41^ ScieMific InteUige/nce. 
served by any person in the sliip. Had the bone been with- 
drawn, the vessel would probably have foundered. The sub- 
stances through which it had penetrated were, a sheet of cop^ 
per, an oak plank inches in thickness, a solid oak timber of 
7| inches, and another plank also of oak, of 2 inches. The 
bony substance, which, through the politeness of Messrs Fisher, 
I was allowed to examine, is 15^ inches in length, 9.^ inches 
greatest diameter, and weighs 1 lb. 2 oz. It is nearly cylindri- 
cal at the point, but considerably compressed towards the root. 
The longest and shortest diameters in the middle, are respec- 
tively inches and Ifo ^ thickest part, near the 
extremity, 2 inches and 1^^^. Most of the surface is rough, 
the colour grey, the fracture splintery. The roughness, which 
extends all round the bone to the distance of 5 or 6 inches 
from the point, and indeed all over it, excepting on a part of 
the surface, consists of minute tubercles or denticles, imbedded 
in a substance having the appearance of an incrustation of the 
thickness of a shilling. Some of the tubercles are wanting, but 
their cavities remain visible. Whether these tubercles are na- 
tural to the substance on which they are found, or whether they 
are the incrustation of a species of sertularia, I had not an op- 
portunity of determining. That part of the surface which is free 
from any denticles, appears of a fibrous bony texture. The 
broken extremity is hard, white, and splintery in the fracture. 
In the interior of the bone are four angular perforations, running 
longitudinally almost as far as the very tip ; they are from j’^th 
to |th of an inch in their largest diameter.— IFm. Scoreshy]\m. 
32. Propagation of the common Swammer- 
dam says, that the common earth-worm is first extruded in the 
form of ova or eggs, while many later writers, on the con- 
trary, maintain, that they are viviparous or produce living 
young. In an excellent inaugural thesis by Dr Leo, on the 
structure of the Lumbricus terrestris, published in Germany, the 
old opinion of Swammerdam is confirmed, and the accuracy 
of Dr Leo's observations has been confirmed by the approval 
of the celebrated Rudolphi. 
S3. Preservation of Eggs.—A.^ it is of great importance in a 
zoologic'al, and even in an economical view, to be able to transport 
