MISCELLANY. 
159 
(Tis all a borrower can say) 
Your loan with int’rest to repay.”— 
Now, tho’ the Ant’s a noted hoarder, 
She feeds no stranger, takes no boarder: 
“ While ’twas fine weather,” she replied. 
How came you not grain to provide ?” 
“ Pardon me ; all my time was spent 
In singing loud, for your content.” 
“ You sung—’twas labour—mighty good: 
Now dance, and try if that be food !” 
CHAPTER OF MISCELLANIES . 
ZOOLOGY. 
The “ Vital Principle” discovered! —A recent anonymous author considers 
that “ the vital principle” is entirely dependent on dew , that being, as he believes, 
“ the primary cause of animal and vegetable organisation while another writer 
(Mr. George Corfe) has made the first principle of life to be dependent upon 
the— -fat! Unless both these writers be mad, the style and entire tenour of their 
publications-—recently issued—can lead to no other conclusion than that their 
sole and anxious desire has been to ridicule Scripture and science.— Ed. 
Arachnoderma. —The Arachnoderma are simple marine animals with a soft 
transparent structure, and of natatory habits; the exquisite delicacy of their 
organisation—resembling a Spiders’s web—suggested to De Blainville the 
name Arachnoderma. The surface of their variously-formed bodies emits an 
acrid secretion, which, when applied to the human skin, produces inflammatory 
action of a character similar to that induced by the stinging of a Nettle. Hence 
the older naturalists designated this group Urticoe-marinoe (Sea-nettles); and 
Cuvier, adopting the idea, called them Acalephce , from AxaXi)^, a Nettle.— 
Thomas Wright, Surgeon, Cheltenham , July 8, 1839. 
The Ring Ouzel near Scarborough. —A male Ring Ouzel in my possession 
was brought from Hackness, where this bird is known to breed. I shot a female 
in the Autumn of 1835, a few miles from this town, on the sea-coast. It was 
probably about to take its departure.— Patrick Hawkridge, Scarborough, 
Aug. 7, 1837. 
Actions of the Dipper under Water. —The ensuing remark will interest 
our readers, in connexion with Mr. MacGillivray’s statements on the subject:— 
I am not altogether satisfied with Mudie’s account of the Dipper’s proceedings 
