THE yOUNG SCIENTIST. 
177 
this eggs should be selected that contain 
well-developed or advanced (often living) 
minute ink-pots ; this can he easily done 
by means of a powerful pocket-lens. The 
young ink-pots, when placed under a mi- 
croscope, are wonderfully beautiful ob- 
jects, showing both the blood circulation 
and the circulation and constantly chang- 
ing of colors through the pigment cells. 
the squid, which, being provided with 
two powerful jaws resembling a parrot's 
beg^k, was soon devoured, bones and all. 
Fig. 3. 
The squid moves by taking water into 
the hollow funnel or body and ejecting it 
again with great force. This moves the 
squid backwards through the water with 
great speed and in short, jerking reaches. 
One of the curious features of tliis fish is 
the great number of sucking disks that 
are distributed in rows on the short and 
long arms. Each disk consist s of a short 
.and thick cylinder, the center of which 
can be raised so as to establish a vacuum 
between itself and the part to which it ad- 
heres. The sucking power of a medinm- 
.sized squid for its size is very great. The 
food of the squid consists of fish and small 
crustaceans. Tliey have often been ob- 
served at Cape Cod capturing the fry of 
the mackerel, their method of taking so 
nervous, shy, and rapid-moving a fish 
being very interesting. Immense num- 
bers of the squid would approach the 
-shallow water at low tide, and laying flat 
on the bottom, their bodies assuming the 
•color of the sand on which tbey were rest- 
ing, they would wait patiently till a 
:school of young mackerel i)a.ssed over 
them, wlien instantly the long claspers 
•or feeding arms would be shot upwards 
and a young mackerel would be seen to 
disappear. After the long arms had con- 
veyed the fish beneath the water, the 
shorter arms, with their hundreds of 
sucking disks, would entangle the fisli in 
their grasp and convey it to the mouth of 
Overglaze Painting on Porcelain— II. 
BY AURELIO DE VEGA. 
OFT POECELAIN.-It will be 
more convenient to notice next 
the soft porcelain. This is a 
French make. Tlie principal 
l)ortioii of the body is practically a glass. 
The vitrifying materials (sand or flint, 
gyi)sum, and saline and alkaline ingredi- 
ent s) are fritted, that is, njelted, cooled, 
and pulverized, and then mixed with the 
infusible body which is a white marl. The 
proportions being thre,e x^arts of the for- 
mer to one of the latter, the softness of 
the ware is at once recognized. It is prin- 
cipally used for statuettes, vases, and 
such like articles. 
The most perfect examples of this kind 
of ware are found in t he old Sevres ware, 
wdiich is now imitated pretty successfully 
in many establishments at home and 
i abroad. 
' (c.) English Porcelain.— The English 
porcelain differs from tiie hard in tlje in- 
troduction into r.he body of a large in'o- 
portion of calcined l>ones, the effect of 
which is to render it l)etter able to resist 
great heat and sudden changes of tem- 
peratures, and to give it a i)lace as re- 
gards hardness between the other two 
kinds. Three descriptions are made— one 
for ordinary table use, one more delicate 
for dessert and the better tea-services, 
and tlie tliird, somewhat softer, for ob- 
jets cVart. 
'] he innovation which gave character to 
this ware was the work of Josinh Spode, 
who succeeded his father in 1797, and 
since it w^as generally accepted by the 
English makers, similar w^are has been 
regularly made in our factories. 
(7.) Glazes— (a) Hard— As with the 
wares so with the glazes, tliere is great 
variety. The hard porcelain admits of no 
metallic constituent in its glaze, which is 
composed solely of ground felspar or 
" crockery stone," with sometimes an ad- 
dition of gypsum. These materials re- 
quire for their perfect vitrification a very 
high heat, or, as it is called, a hard fire, 
and the glaze is therefore exceedingly 
hard. 
(h.) Soft. The glaze for the soft ware is 
a specially prepared glass of the crystal 
kind, containing' about two-fifth parts of 
lead oxide. Incipient fusion takes place, 
therefore, at a comparatively very low 
temperature. 
(c.) Encilish.-TYie English glaze, like 
the English ware, occupies a middle 
place. It is so far like the hard that it 
