Microscopic Examination of the Blood.

By the aid of Tulley’s achromatic microscope, and under highly magnifying powers, it has recently been discovered that the globules of the blood congeal into flat circular bodies, and arrange themselves in rows, one body being placed partly underneath another, and in like manner as a pile of similar coins, when thrown gently down, would be found to arrange themselves.  This curious effect has been attributed to the vitality yet remaining in the blood, during the act of congealing.  At any rate it is a most singular fact, for although we might naturally conceive that the flattened circular plates would place themselves in juxtaposition, yet we never could have supposed that they would have partly slipped underneath each other.  In order to make this very curious experiment, it is necessary that the blood, as freshly drawn, be slightly and thinly smeared over the surface of a slip of crown, or window glass, and be covered with a very thin slip of Bohemian plate glass; and thus some slight inequalities in the thickness of the layer of blood between them will be produced, and which are necessary to succeed in producing the very curious appearances abovementioned.—­Gilt’s Repository.

To make the Liqueur Curacoa.

Put into a large bottle, nearly filled with alcohol, at thirty-four degrees of Baume (or thirty-six) the peels of six fine Portugal oranges, which are smooth skinned, and let them infuse for fifteen days.  At the end of this time, put into a large stone or glass vessel, 11 ounces of brandy at eighteen degrees, 4-1/2 ounces of white sugar, and 4-1/2 ounces of river water.  When the sugar is dissolved, add a sufficient quantity of the above infusion of orange peels, to give it a predominant flavour; and aromatise with 3 grammes of fine cinnamon, and as much mace, both well bruised.  Lastly, throw into the liqueur 31 grammes (1 ounce) of Brazil wood, in powder.  Leave the whole in infusion ten days, being stirred three or four times a day.  At the end of this time taste the liqueur; and if it be too strong and sweet, add more water to it; if too weak, add alcohol, at 30 degrees; and if it be not sweet enough, put syrup to it.  Give it colour with caramel when you would tinge it.—­From the French.

Subterraneous Growth of Potatoes.

A mixture of two parts Danube sand, and one part common earth, was laid in a layer an inch thick, in one corner of my cellar; and, in April, thirty-two yellow potatoes with their skins placed upon its surface.  They threw out stalks on all sides; and, at the end of the following November, more than a quarter of a bushel of the best potatoes were gathered, about a tenth part of which were about the size of apples—­the rest as large as nuts.  The skin was very thin; the pulp farinaceous, white, and of a good taste.  No attention was given to the potatoes during the time they remained on the sand, and they grew without the influence of the sun or light.  This trial may be advantageously applied in fortified places, hospitals, houses of correction, and, in general, in all places where cellars or subterraneous places occur, being neither too cold nor too moist; and where it is important to procure a cheap, but abundant nourishment for many individuals.—­From the French.