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liquid mass or stratum, by the weight of which various gases, especially hydrogen, are confined and compressed in the interior of the sun at an elevated temperature, and that these occasionally rise toward the surface with great velocity, until they force themselves through with a rapidity greater or less according to the depth from which they emerge. The Professor suggests that it is these agitations and eruptions which constitute the protuberances, and that the hydrogen issuing from the body of the sun serves as an aliment to the chromosphere, thus repairing the repeated losses of the latter by its not improbable combination with the substance of the photosphere; and it is suggested, also, that possibly this immense stratum of incandescent hydrogen-to wit, the chromosphere-may be the principal source of heat radiated from the

sun.

The solar spots, according to Professor Respighi, are neither cavities nor clouds, but are superficial modifications or partial obscurations of the photosphere, produced by scoria or scum floating upon it; or, as it were, solid masses of islands floating upon the liquid stratum.

CARBOLIC ACID AS A PRESERVATIVE. Reference has been made in some of the scientific journals to experiments upon carbolic acid as a means of preserving objects of natural history, and the anticipation has been indulged by many that, by means of this powerful agent, we shall be able to replace all the ordinary methods of taxidermy. This, however, is very great mistake, since it can be used to a small extent only in the preparation of entire bodies of animals that are to be preserved dry-because the process of desiccation will inevitably proceed until the original form of the animal is entirely lost. For many purposes, however, carbolic acid has proved of much value as a preservative, and its uses are increasing. Thus, diluted with about fifty times its bulk of water, it forms a capital substitute for alcohol in preserving fish and other objects; and, in fact, the larger fish, such as rays, sharks, etc., can be kept much better by its aid than even by means of alcohol. Added in small quantity to very weak spirit, it very materially increases its strength.

Although it can not be used as a substitute for the usual methods in setting up birds and mammals, it can be employed to very great advantage in keeping them fresh until they can be properly skinned. An experiment of this kind was once made by Dr. Totten, of New York, who prepared a solution of one dram of carbolic acid, one and a half ounces each of glycerine and dilute alcohol, and injected it into the mouth, the rectum, and under the skin of a large cormorant. The bird was kept on board ship until it reached New York, a period of about two months after its capture, and was then sent to a taxidermist, who found it to be in a perfect condition, and who was able to mount it as satisfactorily as if it had been but just killed.

EFFECT OF EXERCISE AND DIET ON ELIMINATION OF NITROGEN.

Dr. Parkes has lately announced to the Royal Society the result of some experiments upon the effect of diet and exercise on the elimination of nitrogen, and gives as a general result, as far as

temperature is concerned, that a non-nitrogenous diet, continued for five days, neither raised nor lowered the heat of the axilla and rectum; also that when the nitrogenous diet of a healthy man was reduced by one-half, for five days, and he was then kept for five days without nitrogen, he was able on the fourth day after such deprivation to do a very hard day's work. In Dr. Parkes's opinion the force necessary for great muscular work can be obtained by the muscles from fat and starch, though changes in the nitrogenous constituents of the muscles also go on, which have as one effect an increased though not excessive elimination of nitrogen after the cessation of the work.

CEMENT FROM FURNACE SLAG.

Furnace slag can be made to furnish an excellent cement by selecting such portions of it as are readily dissolved in dilute hydrochloric acid. On subjecting it to the action of the acid silica is thrown down, which is afterward to be washed, dried, and pulverized. One part of this is next to be mixed with nine parts of powdered slag and the necessary quantity of slacked lime. This matter soon hardens, and rivals the best cement in its durability.

THE LATE SOLAR ECLIPSE.

We have the pleasure of presenting herewith a report of the late solar eclipse, and of the results accomplished by it, as furnished directly for the Record by one of the most eminent of our American astronomers, and one who occupied a prominent part in the observations made:

The weather along the narrow line of the late total eclipse was generally unfavorable. Out of twenty or more parties of observers, whose po-. sitions extended from the Atlantic to the Adriatic, about half saw nothing whatever of the total phase, and most of the other half were seriously interfered with by the clouds. The Americans were generally more fortunate than their European brethren. At Xeres, near the Atlantic coast of Spain, Professor Winlock's party was entirely successful. So was the English party at Cadiz under Lord Lindsay. At Oran, in Algeria, the station selected by Professors Tyndall and Huggins, a dense black cloud covered the sun a few minutes before the critical moment, and did not disappear till all was over. At Syracuse the party from the Naval Observatory, Messrs. Hall, Harkness, and Eastman, were successful; while at Catania and on Mount Etna none of the parties saw any thing.

The first object of nearly all the parties was to learn something of the constitution of the corona, and especially to confirm or disprove the observations of the American observers on the eclipse of August 7, 1869, which seemed to show that the corona consisted of a glowing gas. The instrumental means employed for this purpose were the spectroscope, the polariscope, and photography.

One of the best organized spectroscopic parties was that at Xeres, under charge of Professors Winlock and C. A. Young. They had four or more spectroscopes, of which two were used by English volunteers. Their observations confirmed the existence of bright lines in the spectrum of the corona, which had been observed by Harkness and others in 1869, but which the En

glish astronomers were slow to believe in. The most remarkable of these lines is a green one, supposed to be identical with one of the lines of iron, and with the line found by Angstrom in the aurora and in the zodiacal light. This line was traced by Professor Winlock to a distance of near 20' from the sun's limb. Professor Young traced it 16' on the west, 12' on the north, 14 on the east, and 10' on the south.

The other two spectroscopes were arranged so as to collect the light from the entire corona and protuberances at once. With one of these Mr. Abbay saw only two lines-the one that just referred to, and the other the F line. With the other Mr. Pye saw also the lines C and D3. All except Mr. Abbay saw a faint continuous spectrum without dark lines.

plainly. On the whole, the evidence seems strongly in favor of polarization, and therefore of some reflected light.

Striking a general average among all the observations and the conclusions to be deduced from them, it may be fairly concluded that the sun is surrounded by four or more envelopes.

1. A gaseous layer about five hundred miles thick, containing a great number of chemical elements, which produce the ordinary dark lines of the spectrum by elective absorption. 2. The red chromosphere and prominences, composed mainly of glowing hydrogen, and extremely irregular in outline. 3. A sphere of some very rare gas, hitherto unknown, shining mainly by its own light, and forming the base of the corona: the new green line proceeds from this gas. 4. Irregular masses of light, extending a degree or more from the limb of the sun, the origin and

are found in the photographs, so they can not be purely optical illusions; but it is still an open question whether they originate in our atmosphere, in the planetary spaces, or in the neighborhood of the sun.

But the most interesting observation was the following by Professor Young: "Just previous to totality I had carefully adjusted the slit tan-nature of which is involved in obscurity. These gential to the sun's limb at the point where the second contact would take place, and was watching the gradual brightening of 1474 and the magnesium lines. As the crescent grew narrower I noticed a fading out, so to speak, of all the dark lines in the field of view, but was not at all prepared for the beautiful phenomenon which presented itself when the moon finally covered the whole photosphere. Then the whole field was at once filled with brilliant lines, which suddenly flashed into brightness and then gradually faded away, until in less than two seconds nothing remained but the lines I had been watching." There can be little doubt that these bright lines emanate from the same atmosphere, the absorption of which causes the dark lines of the spectrum, the same rays which, by contrast, look dark alongside of sunlight being bright when the sunlight is cut off by the moon. The existence of this atmosphere was long ago inferred from the dark lines of the solar spectrum, and Secchi had inferred that it formed a very thin layer over the surface of the photosphere, from noticing that the dark lines faded out at the extreme edge of the sun; but Young was, so far as we know, the first and only one to recognize it during an eclipse by its own bright lines.

The well-organized parties under the eminent English spectroscopists Messrs. Roscoe and Lockyer were prevented by clouds from seeing any thing; and, so far as we can learn, none of the other observers did more than confirm some of the phenomena observed by Winlock and his party.

spec

All the observers describe the continuous trum of the corona as being devoid of dark lines. This has been regarded as showing that the corona shone almost entirely by its own light, because the dark lines are seen in the spectra of all bodies which shine by reflected sunlight. But the polariscope observations seem to show that there is much reflected sunlight in the corona. In Professor Winlock's party, Professor Langley observed with a Savart's polariscope attached to a small telescope. The bands were distinctly seen on the corona, and were brightest where normal or tangential to the limb. It is understood that Professor Pickering, who used an Arago's polariscope, also saw evidences of polarization. But Professor W. G. Adams, of London, who observed in Sicily, saw no evidence of polarized light, while his assistants saw it very

DETERMINATION OF THE MASS OF THE MOON BY TIDAL OBSERVATION. At the meeting of the National Academy of Sciences on the 19th of April, 1871, Mr. William Ferrel, of the United States Coast Survey, gave an account of his discussion of tidal observations with reference to determining the mass of the moon. He used in this investigation a series of observations made for the Coast Survey during nineteen years-a full lunar cycle-at Boston, Massachusetts, and a similar series of observations made at Brest, France, from 1812 to 1831 inclusive.

Without going into the mathematical form of the investigation, he endeavored to show that the moon's mass must be mainly inferred from the ratio which the spring and neap tides bear to the constant or average tides. This ratio, however, does not depend entirely upon the moon's mass, but varies greatly for different ports, the heights and times of the tide being modified by local circumstances; and consequently the tides have not been hitherto considered an available means for determining the mass of the moon.

In addition to the constant, to be determined by observation, introduced into the conditions by Laplace for determining the moon's mass, Mr. Ferrel has introduced another, depending upon friction. Hence, there being three unknown quantities to be determined, including the moon's mass, he uses the condition depending upon the moon's parallax in addition to the two used by Laplace. Without the introduction of this additional constant and the additional condition for eliminating it, Laplace's conditions for the determination of the moon's mass entirely fail when applied to the Boston tides.

Laplace selected Brest, where the tide has a direct and short approach from deep water, and, neglecting the effect of friction referred to, obtained, as is well known, the value of, in terms of the earth's mass, for the mass of the moon. At Brest the ratio of the half-monthly inequality to the co-efficient or half range of the constant tide is about .358, that of the constant tide being about 2.25 meters, and that of the

mean spring-tides about 3.05 meters. At Boston the same ratio is only about .14, the co-efficient of the constant tide being 4.91 feet, and that of the mean spring-tides 5.58. From data so widely different Mr. Ferrel has deduced, by means of the introduction of the term depending upon friction, two values exhibiting a remarkable agreement, viz., from the Brest tides, and from those at Boston 78.04.

STRUCTURE OF MOSASAURUS.

will be taken up. Linseed-oil is another solvent for sulphur, the amount increasing with the increase of temperature.

SPRINKLED FABRICS.

We have heretofore referred to a method for coloring the fabrics now so much in vogue, in which a ground color is dotted over with minute specks of different shade. We have since learned that after the dye is sprinkled upon the surface of the cloths or fabrics they should be folded face to face, and either passed between rollers or pressed by blocks, so as to drive in and further distribute the color on the cloths.

NEW FOSSIL LAND LIZARDS.

In the American Journal of Science for June Professor O. C. Marsh, of Yale College, has an article on some new fossil reptiles discovered by the Yale party last summer in the Rocky Mountain region. The cretaceous fossils described are of great importance, as they prove conclusively At a recent meeting of the Philadelphia Acadthat the mosasauroid reptiles had a well-devel-emy of Sciences Professor Marsh, of Yale Coloped pelvic arch and posterior limbs, although lege, described several new species of fossil land up to the present time no satisfactory evidence of this had been discovered; and the eminent paleontologists who have recently made this group an especial study considered them probably destitute of these appendages. Some of the species discovered by Professor Marsh were much more attenuated than any hitherto described. One of them, which is named Clidastes wymani, was about thirty feet in length, and had the terminal caudal vertebræ less than one-twelfth of an inch in transverse diameter.

lizards which were discovered in the tertiary deposits of Wyoming by the Yale scientific party during their explorations last summer in the Rocky Mountain region. Some of these lizards were as large as any now living in tropical America, but all were quite distinct from any hitherto found. They represent a new genus, which was called Glyptosaurus, in allusion to the fact that the head and parts of the body were covered with highly ornamented bony plates. Four species were described, which are readily distinguished by the form and ornamentation of the shields on the head. The largest of these, G. sylvestris, was about four feet in length; the smallest, G. anceps, apparently about two feet. The other species were intermediate in size, and were called G. nodosus and G. ocellatus. These inSUN-teresting remains will be described in full by Professor Marsh in an early number of the American Journal of Science.

In the same paper are notices of several new species of tertiary crocodiles from Wyoming, which were discovered in the same ancient lake basin as the serpents and lizards already described by Professor Marsh.

COINCIDENCE OF THERMOMETRIC AND

SPOT CURVES.

Mr. Stone, the astronomer royal at the Cape of Good Hope, in comparing the thermometric curves taken at the Cape since 1841 with those in Wolf's observations on the sun spots, finds an agreement between the two series so close as to induce him to think that the same cause which leads to the excess of mean annual temperature leads equally to a dissipation of solar spots, and also that there is an approximately decennial period of such temperature. He leans, however, to the opinion that the connection between the variation of mean temperature and the appearance of the solar spots is indirect rather than direct, and that each results from some general change in the solar energy.

FISHES OF CUBA.

A recent number of the "Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History" contains an elaborate paper, by Professor Poey, of Havana, upon the genera of the percoid fishes found in the West Indian seas.

AQUEOUS SOLVENT FOR SULPHUR. Various experiments have been made for the purpose of finding an aqueous solvent for sulphur, this being considered a very great desideratum in facilitating the use of this substance as a medicine. Dr. Pole announces that if flowers of sulphur, previously well washed and dried at 212° Fahrenheit, are mixed with an aqueous solution of pure anhydrous carbonate of soda, and the whole digested together at a temperature of 212° for ten hours, an appreciable quantity of sulphur VOL. XLIII.-No. 255.-30

MONSTROSITY IN A HORSE'S HOOF.

Some of our readers may be interested in an account of a curious monstrosity in the hoof of a horse, as reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal. In this animal a supernumerary digit was formed on each fore-foot, incased in an asymmetrical hoof, a similar condition occurring on the hind-foot, but with less regularity. This specimen recalls very vividly the peculiar condition of the hoof in the extinct genus Hipparion, which, according to many writers, is one of the original ancestors of the genus to which the modern horse belongs.

FOSSIL CETACEANS IN HOLLAND. Much interest has been excited in Europe by the discovery, in Holland, of extensive beds of remains of cetaceans and other marine vertebrates, as many as eight new genera and sixteen new species having been secured, together with the walrus and the remains of seals. collection is in charge of the Vicomte du Bus, who is preparing a report for publication.

The

CUNDURANGO-A REPUTED SPECIFIC FOR
CANCER.

The State Department at Washington has lately received, through the minister from Ecuador to the United States, specimens of a plant known as cundurango, found in the province of Loya, in Ecuador, to which marvelous qualities in curing cancer and other similar diseases are

ascribed. The physicians of Quito have been | experimenting upon this substance, and report most wonderful cures, and a limited quantity of the plant has been sent to the United States in order to secure proper experiments upon it on the part of the American faculty. No intimation is given of the botanical character of the plant, the fruit of which, however, is said to be highly poisonous.

Its virtues were first discovered, according to a communication accompanying the specimens, entirely by accident. An Indian had been suffering fearfully for a long time from internal cancer, and his wife undertook to relieve him by shortening his life by poison. For this purpose she selected the cundurango; but not being able to obtain it at the time of its fruit-bearing, she made a decoction of the bark. To her astonishment, the first application appeared to benefit the patient rather than otherwise, and by a continuance of this remedy he was completely cured in a short time.*

"LANDLOCKED SALMON."

Among the objects of great interest to American sportsmen and those prosecuting inquiries in regard to the food fishes of the country are the so-called "landlocked salmon," found in Maine and elsewhere, and about which there has been much diversity of opinion. These are known especially as inhabiting Sebago Lake and its streams, some tributaries of the Penobscot, the lakes in the neighborhood of Ellsworth, and the Schoodic lakes at the head of a branch of the St. Croix River. This fish has been actually described as a distinct species-from Sebago Lake, as Salmo sebago; and from near Ellsworth, Maine, as S. gloveri; the Schoodic fish being, we believe, without any specific appellation, unless it be S. hardinii, as named by Dr. Gunther. Whether this fish be really a "landlocked salmon"-that is to say, a true sea salmon that has changed its habits to such an extent as to dwell permanently in the fresh-waters-is the subject of inquiry on the part of Mr. Livingstone Stone, who is rather inclined to take ground in favor of a specific difference. He finds, as might be supposed, that there is no reason for referring the landlocked salmon, whether of three varieties or of only one, to the brook trout, the difference in the size of the scales, the dark spots instead of red, the shape of the head, and many other points, being such as to distinguish them. On the other hand, the close relationship to the sea salmon is shown in the character of the scales and spots just referred to, in the development of a conical tusk in the lower jaw, in the similarity of the parrs to the salmon parrs of the same size, and the great size of the eggs, equal in this respect to those of the salmon; in the form of the yolk sac, which is elongated like that of the salmon, instead of being rounded like that of the trout; in their ascending streams at night; in the short period of spawning; and in spawning at night and lying quiet during the day, the reverse being the habit of the trout, which spawns during the day and lies quiet at night. The relation is, therefore, much more close to the true

Since writing the above we learn that a gentleman left Washington some weeks ago for Ecuador with the especial object of procuring a large quantity of cundurango for medical purposes.

salmon; and the remaining question is as to whether it be really the same as the true sea salmon or not. Mr. Stone, however, thinks the difference in the number of eggs of the Sebago salmon, as he calls it, and that of the sea salmon, is a very important point. Thus, while the latter produces from nine to fifteen thousand eggs per season, or an average of about one thousand to each pound in weight of the fish, the landlocked salmon, although of about one-third the weight, averages only six hundred eggs per season, or about two hundred to the pound. Furthermore, there is not now, nor has there ever been, any thing to prevent these so-called "landlocked salmon" from going to the sea whenever they preferred; and the fact that they do not migrate is considered by Mr. Stone as strong proof that they never possessed the instinct to do so. MAREY'S APPARATUS FÖR RECORDING THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS.

We have referred in a previous number to the interesting apparatus devised by Professor Marey for registering the movements of the flight of birds and insects, and gave at the time a diagram of the comparative path described by the point of the wing in each. The author during the disturbances caused by the late war in France was steadily occupied in continuing his researches, and presented to the Academy of Sciences, some months since, a continuation of his series of communications, in which he discusses the movement which the action of the wing produces upon the body of the bird itself. He shows that the progression of the bird when flying, in consequence of the beating of its wings, takes place along an undulating line, the sinuosities of which are produced by the slight leaps of the animal. These movements can in certain cases be appreciated by the eye, as when watching the movement of gulls following a vessel at sea, and regulating their motion by the speed of the vessel. It is very difficult, however, according to Mr. Marey, to ascertain to what movement of the wing these displacements of the body of the bird correspond; and the determination of the periodical variation of the quickness in the movement forward of the bird is impossible by means of our senses. To accomplish this object the author has added to his previous apparatus an arrangement for noting and recording these movements with absolute precision; and from a critical study of the indications he comes to the conclusion that on registering simultaneously both the vertical oscillations of the bird and the movements of the wing, it will be found that each revolution of the wing is accompanied by two complete oscillations of the bird-one of these coinciding with the depression of the wing, and the other with its elevation. He also finds from the investigation bestowed upon the indications of the instrument that in depressing its wings the bird is raised, to fall again at the end of this period of depression, while at the same time the bird accelerates its horizontal velocity. In raising the wing the bird rises anew, again to fall back, and in the second period it loses much of its horizontal velocity; and this latter fact gives the clew to the mechanism of the second ascension, showing that this ascent is made at the expense of the velocity acquired by a mechanism analogous to that of the boy's kite, which,

moving against the air and presenting against it war, and invidious comparisons are made between an inclined plane, is elevated at the expense of this line of conduct by them, on the one hand, the horizontal force applied to it. The experi-and that of the German, Russian, and United ments of the author have satisfied him that this second ascent is wanting when the bird at the end of its flight has not acquired a velocity at the expense of which it can be produced.

In a subsequent notice Mr. Marey promises to exhibit the result of attempts made by him to reproduce synthetically the mechanism of flightthat is to say, for the purpose of realizing by means of a weighty apparatus the effect of sustainment in the air, and of the horizontal forward motion which the bird obtains by the action of its wings.

ACTION OF BROMIDE OF POTASSIUM.

CHOLERA.

Our readers are well aware of the varying opinions entertained by men of science in regard to the cause and propagation of cholera as a disease, and are familiar with the persistency with which it has been asserted by some that the disease arises from the development of a particular kind of fungus. An elaborate report has just been published by Dr. Lewis upon the microscopic objects found in cholera evacuations in India; and after a careful inquiry, under very favorable circumstances, he comes to the conclusion that the cryptogamic theory must be abandoned. He finds that the so-called cholera cells of Dr. Swayne and others are of various kinds, some of them certainly not fungoid in their nature, while others are ova of acari and of intestinal worms, The cysts upon which Dr. Hallier dwells with so much weight Dr. Lewis could not find in fresh cholera discharges, although he had

States governments on the other. During the early years of the present century very important contributions were made to the British Museum by such parties as those of the Beagle, the Erebus and Terror, the Sulphur, the Samarang, the Herald and Plover, the arctic expeditions, etc., which, however, according to Dr. Gunther, have of late found no imitators. At the present time the British Museum depends for its additionsin the department of zoology especially-upon purchases made from private parties with funds granted annually by Parliament, while other national establishments rely mainly upon the efforts of collectors officially attached to government vesSince the first introduction of bromide of potassels, who bring in copious material, and of much sium into the materia medica there has been a greater novelty and scientific interest. great diversity of opinion in regard to its value as a remedy, some praising it extravagantly, and others denying it any specific virtue. Most writers, however, are satisfied that, judiciously administered, it is a substance of very great merit, although its mode of operation is even yet not entirely understood. According to Dr. Amory, its effects are produced by the direct action on the blood-vessels, or the vaso-motor system which controls the action of these vessels; and he thinks that this action will account for and explain all the physiological and therapeutical influences of the drug. He states that the bromide is easily absorbed by the mucous membrane and by the skin, provided the water in which it is dissolved is below the temperature of 75°; that its elimination is conducted by the skin and the kidneys, and that in therapeutical doses it is not eliminated by the intestines or the lungs; that it passes out of the skin without decomposition; that the larger the dose the more intense and enduring the influence in the vaso-repeatedly developed them. Other unusual bodies motor system; and that its action in the general nervous system is consequently dependent upon that of the vaso-motor nerves, upon which it acts as a sedative. The highest value of the remedy as a medicine is said to lie in its remedial powers over epilepsy, being of signal service in the vast majority of cases, while absolutely curing very many, and rarely failing to diminish the number and violence of the attacks where it does not cure. One advantage of the bromide of potassium is said to be that it can be given without any danger whatever. Certain inconveniences sometimes present themselves, such as the production of acne, or other eruptions on the face or elsewhere, although, on the other hand, such diseases have sometimes been cured by it. In full doses it is said sometimes to cause redness of the palate, epigastric heat, salivation, drowsiness, confusion of mind, depression, failure of memory in a remarkable degree, weakness of the arms and legs; but all these evils disappear entirely on the discontinuance of the remedy, no permanent ill effects having been observed to follow its employment.

BRITISH MUSEUM FISHES.

In the work by Dr. Gunther upon the fishes of the British Museum, to which we have already alluded, reference is made to the neglect in Great Britain of the opportunities of scientific research furnished by the cruises of the British vessels of

proved to be either fragments of tissues or ova, none of them peculiar to cholera. Cultivation does, however, succeed in developing from the cyst certain cryptogamic bodies, although only three per cent. of the experiments were successful; and similar cysts were found to be developed in discharges other than choleraic. The bodies resembling spores, so common in cholera discharges, Dr. Lewis finds to be either globules of a fatty nature, altered blood cells, corpuscles imbedded in a tenacious substance, or a globular condition of certain infusoria.

The subject of the so-called micrococcus, which Dr. Hallier supposed to be the germ of cholera, Dr. Lewis examined critically, without being able to find any evidence to prove the existence of such bodies or having such relations.

The general results reached by Dr. Lewis, as summed up by him, are, first, that no cysts exist in choleraic discharges which are not found under other conditions; second, that cysts or "sporangia" of fungi are very rarely found under any circumstances in alvine discharges; third, that no special fungus has been developed in cholera discharges, the fungus described by Hallier being certainly not confined to such; fourth, that there are no animalcular developmentseither as to nature or proportionate amountpeculiar to cholera, and that the same organisms may be developed in nitrogenous material even outside the body; last, that the supposed débris

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