eave no room for doubt. Fairy
tales are daily thrown into shade by the authentic records of science.
This discovery appears to have been stumbled on curiously enough. The
captain of a merchant vessel trading to Madagascar noticed one day a
native who was using for domestic purposes a vase which much resembled
an enormous egg, and on questioning him was informed that many such were
to be found in the interior of the island. The largest of these eggs
would hold two gallons. The volume equals that of 135 hen's eggs. Some
doubts were at first entertained as to the nature of the animal to which
the fossil bones belonged; but M. St Hilliare--a competent judge in such
matters--has pronounced them to be those of a bird to which he has given
the name of _Epiornis_.

* * * * *

The sum of L1000 has been placed by the British Government at the
disposal of the _Royal Institution_, for scientific purposes.

* * * * *

In the PARIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (first meeting in March), M. Leverrier
submitted a communication from Mr. W. C. Bond, entitled Observations on
the Comet of Faye, made at the Observatory of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Every thing is prized that comes from that quarter. M. Boussingault, the
scientific agriculturist, read an extract from his memoir on the
extraction of oxygen gas from atmospheric air. His undertaking was to
extract, in a state of purity and in considerable quantity, the oxygen
gas mixed with azote in atmospheric air, and he thinks that he has fully
succeeded, by a process not attended with much difficulty. He details
some unexpected results from his experiments. Cauchy made profound
reports (from committees) respecting the _Researches on Algebraic
Functions_ by M. Puiseux, and the studies of Crystallography by M.
Bravais. Papers on the speed of sound in iron, and on respiration in
plants, and new schemes of atmospheric railroads were submitted.
Attention was given to M. Burg's new observations concerning the
advantageous use to be made of metallic bands in various nervous
disorders in which the ordinary therapeutic expedients are found
ineffectual. M. Peligot mentioned a memoir which he was soon to put
forth as a sequel to the Researches on the nature and properties of the
different Sugars, which he published in 1838. He has succeeded in
extracting, by means of lime, the crystallizable sugar, in large
quantity, contained in molasses. He got