* * * * *
_Hydrophobia in Foxes._
Foxes become mad occasionally, and there have been examples of dogs,
which having been bitten by mad foxes, have not caught the disease. In
these cases it has been proved that the stomachs of the foxes were filled
with wood, earth, stones, leaves, hair, and other substances improper for
nourishment. On the contrary, when the madness has been communicated, the
stomach and intestines have been found completely empty. From this
difference, it is concluded that hunger is the cause of madness in foxes;
and this agrees with the results which occurred during and after the
rigorous winter of 1826-7, when these animals, with many others, suffered
from want of nourishment.--_From the French._
* * * * *
_Ripening Fruit._
Slates have recently been employed in France for hastening the ripening
of fruits. The effect was first observed on a slate roof; since which the
slates have been placed beneath the fruit on walls.
* * * * *
_Hatching Eggs by Hot Mineral Waters._
This curious process has lately been practised with great success in the
south of France. It consists in putting the eggs into a small basket,
suspending the latter in a stove heated by the hot mineral water, and
turning the eggs every day. The first trial was attended with success,
and no failure was experienced in four repetitions of it.
* * * * *
_Lake Erie._
The height of Lake Erie above the Atlantic Ocean, has been ascertained to
be 565 feet. The barrier which contains it is so low, that, were it only
to rise six feet, it would inundate, on its northern and western borders,
seven millions of acres, now partly occupied by towns, villages, and
farms; and it is estimated that a further rise of six or eight feet would
precipitate a vast flood of waters over the state of Illinois, from the
south end of Michigan; the great Canadian Lakes then discharging also
into the Mexican Gulf.--_Brande's Journal._
* * * * *
_The Cuckoo_
Has done more for our music than musicians may be willing to allow; but
it is no more than justice to a despised bird to say, that from it we
have derived the minor scale, whose origin has puzzled so many; the
cuckoo's couplet being the minor third sung downwards.--_Mag. Nat. Hist._
* * * * *
_Immense Fir-tree._
In the Museum of Natural History at Strasburg, is shown the trunk of a
silver fir-tree, from the forest of Hochwald, at Barr, in Alsatia. The
tree was 150 feet high, with a trunk perfectly straight and free from
branches to the height of 50 feet, after which it was forked with the one
shoot 100 feet long, and the other somewhat shorter. The diameter of the
trunk at the surface of the ground was 8 feet; estimated age 350
years.--_Ibid._
* * * * *
_The Weather by Frogs._
The editor of the _Magazine of Natural History_, in his Notes during a
recent tour on the continent, says, "at Schwetzingen, in the post-house,
we witnessed, for the first time, what we have since seen frequently, an
amusing application of zoological knowledge, for the purpose of
prognosticating the weather. Two frogs, of the species **_R_àna arbòrea,
are kept in a crystal jar, about 18 inches high, and 6 inches in diameter,
with a depth of three or four inches of water at the bottom, and a small
ladder reaching to the top of the jar. On the approach of dry weather,
the frogs mount the ladder; but, when moisture is expected, they descend
into the water. These animals are of a bright green, and in their wild
state here, climb the trees in search of insects, and make a peculiar
singing noise before rain. In the jar they get no other food than now and
then a fly; one of which, we were assured, would serve a frog for a week,
though it will eat from six to twelve in a day if it can get them. In
catching the flies put alive into the jar the frogs display great
adroitness."
* * * * *
_Human Remains._
The remarkable fact, that no vestiges of human remains have been
discovered with those of the more ancient inhabitants of the globe, is at
present fully confirmed; nor have any fossil bones of monkeys hitherto
been found. Mr. Bakewell, however, observes, that the vast diluvial beds
of gravel and clay, and the upper strata in Asia, have not yet been
scientifically explored; and both sacred and profane writers agree in
regarding the temperate regions of that continent as the cradle of the
human race.--_Bakewell's Geology._
* * * * *
_Food of Bees._
The American black willow and the red maple, are the first trees that are
visited by bees. They are fond of the crocus, which is the earliest of
our bulbous roots. The stercorary and piggery are next resorted to by
these insects, and the extract absorbed from them must be used as a tonic.
Blossoms of all kinds, excepting those of the red clover and of the
honeysuckle, are excellent food; and the bees especially profit by the
increased attention bestowed at present on the cultivation of the
peach-tree in some parts of America. They not only drink the nectar and
abstract the pollen of the flower, but they appropriate the peach itself.
We have seen twenty or thirty bees devour a peach in half an hour; that
is, they carried the juices of it to their cells. The humming-bird alone
can reach the bottom of the nectary of the honeysuckle; but even here the
instinct of the bee is seen. The small birds, such as the wren, make an
incision on the outside, near the bottom of the flower, and extract a
part of the juices. The bee takes advantage of this opening, and avails
itself of what is left. The scent of bees is so acute, that every flower
which has a powerful odour can be discovered by them at a great distance.
Strawberry blossoms, mignonette, wild and garden thyme, herbs of all
kinds, apple, plum, cherry, and above all, raspberry blossoms and white
clover, are delicious food for them, and a thriving orchard and apiary
fitly go together.
_North American Review_.
* * * * *
_Singing Birds_.
Those who have paid attention to the singing of birds, know well that
their voice, energy, and expression differ as widely as in man; and
agreeably to this remark, Mr. Wilson (the celebrated ornithologist) says
he was so familiar with the notes of an individual wood thrush, that he
could recognise him from all his fellows the moment he entered the woods.
_Mag. Nat. Hist_.
* * * * *
_Gigantic Fossils._
Some gigantic bones have been exhibited at New Orleans, but the place
where they were found is not mentioned in the communication. They consist
of one of the bones of the cranium, fifteen or twenty vertebras, two
entire ribs, and part of a third, one thigh bone, two bones of the leg,
&c. The cranial bone was upwards of twenty feet in its greatest length,
about four in extreme width, and it weighed 1,200 lbs. The ribs measured
nine feet along the curve, and about three inches in thickness. It had
been conjectured that the animal to which these bones belonged was
amphibious, and perhaps of the crocodile family. It was also supposed
that the animal when alive, must have measured twenty-five feet round the
body, and about 130 feet in length.
_Trans. **Geoloy. Soc._
* * * * *
_The Cochineal Insect._
Our readers are doubtless aware that cochineal, so extensively used in
this country for dying,[1] is a beautiful insect abundantly found in
various parts of Mexico and Peru. Some of these insects have lately been
sent over to Old Spain, and are doing remarkably well on the prickly pear
of that country; indeed, they are said to rival even those of Mexico in
the quality and brilliancy of their dye.
Their naturalization may doubtless be extended along the shores of the
Mediterranean, Sicily, and the different states of Greece. The prickly
pear is indigenous in those places, and by little cultivation will afford
sufficient nourishment for the cochineal insects. We are also assured,
(says an intelligent correspondent of _The Times_,) that these precious
insects were introduced last year on the island of Malta, by Dr. Gorman,
on account of the government, and that they are likely to do well on that
island.
Dr. Gorman discovered a few weeks since, in the botanic garden at
Cambridge, the _grona sylvestris_, or wild species of cochineal, living
among the leaves of the coffee-plants, the acacia, &c. This is the kermes,
or gronilla of Spain, about which so much has been said in endeavouring
to identify it with the grona fina. At all events, this is the same
species as the gronilla found on the hairs of the green oaks in Andalusia;
and in some years large and valuable crops of the gronilla are gathered
in that part of Spain by the peasantry, and sold to the Moors to dye
their scarlet.
The gardener at Cambridge could not inform Dr. Gorman how long the
insects had been there, or from whence they came, but they went there by
the appellation of "amelca bug." The gardener found these insects very
destructive to plants upon which they fostered, and although he tried
every means short of injuring the plants to remove them, he found it
impossible, as they adhere to the leaves and parts of the stem with such
tenacity, and are so prolific, that the young ones are often found
spreading themselves over the neighbouring plants. On this account, it
would be worth while to attempt the cultivation of the prickly pear in
the open air in this country, and place the insects upon them, for in all
probability the insects would, by good management, do well.
[1] It is computed that there have been imported into Europe no less a
quantity than 880,000 lbs. weight of cochineal in one year!
* * * * *
_Fossil Turtle._
The remains of a sea turtle have lately been discovered, and are now in
the possession of Mr. Deck, of Cambridge. It is imbedded in a mass of
septaria, weighing upwards of 150 pounds, with two fine specimens of
fossil wood; and was obtained in digging for cement stone, about five
miles from Harwich, in three fathoms water, where, as a mass of stone, it
had been used for some time as a stepping block.--_Bakewell's Geology._
* * * * *
_Geological Changes._
The following are the writers whose opinions have obtained the greatest
celebrity, as advocates for particular systems accounting for the
formation and subsequent alteration of the earth:--
Mr. Whitehurst taught that the _concentric arrangement_ of the crust of
the globe was destroyed by the expansive force of subterranean fire.
Burnet's theory supposes this crust to have been broken for the
production of the deluge.
Leibnitz and Buffon believed the earth to have been liquefied by fire; in
fact, that it is an extinguished sun or vitrified globe, whose surface
has been operated upon by a deluge. The latter assumes that the earth was
75,000 years in cooling to its present temperature, and that, in 98,000
years more, productive nature must be finally extinguished.
Woodward considered there was a temporary dissolution of the elements of
the globe, during which period the extraneous fossils became incorporated
with the general mass.
De Luc, Dolomieu, and, finally Baron Cuvier, unite in the opinion, that
the phenomena exhibited by the earth, particularly the alternate deposits
of terrestrial and marine productions, can only be satisfactorily
accounted for by a series of revolutions similar to the deluge.
Among the singular views entertained by men of genius, in the infancy of
the science, are those of Whiston, "who fancied that the earth was
created from the atmosphere of one comet, and deluged by the tail of
another;" and that, for their sins, the antediluvian population were
drowned; "except the fishes, whose passions were less violent."
A French geologist conceived that the sea covered the earth for a vast
period; that all animals were originally inhabitants of the water; that
their habits gradually changed on the retiring of the waves, and "that
man himself began his career as a fish!"--_Mag. Nat. Hist._
* * * * *