Some time ago it was discovered that some limestone, which had been submitted for eighteen months to a heat of nearly 1,000 degrees in the smelting furnaces of Leroy-Descloges (France), had given rise to perfectly crystallized anhydrous lime. Figure C shows three of these crystals magnified 300 diameters. It will be noticed that they have a striking analogy with grains of common salt. They are, in fact, cubes (often imperfect), but do not polarize light, as a substance of the first crystalline system should. However, it is rarely the case that the crystals do not have _some_ action on light. Most usually, when the two Nicol prisms are crossed so as to cause extinction, the crystals present the appearance shown at D. That is to say, while the central portion is totally inactive there are seen on the margins zones which greatly brighten the light. [Illustration] A and B.--Calcareous Pisolites and Oolites produced artificially. A.--External aspect and section of a Pisolite. B.--Details of internal structure as seen by the microscope. C and D.--Crystals of anhydrous Lime obtained artificially. C.--Crystals seen under the microscope in the natural light. D.--Crystals seen under the microscope in polarized light. The phenomenon is explained by the slow carbonization of the anhydrous lime under the influence of the air; the external layers passing to the state of carbonate of lime or Iceland spar, which, as well known, has great influence on polarized light. This transformation, which takes place without disturbing the crystalline state, does not lead to any general modification of the form of the crystals, and the final product of carbonization is a cubic form known in mineralogical language as _epigene_. As the molecule of spar is entirely different in form from the molecule of lime, the form of the crystal is not absolutely preserved, and there are observed on the edges of the epigene crystal certain grooves which correspond with a loss of substance. These grooves are quite visible, for example, on the crystal to the left in Fig. D. Up to the present time anhydrous lime has been known only in an amorphous state. The experiment which has produced it in the form noted above would doubtless give rise to crystallized states of other earthy oxides likewise, and even of alkalino-earthy oxides. COCCIDÆ. [Footnote: A paper recently read before the California Academy of Sciences.] By DR. H. BEHR. With the exception of Hymenoptera there is no group of insects that interfere in so many ways in good and evil with our own interests, as that group of Homoptera called Coccidæ. But while the Hymenoptera command our respect by an intellect that approaches the human, the Coccus tribe possesses only the lowest kind of instinct, and its females even pass the greater part of their lives in a mere vegetation state, without the power of locomotion or perception, like a plant, exhibiting only organs of assimilation and reproduction.