. III

On the Water Rail. By the Rev. John Fleming, D.D. &c. -As the Water Rail is not often observed, and has been by many very imperfectly described, Dr. Fleming's indications, which are minute and accurate, may contribute to obviate future mistakes. The Doctor having thrice met with this species in the winter-season, it probably remains with us during the whole year.

An Account of the Change of Plumage exhibited by many Species of Female Birds, at an advanced Period of Life; intended as a Supplement to Mr. John Hunter's Memoir upon that Subject, in the Philosophical Transactions. By John Butler, F.L.S. Surgeon to the South Devon Militia. - From Mr. Butler's induction of well authenticated cases, we are warranted to infer that the common domestic hen, as well as other female gallinaceous fowls, and probably many more, assume in an advanced age in a greater or less degree the plumage and physiognomy of the male; that they then cease to breed; that they do not long survive this critical period; and that the transmutation in question, so far from being monstrous or anomalous, is probably a regular stage in the constitutional progress of their existence. Future observation and experiment may possibly corroborate these conclusions. In the mean time, Mr. Butler seems to have ascertained that the domestic fowl may live fifteen or twenty years; though it usually falls a sacrifice to political economy long before that period, and is therefore very seldom seen arrayed in the decorations of the male.

Account of some Fossil Remains of the Beaver, (Castor Fiber, L.) found in Perthshire and Berwickshire, proving that that Animal was formerly a Native of Scotland. By the Secretary. Two passages, one in the Leges Wallica and the other in the Itinerarium Cambria of Giraldus de Barri, have more than once been quoted in testimony of the former existence of the Beaver in Wales; and the Welsh and Gaelic appellations of this quadruped, which have obviously the same etymology, and denote the Broad-tailed Otter, together with the assertion of Boethius, have also been cited in support of its quondam residence in Scotland. More satisfactory evidence of the latter fact has now occurred, the skeletons of two Beavers having been dug up, the one in Perthshire and the other in Berwickshire, both in the neighbourhood of former marshes. The circumstances are minutely recorded by Mr. Neill.

On the Rocks of Sandside, in Caithness. By Professor Jameson. The purport of this paper is to shew that the syenites, granites, conglomerates, sand-stones, and lime-stones

of the district described, pass into one another, and are therefore to be regarded as of contemporaneous formation. The geological phænomenon of the transition of quartz, or sand-stone, into highly crystallized granite-rock, is either of rare occurrence or has been seldom noticed.

Geognosy of East Lothian. By the Same. In his introduction to this contribution, the learned President somewhat loosely, in our apprehension, classes gravel and peat among the alluvial rocks. As the transition-series of strata in East Lothian had been previously described by a member of the Society, the Professor passes to the consideration of the secondary rocks, and limits his present range of inquiry to the red sand-stone; a deposit which constitutes a considerable portion of the county, and which, where its junctions can be observed, is found to rest on transition-rocks, and to be covered by the coal-formation. Its associate members are varieties of the trap-series, and lime-stone, of which the characters, positions, and bearings, are carefully particularized. The trap-rocks occasionally contain amethyst, either imbedded or in the form of veins, red and white zeolites, and jaspers, of various descriptions. Along the coast are extensive and interesting displays of trap-conglomerate, which is sometimes quarried for oven-stones. The structure of the sand-stone beds is often apparently irregular and capricious: but, according to the author, most of the puzzling appearances vanish when we consider the dips and directions as belonging not to different strata, but to the structure of a stratum, or series of rocks, composed of distinct concretions. The insulated conical hill, called North Berwick Law, composed of trap-conglomerate, amygdaloid, and clink-stone porphyry, is presumed not to overlie the sand-stone, but to rise through it, and to form the upper portion of a huge imbedded mass.

Account of the Effects of the Juice of the Papaw Tree (Carica Papaya), in intenerating Butcher's Meat. By the late Dr, Holder. The marked action of the juice of this tree on the consistency of the muscular fibre, and on the fibrin of the blood, is a fact well known to the inhabitants of Barbadoes, who daily avail themselves of it in their cookery. Unless cautiously applied, however, the effect is too powerful; and the flesh may be rendered sufficiently tender by simply suspending it for some time to the boughs of the tree. The induced relaxation of the muscular fibre seems to be independent of the putrefactive process, which, however, it has a tendency to promote, and accelerate. Although the fruit is used by all

* See Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, vol. ii. p. 618.

ranks

ranks with impunity, the juice obtained by incision into the tree, and taken internally, produces the same effect on the living animal as when applied externally to a dead one: but the quality, on which this property depends, appears to be readily volatilized by heat.

Account of the Travelled Stone near Castle Stuart, Invernessshire. By Thomas Lauder Dick, Esq. The transportation of a mass of conglomerate rock, supposed to weigh about eight tons, to 260 yards from its former position, and independently of human aid, may at first be deemed hardly credible: but the fact in the present instance is perfectly well attested, and the circumstances by which it is explained are not inadequate to the effect; for the immense sheet of ice in which it was enveloped had rendered it buoyant, and its movement was aided by the retiring tide and a concurrent hurricane.

Abstract of a Paper on the Scale of Being, and particularly on Organization and the Living Principle. By John Campbell, Esq. - Without plunging into the darkest recesses of metaphysical speculation, we cannot pursue the train of argumentation which is suggested by this short abstract.

Suffice

it to mention that the author labors to prove the existence of a living principle, independent of organization and of the human soul; a principle which we may recognize in the vegetable kingdom, destined to regulate the functions of which the organs have been rendered susceptible, and to vanish with the extinction of mere animal existence. Is this principle, then, we may ask, spiritual? and, if so, does it originate and perish with the formation and dissolution of every organized being? Are a soul and a living principle, and capacity of vital functions, all distinctly impressed on the rudiments of every animal, when in the form of an almost imperceptible speck of matter? or, if not, at what other stage of the living being are they superinduced on the organic elements? - Of many questions, however, as of many books, there is no end.

-

On the Nutrition of Cuticle, Nails, Hair, Feathers, and Plants. By H. Dewar, M. D., &c. Much of philosophical conception and masterly writing is evinced in this memoir; and we perfectly agree with the author in thinking that the nutrition of the parts in question cannot, in fairness, be explained on the commonly received notions of circulation; because, in the laws of capillary action, limits are prescribed to the tenuity of the sanguiferous vessels; and in hair, feathers, &c. or at least in a great proportion of their extent, no vessels whatever are discernible. Again, the position that these parts are mere secretions is equally untenable; for, when the

hair becomes grey, the change does not in the first instance take place at the root, and then gradually ascend, but occurs simultaneously over the whole length. Besides, to hairs of all descriptions a maximum of growth is assigned, and a particular constitution, which they do not pass.

'We cannot suppose that the case is different with the nails of the fingers and toes. We are never told that those personages in the East who preserve the nails of the fingers without paring receive a constant accession to the length of these organs during the whole of their lives. Indeed, we find that, when the paring of the nails of the toes is utterly neglected, although their length becomes inconvenient, it reaches a ne plus ultra. In these particulars, therefore, the nutrition of hair, nails, and feathers, must be concluded to obey similar laws.

• The only question which remains is, how can we suppose the nutriment to be conveyed to all the parts of these organs? The answer which I return to this question is, that this matter is sent to the parts by vaporization, and appropriated by hygrometric attraction. The halitus is maintained, and prevented from escaping by various circumstances.

In some of these organs, it is kept up by the close apposition of all their parts to organs which are pervaded by flowing liquids. This is the case with the cuticle and the nails, which lie flat upon the cutis vera.

In those organs which are connected with the body by a minute area, such as hairs and feathers, the halitus is retained partly by hygrometric attraction, and partly by the close envelope afforded by their own most superficial stratum. These two

properties bear an inverse proportion to one another; where the one is in a small degree, the other makes up for the deficiency, by being in itself more considerable. The sum-total of retentive powers of moisture thus possessed may not be strictly equal in all, but proportioned to the degree of adaptation of the different substances to circumstances of external condition.

We are, therefore, to conceive, on the whole, that there is in the interior of all such organs a constant dampness without any flowing liquidity; and that this dampness contributes to the transmission of all nutritious impregnations; in the same manner in which we find, that the presence of moisture promotes the evolution of those exhalations which announce to the sense of smell certain differences of character in the properties of different animal substances. The quantities of matter thus conveyed must be more minute than those which pass in the state of blood. But the transmission is constant; the assimilating functions of the nourished parts are always active; and we are not authorized to pronounce on the maximum of the proportion which is taken from the transmitted substance for the purpose of assimilation.

The structure, though thus open, must not be conceived to be indeterminate. There are passages of various qualities, through some of which the halitus is conveyed more readily, and through

others

others less. These passages differ not only in width, but in the constitution of their parietes, both with respect to hygrometric properties, and to the degree and kind of their assimilating power. In short, we are warranted to conceive a nutrition to go on in this manner with as exquisite niceness and as rich variety, as by means of circulating liquids. Here, however, we must stop. The particular laws by which the ultimate minutiæ of the process are accomplished elude our inquiry. But they are not more mysterious in the epidermis, in nails, in hair, and in feathers, on the doctrine which I have ventured to advance, than in the organs in which the circulating apparatus is traced in the most satisfactory manner.

This doctrine, it is obvious, may be also called into the aid of the physiology of insects and of that of plants. To many of the latter, it will be found indispensably requisite; as, for example, those of the class Cryptogamia, and more especially the tribe of

lichens.'

A similar principle may be applied to the case of various animals and plants, wholly immersed in fluids; and in which any propulsion of fluids, in the way of circulation, remains to be proved.

Observations on the Genus Picus of Linnæus, with Descriptions of two New Species from the Interior of Brazil. By William Swainson, F.L.S. A highly commendable zeal for the prosecution of natural science induced Mr. Swainson to explore the remote regions of Brazil, and the public have already reaped much interesting knowlege from his labors. The two additions, which he here contributes to the marked family of Pici, are denominated Chrysosternus, or the Goldenbreasted, and Braziliensis, or Brazilian Woodpecker. The former, which is banded with whitish streaks, has the sides of the head, the neck, and the breast, gold-yellow, and the crown of the head and the throat black. It was observed in the arid tracts of table-land, in the Sertem, or inland county of Bahia. Unlike the rest of its tribe, it utters a short plaintive cry, while flying, and frequently perches on stunted trees. The Brazilian species is olive above, tawny beneath, with transverse black striæ; the upper part of the head is subcrested and red, and the sides shaded with olive, yellow, and red. It inhabits the same situation as the former.

Descriptions of several new or rare Native Plants, found in Scotland, chiefly by the late Mr. George Don of Forfar. By David Don. The species to which this title refers are Veronica Setigera, Poa Stricta, Poa Leptostachya, Chorophylhum Aromaticum, Orobus Tenuifolius, Lychnis Alpina, and Potentilla Opaca.

On the Rocky Mountain-Sheep of the Americans. By Professor Jameson.- The animal in question seems to belong to

a genus