HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



I5 1 



when the microscope is inclined horizontally for 

 drawing the total will be ten inches. The body of 

 the microscope being thus laid in the horizontal, the 

 stand is placed on the block ; the eye-piece will now 

 be exactly ten inches from the table, and drawings 

 can be executed and measurements made with 

 accuracy, while the facility with which the normal 

 distance from eye-piece to paper is secured is a 

 distinct encouragement to both the drawing and 

 measuring of objects. The mirror M should be 

 removed when the block is used for drawing. 



When used in the hardening or "setting" of 

 balsam mounts, remove the mirror, and push a small 

 spirit-lamp into the groove or recess. Then place an 



a ■ ff D 



[ Fig. 85.— Handy Block for Microscopic Work-table. 



ordinary brass mounting-table, such as Baker sells 

 for a few shillings, on the top of the block, and 

 immediately over the recess and flame of the spirit- 

 lamp. When thus arranged, the brass plate of my 

 mounting-table is about five inches above the flame 

 of the spirit lamp. The balsam mounts, with or 

 without a flattened bullet on each — to keep the cover 

 glass in place — are now laid on the brass table, and 

 may safely be left to themselves for twenty minutes 

 or half-an-hour, in some corner of the room not 

 affected by draughts, and not likely to be disturbed. 

 Be careful that the block stands perfectly level, or 

 the cover-glasses are apt to get displaced when the 

 balsam liquifies. 



As suggested already, the block described above 

 was not designed originally for more than one 

 purpose, viz., as a stand for dissecting objects upon. 

 From time to time I have found a new function for 

 it, and, as already stated, have it beside me always, 

 using it as occasion requires for one or other of the 

 purposes indicated above. 



W. J. Simmons. 



Calcutta. 



Sparrow's Eggs Spotted at Smaller End. — 

 My brothers have lately found another house- 

 sparrow's egg marked at the wrong end. The egg 

 was also somewhat abnormal in shape, being long 

 and narrow. — P. Tracy, Ipswich. 



ANIMALS AND MEDICINE. 



By HULWIDGEON. 



IV. — Cetacea. 



"To fortify his brain and stomach .... holy water and 

 essences of musk and ambergris." — Le Sage. 



TOOTH WHALES.— That leviathan benefactor 

 of the human race, the whale, was not over- 

 looked by the prying eye of the apothecary, searching 

 through Nature for subtle essences, ashes, oils and 

 spirits to compound his medicaments with, nor did 

 the huge brute fail to respond with magnificent and 

 becoming generosity. But, however well acquainted 

 with the advantages derivable from it, we cannot 

 compliment their utilizers on their knowledge of the 

 creature that furnished them. 



For instance, says "Nature Display'd " (p. 243), 

 "The name of whale is given to two sorts of fish ; 

 one is small, furnished with teeth, and his brain 

 produces that white substance, called spertna ceti, so 

 much esteemed by the ladies. The other is the large 

 whale, who is destitute of teeth ; but then he is 

 supplied with two large tushes, a dozen or fifteen feet 

 long, which rise out of his jaws and conveniently 

 enable him to amass together the weeds which are 

 generally supposed to be his food. These tushes, 

 split into small divisions, are the pretended whale- 

 bone, whose present usefulness seems almost confined 

 to the hoop-petticoat " (the condemnation of which 

 is proceeded with). 



Some years later, the species of whale had been 

 multiplied, committed to the Plagiari order of fishes, 

 and distributed into six genera, viz., " Physeter, 

 Delphinus, Balrena, Monodon, Catodon, and 

 Thrichechus." * (Howard, vol. iii. p. 1598.) But 

 beyond this all is in veiled disorder. For instance, 

 seeking for our sperm whale, we find the genus 

 Catodon embraces those whales "having no teeth in 

 the upper jaw, nor any fin on the back. The species 

 of it are : (1) The spermaceti whale, called by 

 authors cete, cetits dendatus, and balczna major, with 

 the above-mentioned characters and the fistula in the 

 neck. (2) The Catodon, with the fistula in the snout, 

 called by authors balczna minor." (Howard, vol. i. 

 p. 465.) Elsewhere the same author informs' us (vol. i. 

 p. 418) that the Cachalot is, "in Ichthyology, a 

 cetaceon fish with teeth in the lower jaws only. The 

 blunt-headed Cachalot is one of the species that yields 

 the spermaceti." It is very evident that the first, 

 third, and fifth genera of whales had been hopelessly 

 confused with each other. 



At the close of the period under survey, however, 

 the Cetus, Catodon, Cachalot, (pseudo-)Balcena, and 

 other sperm whales had been correctly identified as 

 the Physeter maerocephalus, the large-headed sperm 

 and ambergris-bearing Cetacean. To the still 



* Trichechus, the rosmar, morse or walrus ; not a cetacean 

 at all. 



