i88i.j 
Notes. 
181 
A writer in the “Journal of the Society of Arts ” complains 
that “ the ordinary run of tenants do not care and will not pay 
for properly constructed houses.” True, because they have al- 
ready to pay to the full extent of their means, and perhaps 
beyond, for improperly constructed ones ! 
Dr. J. H. Gilbert, F.R.S., doubts, on very substantial grounds, 
the alleged superior value of bread made from the entire wheat. 
Prof. Broadhead, in a paper on the distribution of the Masto- 
don, communicated to the “ Kansas City Review of Science and 
Industry,” refers to traditions proving that this animal must have 
coexisted with the Red Indians. 
On the Grains of Silica and Micrococci of the Atmosphere ' 
By Dr. T. L. Phipson, F.C.S., &c. — At the period of the great 
debate on spontaneous generation between M. Pasteur and 
Pouchet, the latter was the first to draw attention to the faCt 
that some of the minute spherical granulations discovered by the 
microscope in dust deposited from the air in various regions of 
the globe were essentially composed of silica. That they had 
often been mistaken for eggs of Infusoria or for Micrococci was 
very evident, but when the dust was submitted to complete cal- 
cination in a platinum crucible the same grains were still visible, 
with the same forms and dimensions as before. I have more 
than once repeated this experiment of Pouchet’s, but I have also 
made the opposite one, and examined the aCtion of heat upon 
Micrococci, diatoms, and Oscillarise, which are supposed to 
contain large quantities of silica. There is no doubt but that 
the dust of the atmosphere reveals to the microscope, besides 
the larger mineral fragments mostly of an angular shape, exceed- 
ingly minute circular and spherical bodies, having often not more 
than o-ooi of a millimetre in diameter, and very similar in size 
and shape, which resist the adtion of a white heat in contadt with 
the air and that of strong hydrochloric acid. In some of my 
observations they were remarkably numerous. Both, before and 
after the adtion of heat they are more or less transparent. What 
can be the origin of these singular objedts ? The same experi- 
ments repeated with siliceous Algas, such as those belonging to 
the large family of the Diatomacese and with the Micrococci of 
impure waters or vegetable infusions, showed me that they do 
not retain their forms after being subjected to the above treat- 
ment, and that in many instances they can be totally destroyed 
by heat on the objedt-glass itself. On the other hand, the fossil 
diatoms resisted the adtion of heat, and retained their forms. I 
can only draw one conclusion from these observations, namely, 
that the minute siliceous bodies found in the atmosphere are also 
fossil; they are Micrococci of another age . — Chemical News. 
According to MM. Kuhne and Steiner (“ Untersuchungen aus 
dem Physiolog. Institut zu Heidelberg,” iii., p. 327) the eledtric 
