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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The Victoria Government have asked the dis- 

 tinguished botanist, Baron von Mueller, to report on 

 a new kind of prairie grass which is spreading in the 

 Colac district, and which is said to bind the sand 

 together, and to furnish good food for cattle, although 

 the rabbits won't eat it. 



Whittington's days are not quite over. An 

 advertisement has just appeared in the Adelaide 

 newspapers inviting a supply of one thousand cats at 

 ninepence each, for the purpose of putting down the 

 rabbits on a certain estate. 



A CAPITAL chemical laboratory, with convenience 

 for fifteen working students, has just been fitted up 

 with all accessories, stoves, <S:c., in connection with 

 the Ipswich Museum, and presented to the town by 

 Mr. Alderman Packard, J. P. 



The " Popular Science News " says that the most 

 costly pharmaceutical preparation in the market at 

 present is the Ergotine prepared by the manu- 

 facturing chemists, Gehe & Co. of Dresden. It 

 contains the active principle of ergot of rye, and 

 costs ten pounds a gram, or about 21,000 dollars 

 a pound. 



Herr Palisa, of the Vienna Observatory, has 

 just chronicled the discovery of a new minor planet, 

 at ih. 20m. (Greenwich mean time), when it was in 

 Right Ascension 3h. igmin. I5sec., and North Polar 

 Declination 74° 7' 43". It is of the 12th magnitude, 

 and therefore is only visible with a large telescope. 



We hear from Victoria that the supplementary 

 estimates recently laid on the table of the Assembly 

 included the sum of ^1000, for scientific exploration 

 in New Guinea. Cannot the English and Australian 

 explorers arrange for some kind of joint action ? 



The largest locomotive in the world is being 

 constructed at Sacramento for the Central Pacific 

 Railway. It will weigh 73 tons, and have 5 pairs 

 of driving-wheels. The tender alone will weigh 

 25 tons, and the total length of engine and tender 

 will be 65 feet. 



A MEETING has been held in Chester for the 

 purpose of establishing a museum, to be a centre for 

 scientific information for Cheshire and North Wales. 

 The Duke of Westminster gives the ground for the 

 site, and ;^'4000 towards the building fund. 



The Anniversary of the Royal Society was held 

 on the 30th of November, when the President (Pro- 

 fessor Huxley) delivered his anniversary address. — 

 The following were chosen Council and officers for 

 the year ensuing : President, Professor T. IT. Iluxley ; 

 Treasurer, Dr. J. Evans ; Secretaries, Professor 

 G. G. Stokes and Professor M. Foster ; Foreign 

 Secretary, Professor A. W. Williamson ; other 

 members of the Council, Captain W. de W. Abney, 

 Professor W. G. Adams, the Duke of Argyll, J. G. 



Baker, Dr. T. L. Brunton, W. H. M. Christie 

 (Astronomer Royal), Warren De La Rue, Sir F. J. O. 

 Evans, Professor G. C. Foster, F. Gallon, J. W. L. 

 Glaisher, Sir W. W. Gull, Bart., Dr. H. Miiller, 

 Professor J. Prestwich, Professor O. Reynolds, and 

 O. Salvin. 



Mr. Chandler, of the Harvard Observatory, has 

 been carefully noticing the rapid changes in the 

 brightness of Pon's comet, especially at the latter end 

 of last September and during October. So rapid an 

 increase and diminution of the light of a comet is an 

 unusual phenomenon, and Mr. Chandler thinks that 

 phases of this kind may be characteristic of the 

 comet's mode of light development. Schiaparelli, 

 the distinguished astronomer, has written concerning 

 the same phenomena. On September 22nd, the 

 comet was faint and diffuse, whereas on the following 

 night it had greatly increased in brightness. Tliis 

 comet attains its maximum brightness on January 

 14th. Before then it will be visible with the naked 

 eye. 



Economic botanists can no longer say seaweeds 

 are of little importance, for the last new thing is that 

 they are being employed in the manufacture of 

 " Gooseberry Jelly ! " The jelly is obtained from 

 sea-weeds, coloured by some substance, and flavoured 

 by acetic ether, tartaric acid, small quantities of 

 benzoic, succinic, and cenanthic acids, and aldehyde. 



Tarchnoff has discovered that the white of eggs of 

 those birds whose young are born unfeathered differs 

 from ordinary albumen, its most striking peculiarity 

 being that it remains transparent after coagulation 

 by heat. 



The Russian scientific expedition at the mouth of 

 the Lena, which has just entered upon the second 

 winter of its sojourn in its frost-bound station, is 

 reported to be in excellent health and spirits. Last 

 winter the cold seldom reached 40 deg. centigrade 

 till January, but during January and February it was 

 seldom less. The fluctuations of the magnetic needle 

 were so great that the instruments were not capable 

 of measuring them. 



Dr. Le Conte, the distinguished American 

 coleopterist, has just died, in his fifty-ninth } ear. 



Two Fellows of the Royal Society, both dis- 

 tinguished medical men, Professor William Bowman, 

 and Professor Lister, have recently had the honour 

 of baronetcy conferred upon them. 



M. Daubree, the distinguished French geologist, 

 from the mineralogical analysis of the ashes collected 

 in Batavia during the recent Javanese volcanic 

 disturbances, thinks it highly probable that the 

 surface water penetrated deeply into the underground 

 cavities, and there becoming super-heated, formed 

 the chief agency in such volcanic eruptions as those 

 of Krakatoa and Ischia. 



