that known as the germinal vesicle, or the vesicle of Purkinje. MM. 

 Siebold, Wittich, and Victor Carus, had formerly observed in a spider's 

 egg, a particular corpuscle distinct from this vesicle ; but it had oc- 

 curred to no one that this observation was of fundamental importance. 



