ON FRESH SPRINGS EVOLVING NITROGEN GAS. 
7 72 
out of doors, when it flowered, though the 
petals, never, properly expanded. 
A COMMUNICATION WAS ALSO 
READ BY HIM RESPECTING AN 
ELECTRICAL PHENOMENON STA- 
TED TO HAVE OCCURRED IN THE 
GARDEN OF THE DUKE OF BUCK- 
INGHAM, AT STOWE -The following 
w'as the staterrient drawn up by his Grace’s 
direction, of the circumstance alluded to. 
“ On the evening of hhiday the 4th of 
September, 1835, during a storm of thunder 
and lightning, accompanied by heavy rain, 
the flower called (Bnothera macrocarpa, diheA 
of which is in the garden immediately opposite 
tlie windows of the manuscript library at 
•Stowe, were observed to be brilliantly illumi- 
nated hy phosphoric light. 
“ During the intervals of the flashes of 
lightning, the night was exceedingly dark, 
and nothing else could be distinguished in the 
gloom except the bright light upon the leaves 
of these flowers. 
“ Stowe, September, 23rd, 1835.” 
A PAPFR WAS READ BY PROF. 
RIGAUD ON HALLEY’S ASTRONO- 
met: COMETICyE SYNOPSIS.— Halley 
had begun his calculations of cometary orbits 
in 1695, and appears to have completed them 
in l702 ; but it was not till 1705 thathe pub- 
lished his Astronomiae Corneticae Synopsis in 
the Philosophical Transactions for 1705. In 
this he gives the parabolic elements of 24 
comets observed between 1337 and 1698, with 
the table which he formed for calculating 
their molions. This he le-printed separately 
at Oxford in the following summer; and an 
•English translation was published the same 
year, which probably was his own, as he 
adopted it in the second volume of the Miscel- 
lanea Curiosa. The Synopsis was intended for 
the introduction to a larger work, and he prin- 
ted it to secure his calculations from being lost, 
in case of any accident befalling him. 'The 
first edition contains a notice of some similarity 
(on which, however, he did not much depend) 
between the comets of 1681 and 1532, whose 
possible return in 129 years has not been veri- 
fied. In 17l5 the work was re-printed at the 
end of an English translation of Gregory’s 
Astronomy. In this he first speaks of calcula- 
ting the elliptical orbits, and brings forward 
the possible identity of the comets of ll05 and 
1680. In l7l9, with his volume of Astronomi- 
cal Tables, he printed a new edition of the 
Synopsis, in which he entirely omits the men- 
tion of the comets of l66l, but gives elliptical 
elements for those of l680 and 1682, and a 
comparison of the places calculated from them 
with the observations which he could find on 
record. He had likewise discovered some 
earlier observations of the last, which agreed 
well with its revolving in an orbit of about 
75^ years ; and having pointed out the circum- 
.stances which retarded its return, he confi- 
dently concluded that it might be expected 
again in the latter end of l758 or l759. 
MR. KYNSTON EXHIBITED, AND 
PRESENTED TO THE SOCIETY, 
A PRESERVED SPECIMEN OF A 
GRASSHOPPER.— To which were attached 
a number of species of worm, very long, slen- 
der, and convoluted which had fixed them.selves 
upon it, and destroyed it. It was found in 
Switzerland. 
THE PRESIDENT SHEWED A POR- 
TION OF WASP’S NEST MADE IN A 
HOLLOW IN A SUGAR-LOAF -Into 
which the wasps had eaten, and composed of 
the blue and white paper in which the loaf 
was wrapped. The nest was discovered in 
the month of August, and appeared to have 
been begun not long before. No instance 
being as yet known of wasps going out from a 
nest already formed to construct another ii> 
the same year, it is most probable that the 
present nest was begun by a female wasp, 
which had survived the last winter, and not 
by any of the other wasjjs which were en- 
gaged in eating the sugar. 
DR. DAUBENY STATED THAT 
DURING THE LAST AUTUMN HE 
HAD MADE THE DISCOVERY OF 
FRESH SPRINGS WHICH EVOLVE 
NITROGEN GAS.— The first of these was 
the tepid spiing of Mallow in the county of 
Cork, a water which contains but very little 
solid matter. The gas evolved consisted of 
Nitrogen 93'5. Oxygen 6'5. 
It appears to issue from carboniferous lime- 
stone, the beds of which in its immediate 
neighbourhood are vertically disposed, intima- 
ting that they have been affected by some 
violent action since they were originally 
deposited. 
'The other spring, disengaging nitrogen, 
which he observed, was near Clonmell. It 
was a very clear but perfectly cold water, 
called St. Patrick’s well, held in much venera- 
tion in the neighbourhood, and resorted to by 
l)ilgrims in great numbers. Bubbles of gas 
rise up through it, which Dr. Daubeny found 
to consist of 
Nitrogen 94. Oxygen 6. 
The spring gushes out of the same limestone 
stratum, as that of Mallow. 
Nocemhermh. A NOTICE W^ AS COM- 
MUNICATED FROM MR.KIRTLAND 
RESPECTING THE WORM EXHI- 
BITED AT THE LAST MEETING BY 
MR. KYNASTON, WHICH HAD AP- 
PARENTLY DESTROYED A GRASS- 
HOPPER.— It is found to be the gordius 
aquaticus. or hairworm, so called frorn various 
contortions and knots into which it twists 
itself. In a communication made to Loudon’s 
Magazine, vol. ii. p. 2ll, it is said to be often 
met with on the surface of garden or other 
ground in wet weather, as it is in water or 
clay, its common habitation. 
The gordius aquations is not unfrequently 
found to inhabit the intestines of insects. De 
Geer (marshall of the court of the queen of 
Sweden, and member of the Academy of 
Stockholm, and who published a. work intitled 
“ Memoires pour servir a 1’ Histore des In- 
sectes” in 7 vol. 4to. 1752—1779) mentions 
these worms being found in grasshoppers. 
Dr. Matthey likewise mentions one of these 
worms being found in the body of a grasshop- 
per, which was no less than 2^ feet in length. 
Mr. Paxton mentioned a similar case in the 
instance of an earwig. 
