420 



Fall of part of Dent da Midi. 



[April 



tissue, which was highly injected. Dr. Benza remarks on the singular 

 anomaly of rinding undigested bones so low down in the intestine of an 

 animal possessed of such digestive power as the tiger, and accounts for 

 it by supposing, that these pieces of bone became entangled? 7 in the 

 stomach with the wool and hair of the sheep, which formed the ordinary 

 food of the animal ; these latter substances being more indigestible than 

 the bones, covering them with a sort of felt coat protected them from 

 the action of the gastric juice, and thus the whole ball passed down un- 

 changed into the intestines. At length this ball being deprived of the 

 greater portion of its woolly covering, the spiculaj became exposed, and 

 protruded against the intestine, greatly irritating it, thereby causing a 

 thickening and constriction, by which the pieces of bone were held in 

 one position, until they produced ulceration. Dr. Benza's account was 

 accompanied by a preparation of the perforated intestine. — Ibid, p, 



XXIII. 



Fall of -part of Dent du Midi. — M. Elie de Beaumont read to the Geo- 

 logical Society of France a communication from M. Lardy upon the 

 fall of a part of the Dent du Miai, one of the high Alps. This fall, 

 took place on the 26th of August 1835. M. Lardy states, that on Tues- 

 day the 25th of August there was a violent storm in the evening all 

 round the Dent du Midi ; and it was asserted that its peak was often 

 struck by the thunderbolt. Next day, the 26th, -between ten and eleven 

 o'clock in the morning, a very considerable portion of this peak sudden- 

 ly broke off from its eastern edge, and precipitated itself with a dread- 

 ful crash upon the glacier which is situated upon the southern side of 

 the Dent, and in its descent drew along with it an immense proportion 

 of this glacier. This enormous mass of stone and ice fell into the deep 

 ravine which separates the Dent du Midi from the Col de Salenfe, 

 into which the torrent of St. Barthelemy runs. Speedily there issued 

 from this gorge, through which this torrent flows to the valley of the 

 Rhone, as it were, a mountain of black and viscid mire, on the surface 

 of which there floated vast masses of rock of all dimensions, some of 

 them as much as twelve feet high. This liquid mass, like a flow of 

 lava, directed itself towards the Rhone, across the forest of pines which 

 covers this part of the valley, drawing along with it every thing it met 

 in its way. Trees of the largest size were overturned, and crushed 

 like reeds. On reaching the bank of the river, it precipitated itself into 

 it, thus forming an expanse of mud, which was fearful to behold. The 

 fragments of rock contained in the mud were also impelled into the 

 Rhone, whose waters were thrown to the opposite bank, and forced to 

 re-ascend their channel to a considerable distance. The great road 

 covered by this mire and these stones became impracticable, and it was 



