HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



i5 



under our microscopes. When protoplasm is protected 

 from the direct influence of external forces, as in the 

 case of buried seeds, tubers, roots, rhizomes, buds, 

 etc., or when the activity or quantity of these external 

 forces are diminished, as in winter, it enters upon a 

 condition in which most of its distinguishing functions 

 are suspended in repose, its marvellous powers become 

 dormant and latent, it ceases to build, construct, 

 increase, or appropriate pabulum, and simply lives ; 

 such a nascent condition, in some instances, would 

 seem to be capable of exceeding long duration, I was 

 about to say indefinitely. When we come to speak 

 of that most wonderful plasticity, or shall we say 

 impressionableness, whereby the influence of modify- 

 ing conditions upon a parent organism are conveyed 

 through the protoplasm of the minute germ to the 

 offspring, we approach the brink of a chasm of 

 profound mystery. Here, for the present, let us 

 stay ; without the plasticity of protoplasm, the great 

 evolutionary theory would have no basis whatever. 

 This protoplasm, insignificant and of unostentatious 

 appearance, is invested with potentialities that pro- 

 claim it to be by far the most amazing combination 

 of matter within the sphere of human knowledge — 

 potentialities before which mere material bulk and 

 vastness, or even mighty, but dead forces, dwindle 

 into comparative unimportance and inferiority. 



ASTRONOMY. 

 By John Browning, F.R.A.S. 



THE comet which was discovered at the Warner 

 Observatory, Rochester, N.Y. on the 17th 

 November known as f. 1889, was observed at 

 Padua on the 19th, and at Vienna and Palermo on 

 the 20th. The elements of its orbit have been 

 calculated by Dr. Telbe, of the Imperial Observatory, 

 Vienna, who finds that the perihelion passage will 

 take place about the middle of December, at the 

 distance from the sun of 1*19 in terms of the earth's 

 mean distance, and that the plane of the orbit is 

 inclined at an angle of 7 14' to that of the ecliptic. 

 The comet is increasing in brightness and is now 

 (December 7th) in the square of Pegasus, moving 

 in a north-easterly direction. Mons. Bigourdan, 

 observing it at the Paris Observatory on the 21st of 

 November, describes it as very faint, nebulous, about 

 13-4, nearly circular without any marked nucleus. 



Mr. S. C. Chandler has published a new deter- 

 mination of the orbit of Brooks's comet (d. 1889), 

 which gives the period 7*04. The aphelion distance 

 is so close to that of Jupiter that when the comet 

 and planet make a near approach to each other, as 

 they did from the middle of May 18S6, when the 

 distance did not exceed o' 1 from the end of March to 

 the middle of July, it is probable that the character 

 of the comet's orbit is radically changed by the 

 proximity. 



Mr. James Keeler, of the Lick Observatory, has 

 observed with three different spectroscopes applied to 

 the 36 inch refractor, the spectrum of the rings of 

 Saturn and of the planet Atranus. No lines, except 

 those of the solin spectrum could be detected, so 

 that it is concluded that neither of these objects are 

 to any degree self-luminous. 



Mr. Brooks, of the Geneva Observatory, N.Y., has 

 obtained some excellent photographs of the recent 

 occultation of Jupiter, which took place on 3rd of 

 September. Although the image of the planet is 

 very small, the belts on the planet can be easily seen 

 on the negatives with a magnifying-glass. 



In January, Mercury is an evening star. 



Venus is a morning star. 



Mars is a morning star. 



Jupiter will not be well above the horizon, except 

 in daylight. 



Saturn is an evening star, best situated for observa- 

 tion toward the end of the month. 



NOTES ON ACHERONTIA ATROPOS. 



THE present seems to be one of those years in 

 which this large insect has occurred rather 

 abundantly in the larval stage. A friend procured 

 three at the commencement of August, and I got 

 one on the eleventh, followed by a pupa on the 

 seventeenth. The larva, which I placed on damp 

 earth in a large flower-pot, burrowed out of sight 

 within half-an-hour, leaving a round hole to mark 

 the place of entrance. The pupa I placed on the 

 surface of the same pot and covered lightly with 

 earth, this it quickly swept off by a quick movement 

 of the tail, and continued to do so as often as it was 

 covered, allowing the earth to remain over a small 

 portion of the fore part only. Remembering that 

 the last year Atropos was plentiful, had an extremely 

 hot autumn, I kept the pot, in a warm place, on the 

 kitchen mantel-piece during the day, bringing it to 

 the end of the fender for the evening and night. A 

 moth emerged from the pupa on the surface on the 

 twenty-ninth of October, the skin was observed to 

 be cracked in that part covering the head and thorax 

 about three in the afternoon, the moth appeared at 

 half-past six quickly crawling out of the pot. I found 

 a slightly inclined stick to suit it, on which it hung 

 from the lower side, the wings were fully developed 

 in an hour, the way in which it shook its head during 

 this period was most grotesque. I put it in a large 

 cupboard. On the thirty-first, it could not be found. 

 After a long hunt, it was at last discovered in the 

 cellar, quite uninjured, though there was sufficient 

 evidence of a close acquaintance with the webs of 

 spiders. I put it in a more secure place, with a lump 

 of sugar moistened with beer, the result was a drunk, 

 the moth fell on its back, legs sticky, necessitating a 

 wash with a camel-hair pencil. Here came a ludicrous 



