steps. Whether it had caught any beetles or spiders in the cellar, I cannot say; but it looked as fierce as a hawk, and hissed and shook its tongue, as in open defiance. I could not think of hurting it by smoking it out with tobacco or brimstone; but called it my fiery dragon which guarded my ale cellar. At length I caught it, coiled up on one of the steps. I put it again into an American flour barrel; but it happened not to be the same as he had been in, and I observed a nail protruding through the staves about half way up. This, I suppose, he had made use of to help his escape; for he was missing one morning about ten o'clock: I had seen him at nine o'clock; so I thought he could not be far off. I looked about for him for half an hour, when I gave up the hunt in despair. However, at one o'clock, as the men were going from dinner, one of them observed the rogue hiding himself under a stone, fifty yards from the house. "Dang my buttons," said he, "if here is not master's snake." He came back and told my wife, who told him to go and kill it. It happened to be washing-day: the washerwoman gave him a pailful of scalding soapsuds to throw on it; but whether he was most afraid of me or of the snake is still a question: however, the washerwoman brought it home with the tongs, and dropped it into the dolly-tub. It dashed round the tub with the velocity of lightning; my daughter, seeing its agony, snatched it out of the scalding liquid, but too late: it died in a few minutes. I was not at all angry with my wife: I had had my whim, and she had had hers. I had got all the knowledge I wanted to get; I had learned that it was of no use for a human being, who requires food three times a day, to domesticate an animal which can live weeks and months without food for, as the saying is, "Hunger will tame any thing;" and without hunger you can tame nothing. I have also learned that the serpent, instead of being the emblem of wisdom, should have been the emblem of stupidity. Sir, yours, &c. - John Howden. Near Cheadle, Staffordshire.

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The stench emitted by the common snake, when molested, is superlatively noisome; and is given off so powerfully and copiously, that it infects the air around to a diameter of several yards. This I witnessed on observing a bitch dog kill a rather large snake; in which act two points beside the odour effused were notable. The coils of the snake formed, as it were, a circular wall; and in the circular space between it, the snake sunk its head, as if for protection. The dog's efforts were to catch and crush the head; and, shrivelling up her fleshy lips, "which all the while ran froth," she kept thrusting the points of her jaws into the circular pit aforesaid, and

catching at and fracturing the head. During the progress of these acts, she, every few seconds, snorted, and shook off the froth, of which she seemed sedulously careful to free herself, and barked at the conquered snake. The dog was a most determined vermin-killer, and in rats, &c., quite an accomplished one; but snakes did not often come in her way. J.D.

Snakes taking the Water. I once saw a snake in a broad ditch which had been shortly previous "scoured out," as the phrase is, and which was, therefore, devoid of the usual aquatic plants, save the Lémnæ, which floated on the water's surface. As Coluber Natrix waddled along in the water, his golden head and arched neck looked prettily, and were none the less obvious for the green surface supplied by the above named mantling Lémnæ. Does the snake always bolt its food, that is, swallow it whole? I think, not always: for I remember once, in company with a party of haymakers, coming to a sloping ditch side, where a snake lay stretched out, with its head lowest, and near the water in the bottom of the ditch, where it was eating a water newt. One of the haymakers seized the snake by its tail, and held it so that it hung perpendicularly from his hand. Hereupon the newt fell upon the grass; and when the man had held the snake as long as he pleased, he let it down; when it dashed through the water in the ditch to the opposite side, and slid off among the grass and bushes. Attention was now directed to the newt, whose hinder portion had been eaten off; and the part where erosion had ceased displayed thickish blood, of an almost vermilion colour: appearing, doubtless, more striking from its contrast with the dark skin of the newt. - J. D.

Zoophytes at Bury St. Edmunds. The description of a beautiful aquatic animal by Mr. G. Johnston, in the January Number of this Magazine (p. 43.), brings to my recollection a singular phenomenon that I observed, in the summer of 1825, in a small canal which passes across the botanic garden at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Walking with Mr. Hodson, the proprietor, round the garden, he directed my attention to the dark blood-red colour of the bottom of the canal, occurring in patches about the size of a large cabbage leaf. At first I supposed it was occasioned by some species of minute aquatic moss that grew at the bottom of the water. Mr. Hodson desired I would strike the earth with my feet: this did not sensibly agitate the water, but the red colour at the bottom of the canal gradually though quickly disappeared, without in the least disturbing the mud, or affecting the transparency of the water. In a few minutes, while we remained quiet, the

red colour began to appear again, and spread over the spaces it had before occupied. On striking the earth again, it disappeared in a similar manner, and then reappeared a second time. The experiment was several times repeated, with the same results. The proprietor said that no one had given any satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon. I was, however, immediately convinced that the substance which produced the colour was of an animal, and not of a vegetable, nature; and I had no doubt that it was some species of minute radiated animal, that sent forth its red tentacula like the sea anemone. If the botanic garden at Bury be still in existence, perhaps some of your correspondents may have an opportunity of examining, with more attention, an appearance so unfrequent in fresh water. - R. B.

With sincerest deference to R. B., the occurrence of this animal is far less "unfrequent" than the above remarks suppose; as it may be found in most drains where mud has accuinulated, and over which a slowly flowing stream of partially impure water passes. This is the character of the canal or brook in the above botanic garden; and although a new site for the garden has recently been chosen, there is next to no doubt of the permanence of this brook (the river Linnet is its historical name, it being a tributary of the river Lark, into which it falls at the northern extremity of the old botanic garden); because it is a prescriptive watercourse, or sewer, connected with the drainage of a part of the town to the south. Specimens of the animal, therefore, can, as suggested by R. B., be procured from this particular habitat; but, in truth, there is no need to apply there for specimens, as they will be found in all places of the above character. In the end of February, 1832, I had the pleasure to observe numerous clusters of them in a small ditch or drain in which was some almost stagnant water; not quite half a mile from the end of Oxford Street, on the Bayswater Road. They would still have been there, as the animal scarcely possesses (so I believe) locomotion, although highly capable of exserting and withdrawing its tentacula, but for the rage for perfect drainage which the apprehensions of cholera have recently occasioned. The writer of these remarks has the honour of Mr. Hodson's personal acquaintance, and remembers that Mr. Hodson, jun., who was, in 1828, residing at Cambridge, sent thence to his father the following extract from a London newspaper, asking, at the time, if the animal described was not, without question, identical with that occurring in the Linnet, in the Bury Botanic Garden. J. D.

Fresh-water Polypus. In the shallow ditches in the vici

nity of Blackheath, Kent, a species of Hydra is very abundant; and may be observed, when the water is clear, spreading its reddish tentacula over the mud beneath which its body is concealed. The tentacula are very sensitive; for, the instant that the water is agitated, or even touched, they are withdrawn rapidly within the mud. When taken up, and placed in a glass with water, these zoophytes afford an interesting subject of observation for the young naturalist. (Newspaper, 1828.)

Infusory Animalcules. - The German naturalist, Professor Ehrenberg has been for years prosecuting researches on these beings, and has discovered wonders on wonders. Meredith Gairdner, M.D., in a late visit to Berlin, cultivated the acquaintance of Ehrenberg, who explained to him fully, by prelections and the exhibition of the animals (in particular, the anatomy of the Vorticella cítrina Müll., Rótifer vulgàris of Schrank, and Hydátina sénta), his important discoveries and views. Of all these Dr. Gairdner gives, in a masterly style, an" Analysis," in Jameson's Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for October, 1831, and January, 1832. Dr. Gairdner considers Professor Ehrenberg's discoveries "on the structure and functions of the animals, commonly classed under the denomination of Infusòria," as forming an epoch in the science of phytozoology. He remarks," I fancy my reader to pause at the mention of structure and functions in animals, the discovery of whose existence merely has been hitherto deemed the ultimatum of zoological research, and regarding which the sum total of our knowledge has been hitherto confined to a few details on their external forms and active motions; yet, in the midst of their transparent tissues, Dr. Ehrenberg has, by a peculiarly ingenious method of observation, developed a highly complicated organisation, which, with those who arrange the animal kingdom in a linear series, will remove them far from the extremity of the scale. The existence of a digestive, muscular, and generative apparatus is established beyond a doubt: and organs have been also discovered which bear great analogy with the vascular and nervous systems. The great changes which these facts must make in the systematic distribution of these animals are obvious. Nay, from some circumstances, we are inclined to believe that future observations may place these microscopic creations in a parallel order with their more apparent prototypes, and with not less varied and interesting gradations of structure." Dr. Gairdner, in proceeding to exhibit the achievements of Dr. Ehrenberg, divides his subject into these heads: 1st, The History of

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Phytozoology: 2d, The Organisation of Infusory Animalcules: 3d, Their Classification: 4th, Their Geographical Distribution.

In the historical part, appraisements of the respective labours of Müller, Nitsch, Schrank, Treviranus, Dutrochet, Oken, Lamarck, Cuvier, Corti, Savigny, Schweigger, Losano, Bory de St. Vincent, Baer, and Goldfuss occur.

The remarks on organisation are introduced by a notice of Dr. Ehrenberg's method of observation. He supplied the Infusòria with organic colouring matter for nutriment. Although this had been done by Trembley and Gleichen before him, it was not till after ten years' observations that Dr. Ehrenberg succeeded in selecting the fittest substances, and in applying them in the best manner. The repeated failure of so many attempts arose from the employment of metallic and earthy colouring substances, or such as had been submitted to boiling in the preparation. These were found either to kill the animals, or be unfit as articles of nutriment. Equally unsuccessful were some attempts made with the indigo and lac of commerce, which were found always to contain a greater or less proportion of white lead. It was not till he used pure indigo, that his experiments succeeded in a desirable manner. It is requisite in these experiments to employ colouring matter which does not chemically combine with water, but is only diffused in a state of very minute division. Indigo, carmine, and sap green, are three substances which answer very well the necessary conditions, and are easily recognised by the microscope. But, whatever substance is used, we must be very particular that it contains no lead; an impurity which very frequently enters into the colours of commerce. It is well, before applying any coloured solution to the drop of fluid under the field of the microscope, to take a general survey of the species which we may expect to find in the drop under examination. Immediately on a minute particle of highly attenuated solution of indigo being applied to a drop of water containing some of the pedunculated Vorticéllæ (which are fittest for the first observation), the most beautiful phenomena present themselves to the eye. Currents are excited in all directions by the rapid motion of the cilia, which form a crown round the anterior part of the animalcule's body, and indicated by the movements of the particles of indigo in a state of very minute division in different directions, and generally all converging towards the orifice or mouth of the animal, situated, not in the centre of the crown of ciliæ, but between the two rows of these organs which exist concentric to one another. The attention is no sooner