876 
VARIETIES. 
C.  the  mercurial  vapor  may  reach  a  height  of  one  decimeter,  and  at  a  lower 
temperature  to  0°  C,  it  does  not  exceed  two  centimeters.  Faraday  employed 
in  his  experiments  a  plate  of  gold  placed  at  the  requisite  height.  M.  Brame, 
Professor  of  Chemistry  at  Tours,  has  found  on  his  trials,  that  the  vapor 
passes  much  beyond  these  limits.  He  used  a  reagent  more  sensitive  than 
gold,  viz.,  sulphur  deposited  in  a  vesicular  state  on  a  plate  of  glass,  which 
becomes  brown  under  the  influence  of  mercurial  vapor.  In  the  vaults  of 
the  Paris  Observatory  where  the  temperature  is  uniform,  this  reaction  took 
place  at  a  height  of  1*20  metres  in  the  space  of  twenty  days  ;  and  by  pro- 
longing the  experiment  he  was  enabled  to  condense  on  the  surface  a  pon- 
derable quantity  of  mercury.  It  was  the  same  with  mercurial  ointment, 
silver  amalgam,  tin  amalgam,  &c.  From  these  experiments  and  others  tend- 
ing towards  the  same  end,  M.  Brame  concludes  that  the  vapor  of  mercury 
is  subjected  to  the  ordinary  law  for  the  mixture  of  gases  and  vapors. — Sil- 
li?nan's  Journal,  May,  1855. 
Anesthesis  of  Bees. — Apiculturists  often  find  it  desirable  to  stupify  bees, 
when,  for  instance,  there  are  two  feeble  swarms  and  it  is  best  to  kill  the 
queen  of  one.  In  Brittany,  as  well  as  in  Alsace,  the  smoke  of  a  common 
puff  ball,  Lycoperdon  cryptus  Lupi,  has  been  employed  from  time  immemo- 
rial. In  the  Diet.  d'Hist.  Nat.  of  D'Orbigny,  it  is  reported  that  in  Southern 
Russia  the  Lycoperdon  liorrendum  and  the  Endoneuron  suberosum  are  used 
to  intoxicate  the  bees  in  order  to  get  their  honey.  Dr.  de  Beauvoys  has 
taken  up  this  subject,  and  has  found  that  the  best  species  for  the  purpose  is 
the  Lycoperdon  giganteum.  In  using  it,  a  piece  of  the  Lycoperdon  is  put 
on  burning  charcoal  contained  in  a  chafing  dish  and  covered  with  a  funnel 
of  stoneware,  and  the  smoke  is  directed  from  it  into  the  suspended  hive  :  a 
cloth  laid  on  the  ground  receives  the  bees  as  they  fall.  The  experiments 
have  been  repeated  before  the  Zoological  Society,  in  which  the  stupefaction 
of  the  bees  continued  for  half  an  hour. — Ibid, 
Pisciculture. — This  important  subject  has  occupied  much  the  Society  of- 
Acclimation.  A  method  has  now  been  ascertained  by  which  we  may  know 
the  maturity  of  the  eggs  of  certain  fishes,  a  method  which  has  been  arrived 
at  through  the  researches  of  MM.  Valenciennes  and  Fremy  on  the  eggs  of 
osseous  fishes.  These  investigators  have  found  that  the  eggs,  while  adhering 
to  the  ovarian  lamellge,  give  with  water  an  abundant  precipitate  of  a  sub- 
stance named  by  them  Ichtuline  ;  while  the  mature  egg  affords  no  ichtuline  : 
whence  the  eggs  of  certain  fishes  are  ready  for  fecundation  when  they  give 
no  precipitate  with  distilled  water.  In  this  trial  with  the  Cyprinoids,  for 
example,  an  egg  is  taken  and  broken  upon  a  plate  of  glass,  and  a  drop  of 
pure  water  added  :  if  the  liquid  is  not  clear  the  egg  is  not  mature.— -Ibid. 
Production  of  Alcohol. — The  question  bearing  on  the  cheap  production  of 
alcohol  has  not  made  much  progress  since  my  last  communication,  JNTew 
