of modern zoology, for instance the whale, physeter, orc, seal, dolphin and turtle, have organs of this description. Those of the seal, he observes, are similar to those of the wolf, that is, consist of several kidneys and several lobules, as in the human fœtus and infant. Those of the dolphin and otter he compares to a cluster of conglobate or aggregated lobes. In speaking of the bladders of genuine fishes, he remarks, that in river fishes, and some sea fishes, there is one filled with air between the spine and peritoneum, evidently referring to the air-bladder.

In describing the organs of generation, he still observes an accurate distinction between the cetaceous and genuine fishes. In the former, for instance, the dolphin, seal, and whale, there are testes and penis, the former oblong, roundish, and contained within the abdomen; while the females have uterus, vagina and mammæ. In genuine fishes, however, which are void of proper testes, their place is supplied by two long canals (meatus), suspended from the diaphragm on each side of the spine, meeting in one canal, and opening in the common outlet for the excrements, or what is now denominated the cloaca. He mentions also the periodical enlargement of these bodies, which manifestly correspond with the milt or soft roe. Under the name of Galeus acanthias and Galeus laevis, he describes two species of ovoviviparous sharks, gives a distinct account of their uterine cavities, and of the mode in which the young are reared within the body of the parent, and delineates a large specimen of the latter, with one young one adhering to it by the umbili cal vessels. "Galei qui laeves vocantur," he says, "ova in media vulva gestant, ut caniculae, quae postea in utrumque uteri sinum descendunt; mox animal gignitur, umbilico haerente ad vulvam, ita ut ovo absumpto partus non aliter quam in quadrupedibus contineri videatur. Adhæret umbilicus ille prolixus capite altero ad partem vulvae inferiorem velut ex acetabulo annexus, altero ad medium foetum qua in parte jecur est. Nos foetum cum umbilico matri adhaerente pingendum curavimus, et a caniculis, vulpibus, aliisque galeis discerneretur, cum nullus ex galeis alius sit cujus foetus secundis membranisque involvatur, uteroque matris per umbilicum alligetur." De Piscibus, lib. xiii. cap. iii. The several species of this genus which correspond to the Selachides of Cuvier, Rondelet represents with

characteristic accuracy; and even the branchial slits are well exhibited. The same may be said of the tubular openings of the lamprey and congenerous fishes.

The 16th book on the cetaceous fishes and amphibia, contains much accurate and interesting anatomical information. Rondelet is chiefly known as an animal anatomist. From his descriptive statements in this book, however, especially that of the dolphin, it appears that he knew the vesiculae seminales not only in that animal but in man. He gives a particular account of the alimentary canal and its appendages, the kidneys, ureters, and bladder, and the reproductive organs generally; and in the course of description, compares the organs with those of man and the hog, clearly shewing that he was quite aware of the difference between the dolphin and genuine fishes. peritonaeo partes quae ad nutritionem et generationem imformatae sunt ad quadrupedum terrestrium magis quam ad piscium partes accedunt."

"Sub

Rondelet also knew the true structure of the follicles in the beaver, and the sebaceous mucous glands of the anus in birds and hares. Achillini, I have already mentioned as the first discoverer of the ileo-caecal valve, which is now invariably designated by the name of Caspar Bauhin. I must not omit to remark, however, that Rondelet had discovered this membranous duplicature, independent of any knowledge of its existence from Achillini; and that to Rondelet, his pupil Posthius, whose name has also been associated with this valve, was indebted for his knowledge of its existence.

Of this physician two circumstances are recorded, which are more creditable to his scientific zeal than his feelings or delicacy. The corpse of one of his children, cut off by disease, he is said to have caused to be inspected in the public theatre of the university; and when his colleague Fontanus was supposed to be at the point of death in a dangerous illness, Rondelet is said to have solicited him most importunately to be permitted to inspect the body of his friend when life was extinct. In the body of Fontanus, we are informed by Posthius, these anatomists examined the renal papilla. Rondelet died of dysentery, complicated with fever, at Toulouse in 1566.

(To be continued.)

On Indian Hail-storms. By A. TURNBULL CHRISTIE, M. D. Communicated by the Author.

In the last Number of your Journal, a new theory of hailstorms is proposed by Professor Olmsted of Yale College, viz. that they are caused by " the congelation of the watery vapour of a body of warm and humid air, by its suddenly mixing with an exceedingly cold wind in the higher regions of the atmosphere."

According to this theory it is very easy to account for those hail-storms which so frequently occur in some parts of the temperate zones, as in the south of France, or in the United States of America; for in such situations it is very possible that an intensely cold wind, proceeding from the north at a great height, might meet with a warm body of air highly charged with moisture, and thus cause a very sudden congelation, with the other phenomena that generally accompany such storms. But this explanation could not apply (even according to the Professor's own showing) to hail-storms in the torrid zone, for any two currents of air, within this zone, would differ so little in temperature, that their sudden mixture could not possibly produce congelation, but merely clouds and rain, thunder and lightning; and, says the Professor," in this region we know not where to look for the freezing current, unless we ascend so high that there no hot air exists holding watery vapour to be frozen by it." He therefore supposes that violent hail-storms are unknown in the torrid zone, excepting in one situation, viz. in the vicinity of lofty mountains covered with snow. Here, however, he is mistaken, hail-storms being by no means uncommon in different parts of the peninsula of India, and consequently at a distance of many hundred miles from any lofty mountains*.

We are told, in Rees's Cyclopædia, that hail-storms never occur in the torrid zone; and in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia,

• The highest mountains in the peninsula of India are the Neelgherries, a small group, situated between the 10th and 11th degrees of north latitude, and having a height of little more than 8000 feet above the level of the sea, being not more than one-half of that which the snow-line would have in this situation.

under the article Physical Geography, that they never occur there, except at an elevation of not less than 1500 or 2000 feet. This I will show is by no means the case. In May 1823, a violent hail-storm occurred at Hydrabad, which is about 17% north latitude, and has an elevation (I believe) of not more than 1000 feet above the level of the sea. The hail-stones were of a considerable size, and a sufficient quantity were collected by the servants of a military mess to cool the wine for several days. A hail-storm occurred at Darwar, N. Lat. 16° 28′, E. Long. 75° 11', in May or June 1825. The height of Darwar above the level of the sea is 2400 feet, but it is near no high range of mountains. The hail-stones had a white porous nucleus, and varied in size from that of a filbert to that of a pigeon's egg. A similar storm occurred at the same place, and about the same season, in 1826. These are the only instances of hail-storms which came under my own observation during the five years I was in India; but numerous others might be brought forward from the testimony of others. I shall only mention a few. LieutenantColonel Bowler, of the Madras army, tells me that he witnessed a violent storm of hail at Trichinopoly, about the middle of the year 1805, when the hail-stones were nearly as large as walnuts. He also mentions a very violent hail-storm which occurred in the Goomsa Valley, about twenty-five miles west of Gamjam, and only a few feet above the level of the sea, when he was in camp there about the end of April 1817. It commenced about half-past three in the afternoon. The weather had previously been very sultry, with hot blasts of wind, and heavy clouds, which appeared almost to touch the tops of the tents. On the hail falling, the air became on a sudden as disagreeably cold, as it had been before oppressively hot. The same gentleman also witnessed a hail-storm at Masalapatam, on the coast of Coromandel, in 1822 (he thinks in the month of April); and others, at different times, in various parts of India.

We are told by Heyne, in his historical and statistical tracts on India, that "masses of hail of immense size are said to have fallen from the clouds, at different periods," in the Mysore country; and that, "in the latter part of Tippoo Sultan's reign, it is on record, and well authenticated, that a piece fell near Seringapatam of the size of an elephant." Of course, it is not

to be expected that we are to believe this to the letter-we must make some allowance for oriental exaggeration.

It is needless to multiply examples, for I believe there is not an officer who has been many years in India, who cannot bear testimony to the frequency of hail-storms in that country. Professor Olmsted's theory, therefore, even according to his own account of it, must be abandoned; or, at all events, it will only apply to those falls of hail which occur in the temperate zones.

On the Form of the Ark of Noah.

WE have a description of the Ark in the 6th chapter of Genesis; and our common translation, which is acknowledged to have given, with comparatively few exceptions, the true sense of the Hebrew and Greek originals of the Scriptures, has the following rendering of this particular passage: "Make thee an ark of gopher wood: rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it."

As, in this translation, there is no modification of the dimensions of length, breadth, and height, very obviously expressed, we are by it naturally led to conceive the form of the ark to have been a parallelopiped, of which the opposite planes are respectively equal and similar.

But there is a word in the Hebrew text, of which, there is reason to think the English translators have not apprehended the true meaning. The word is that which they have translated window, (in Hebrew "tzohar "), a different understanding of which will lead us to important modifications of our conception of the form of the ark.

Several commentators have supposed that this word refers rather to the peculiar form of the ark, than to any opening in it analogous to a window, without however indicating in what