il nut contains consists of a white substance of the
same nature as that of the common almond, and which is good to eat when
fresh, but which, by reason of its very oily nature, soon gets rancid.
Besides its use as an article of dessert, a bland oil, used by watchmakers
and artists, is obtained from the nut by pressure. Brazil nuts form a
considerable article of export from the port of Para, whence they are
sometimes called Para nuts.

The Brazil nut tree remained for a long time unknown to European botanists,
although the fruit has been from a very remote epoch consumed in large
quantities in certain southern countries of the New World. The first
description of the tree we owe to Humboldt and Bonpland, who established
the genus and species in the botanical part of the account of their voyage.
The genus is dedicated to the illustrious Berthollet.

"We were very fortunate," say these authors, "to find some of these nuts in
our travels on the Orinoco. For three months we had been living on nothing
but poor chocolate and rice cooked in water, always without butter, and
often without salt, when we procured a large quantity of the fresh fruits
of the _Bertholletia_. It was along in June, and the natives had just
gathered them."

The formation of a large woody fruit, often in the shape of an urn, from
which the top spontaneously separates in the form of a lid, is one of the
characteristics of the order Lecythidaceae, which includes the _Couronpita
Guianensis_, or "cannon ball tree"; the gigantic _Lecythis ollaria_, or
"monkey-pot tree," whose great woody pericarps serve as drinking vessels;
and the _Lecythis Zabucajo_, whose fruit is known in the market as sapucaia
nuts, and is greatly superior to the closely allied Brazil nuts as regards
flavor and ease of digestion.

All the trees of this order are natives of South America, and especially of
Guiana.

* * * * *

THE ACTION OF THE MAGNET IN HYPNOSIS.

Mr. Tamburini some time ago observed that, during a period of lethargy, the
approach of a magnet produced in persons affected with hysterical hypnosis
a series of modifications of the respiratory functions and of
contractility.

From some very careful experiments made by him and Mr. Righi in common,
upon the lady who was the principal subject of his observations, it results
that (1) it makes no difference whether the magnet be presented by its
poles or its neutral line; (2) that an