May 1, 1S6C] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



117 



NOTES AND dUERIES. 



Ancient Toads and Frogs.— Many of your 

 correspondents appear to misapprehend my question 

 respecting toads and frogs, asked on page 47 of the 

 Gossip, and I am glad to observe that you have on 

 page 9(3 directed their special attention to it. I 

 have heard and read of many cases in which toads 

 or frogs were said to have been found at great depths, 

 and imbedded in solid rock ; but I only distinctly 

 remember at the present time two gentlemen, who 

 are yet living and with whom I am well acquainted, 

 who vouch for having seen living frogs taken from 

 solid strata at great depths. One is now residing in 

 Newcastle, and about six years ago he worked in a 

 gold-mine in Australia. He and his companions 

 sank a shaft for the purpose of reaching the gold- 

 stratum, and when at a considerable depth— if I 

 remember rightly, 80 feet— they passed through a 

 thick stratum of blue solidified clay, from the centre 

 of which there leaped out a living frog, and the 

 matrix or residence of the frog was a little larger 

 than the frog, and was lined with a soft mucus-like 

 matter. The frog lived for a short time. The second 

 case is vouched for by a tradesman who now resides 

 in the village of Hedley-on-the Hill, near Newcastle, 

 and who, a few years ago, was a coal-miner. He 

 said that a brother miner, in a pit in which he worked 

 when a young man, on heaving away the solid coal, 

 arrived at a portion in which was a small closed 

 chamber, and that from that chamber a living frog 

 emerged ; that he saw it ; that it was apparently 

 mouthless, and lived a few hours when exposed to 

 the air.— T. P. Barkas, Newcastle-ou-Tyne. 



Atlantic Ooze.— Mr. J. W. Leakey, on page 

 95, states experiences respecting deep-sea soundings 

 that differ materially from those I gave in the March 

 number. I shall be glad to exchange slides of 

 soundings taken during the laying of the Atlantic 

 cable, for those in his possession obtained during 

 the preliminary soundings for that unfortunate 

 project. I have slides of soundings from Melville 

 Bay, 82 fathoms, and soundings taken by Capt. 

 McClintock on board her Majesty's ship Bulldog, 

 in 1,307 fathoms, lat. 61° 66' ; long. 38° 34', in both 

 of which diatoms abound ; but in those referred 

 to in my former paper I cannot say positively that 

 the diatomaceous-looking fragments are really those 

 of diatoms —T. P. B. 



Dock v. Nettle. — B., in his amusing article 

 on " Rural Natural History," gives t lie following as 

 a specimen of " old wives' fabledom : " — " Iu Essex 

 dock leaves are applied to the blisters raised by 

 the sting of the nettle, and are believed to be effica- 

 cious iu removing the smart." Now, " this is a 

 fact, and no poetic fable," as any of your readers 

 may easily prove if they do not mind the pain of 

 the experiment. If the leaf be bruised and applied 

 to the part, the smart will cease almost instantly ; at 

 any rate such has often been the experience of— 

 Alfred Golds. 



N.B.— The poison of the nettle being alkaline, 

 and the juice of the dock acid, it is not unreasonable 

 to suppose that the application of dock leaves is 

 beneficial in neutralizing the effects of nettle- 

 stings. — Ed. 



" Cuckoo Buds of Yellow Hue." — What flower 

 was this? Possibly Shakespeare may have meant 

 the Ranunculus ficaria, pilewort, crowfoot celan- 

 dine. This was Wordsworth's favourite flower ; it 



blossoms early in the spring. Yet Shakespeare may 

 have alluded to the Ranunculi in general. The 

 country people call them " cuckoo-buds," " butter- 

 cups," king-cups," and " gold-cups." Bullein 

 mentions "sundry kindes of Crowfoote called Ranun- 

 culi, or ' Little Erogges Grass.' " — S. C. 



The Toad-stone. — Reading a short time since 

 from a work entitled "Ten Thousand Wonderful 

 Things," I chanced to alight upon a paragraph 

 headed " Curious Superstition," in which was given 

 an account of a ring preserved in the Londes- 

 borough collection which had a peculiar stone set 

 in it called a toad-stone, said to be extracted from 

 the head of a toad. This jewel, which was popu- 

 larly believed to be produced in the heads of very 

 old toads, was considered, in the middle ages, to be 

 possessed of the power of giving warning against 

 the presence of poison. Now, though this is doubt- 

 less a superstition, yet it is always well to endeavour 

 to sift the truth from error ; and, perhaps, in this 

 case there may be some foundation upon which the 

 above idea may rest. Shakespeare alludes to this 

 stone where he says — ■ 



Sweet are the uses of adversity, 

 Which, like a toad, ugly and venomous, 

 Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. 



Perhaps some correspondent can enlighten me. — 

 H. A. Allbutt. 



Silk Cocoons. — It has been generally thought 

 during two centuries that the Bombyx Mori cut its 

 thread at the point where it issues from the cocoon. 

 Some naturalists have supposed the butterfly burned 

 the threads at the same point. This is a double 

 mistake ; the threads are not cut or burnt ; they are 

 thrown right and left and in front by the movement 

 of the insect ; they are only deprived of their gum 

 by the liquid secreted from two small glands the 

 butterfly has on its head. This "ungumming" does 

 nor influence the quality or the strength of the silk, 

 which can be perfectly unwound.— Documents de 

 l' Exposition d'Insecles. Paris, 1865. 



Eood Insects.— In Mexico there is a sugar-pro- 

 ducing ant. In the same country a kind of bread 

 called "hautle" is made from the eggs of some 

 hemipterse (Notonecta, Coryza, &c.).—B., Melle, 

 near Ghent. 



Nest of Kingfisher (S. G., vol. ii. p. 94).— I 

 find in the work "Les Oiseaux de la Belgique," 

 par C. Dubois, a hint which perhaps may join the 

 two assertions respecting the nest of the kingfisher. 

 " These birds," says Mr. Du B., "nestle ordinarily 

 from the beginning of April ; when weather is fair 

 even earlier; they choose for that craggy banks 

 near the water : the female digs with her bill and 

 feet a narrow tube, from 2 to 4 feet deep, broader at 

 the end, where the eggs are laid in May or June, 

 numbering five, seven, to eleven ; the male provides 

 for the female in the hatching season ; they reject the 

 bones of the fishes, and gather them to make them 

 serve for lower strata to the eggs." — Beruardin, 

 Melle, near Ghent. 



Insects borne out to Sea. — Reading always 

 with a new pleasure the old pages of Science 

 Gossip, I see iu last year's volume, p. 127, that 

 "insects are sometimes borne out to sea by strong 

 winds, especially in tropical islands, and that some 

 fall in situations to be entombed in sand, &c." A 

 remarkable instance of this took place on the Belgian 

 coast, four years ago. On the 5th of May, 1862, an 

 immense quantity of insects (Coleoptera, Hymeno- 



