Reviews and Extracts. 
41 
On the Characters and Affinities of certain Genera, chiefly bedongin^ to the 
Flora Peruviana, by Mr, David Don.—On the Adaptation of the Fly-wheel and 
Pulley of the Turning Lathe, to a given length of Bund, by Mr. Edward Sang, 
Teacher of Mathematics, Edinburgh.—On the Developement of the Vascular 
System in the Fmtusof Vertebrated Animals, by Allan Thompson, M.D.—Analy¬ 
sis of a powerful Chalybeate Water from Vicar’s Bridge, near Dollor, in Clack¬ 
mannanshire, by Arthur Connell, Esq. F.R.S.E.—Observations on the History 
and Progress of Comparative Anatomy, by D. Cragie, M.D.—On Indian Hail¬ 
storms, by A. Turnbull Christie, M.D.—On the Form of the Ark of Noah.— 
Remarkson Audubon’s Birds of America, and Ornithological Biography.—Obser¬ 
vations on the Glaciers of the Alps, by J. F. Hngi, Professor at Soieure. 
New Ohservatio-ns on the Blood-likc Phenomc^ra observed in Egypt, Arabia and 
Siberia; zvith a Nieiv and Critique of the early Accounts of similar Appearances 
by Mr. C. G. Ehrenborgh Scoresby, in a commzinieaiion to Profe.9sor 
Jameson. 
He informs us that he observed orange coloured snow in Greenland, and he attri- 
butes the colour to minute marine animals. In the year 1824, a report was general 
in the province of Padau, that blood-red spots were observed on all kinds of food, 
Mr. Sette observed that it was owing to a small red mushroom, belonging to the 
genus m'icoderma of Persoon. De Candolle, in 1825, observed the surface of the 
Merton Lake in Switzerland, of a red colour j this he ascertained to be caused by 
a minute plant, a species of oscillatoria, which he named from its colour ruhescens. 
An extensive series of laborious observations on the chemical ingredients of mete¬ 
oric masses, by Professor Zimmerman, of Giessen, are connected with our present 
subject. These were occasioned by tlie occurrence of a red shower that fell in 
Giessen, 3rd May, 1821. Its water was of a peach-red colour, and flakes of a 
hyacinth colour floated on its surface. It was only chemically analysed, but had it 
been botanically and microscopically examined, which it was not, it might easily 
have afibrded a satisfactory result. The collective result of this investigation was, 
that there is in meteoric water, a peculiar animal and vegetable substance, chemi¬ 
cally diflerent from the extractive matter, and from the gluten of plants and 
animals j and this substance, on account of its uniform yellowish brown colour, is 
called pyrhine, that is, j'ellow matter. Among the different volatile substances 
formed near the surface of the earth, this may betaken up by the clouds in an aerial 
form, and again precipitated in rain water, as a stimulant and nutritive material 
for plants and the lower animals. There is also annexed an observation made at 
Cairo, in Egypt, in the months of .lanuary and February, 1821 and 1823, where 
the redness of the waters &c. were discovered to be produced by animal, vegetable, 
and inorganic bodies, the various descriptions of which Mr. Ehrenburgh gives. 
♦ 
(to be continued,) 
V oi. 1, No. 1. 
G 
