22 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



scribed. Marks resembling those called Nereites and 

 Myrianites are produced by a variety of animals. 

 The groups of ice-spicules which are formed during 

 a frosty night also leave their impress on the mud. 

 The author concluded by expressing the opinion that 

 Cruziana, Nereites, Crossopodia, and Palsechorda 

 were mere tracks, not marine vegetation, as has been 

 suggested in the case of the first, or, in the second, 

 the impression of the actual body of ciliated worms. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



A Bee's Leg. — There are bee's legs, and bee's 

 legs. Many years ago, I went with my dear old 

 friend P. S. Mitchell to call on R. Beck, who had 

 just brought out his twentieth of an inch object glass. 

 We had a most pleasant time and saw things which 

 made us feel how small is man, how marvellous the 

 works of the Creator, whose ways are beyond our ken. 

 I, as a country bumpkin, then and there submitted to 

 Mr. Beck's inspection a bee's leg. "Oh," he said, 

 " I have seen lots of them, nothing new in that." 

 "Look," I said, "ah, this is something new." In 

 the slide went, under a lovely 2-inch object glass, 

 microscope binocular. "Before you use the micro- 

 scope," I said, " look at it again." Beck : " Dear me, 

 it's shot with gold, never saw a bee's leg like it before, 

 they^^are black." He took a long look, and said, 

 " The most wonderful thing ; why, there are rows of 

 combs, one rank behind the other, just like the 

 tortoise-shell ones ladies used to wear when I was a 

 boy." "Look again." — "Ah, I see, sir, muscles 

 connected with these combs." "Yes," I said, "they 

 may be erected vertically when the bees are getting 

 pollen, and by the action of those muscles packed 

 close together when the insect is fully laden for home 

 and hive." At the side between the slightly concave 

 part of the thigh, where these combs are, and the 

 convex part, runs a long dark pocket. If the bee had 

 been a Highlander instead of a Southron, I should have 

 said this is the sheath for his skean-dhu, slit from end 

 to end by a microtome, nothing was found in it. 

 These bees' legs are rare ; you may pick up fifty dead 

 bees, and only find a small percentage of these golden 

 thighs.—^. H. B. 



Mind in the Lower Animals. — Dr. Quin 

 Keegan appears to lay down as a jiremise what he 

 professes to seek as a conclusion. " There is no such 

 thing as mind in the lower animal " is his proposition, 

 and the facts must bend to suit. No one asserts that 

 a dog can reason like a doctor, but then all human 

 beings are not gifted to that extent. His test-question 

 is, " Are they capable of understanding these words 

 as signs of abstract or generalised thought." He 

 mistakes in saying he has " demonstrated " they do 

 not. He has only " asserted " this — a very different 

 thing. But he admits the possession of mind among 

 the lower animals in his very efforts to deny it. He 

 asks, " Is not the human general term associated in 

 the animal mind" "with some individual impression." 

 Clearly he admits animal intelligence, for there is an 

 idea and the association of ideas, but he will not call 

 it mind. As he inquires further about my dog, I beg 

 to inform him that if I was at home when he was fed 

 by some one else, he never attempted to delude me 

 into giving him a second dinner. " Well," he says, 

 " the probability is that the dog merely intended to 

 convey that he would have no objection to a second 



dinner." Then in Dr. Keegan's opinion he did 

 intend to convey some idea. He had built up a 

 conclusion froni a fact, and he proceeded to act upon 

 it. Dr. Keegan's explanation of the facts implies 

 the possession of mind — that is, reasoning power to a 

 certain extent — ^just as much as my explanation ; I 

 think the difference betwixt us is only that Dr. 

 Keegan objects to the use of the word " mind." 

 We are all agreed that human intelligence is limited, 

 and animal much more so, and some of us call 

 the more extended mind, and deny it to the less ; 

 others apply it to both. If Dr. Keegan will come to 

 the inquiry not bound hand and foot to a preconceived 

 notion, he will admit that though a dog may be 

 incapable of a sneer, or a horse of solving a quadratic 

 equation, or determining the solar parallax, still both 

 are possessed of what ordinary men mean by the 

 word mind. — Edwin Holmes. 



Keeping Serpul^e. — I have a large shell in my 

 marine aquarium with a great many serpulje on it, 

 but one by one all the serpulaa have died. Can any- 

 one tell me the probable cause of this ? The other 

 animals are well and happy, so there is nothing wrong 

 with the water. Do they require feeding ? I don't 

 see how it is possible to feed them. Their fans seem 

 to dwindle away till nothing is left of them, when the 

 worm itself dies and has to be removed. I always 

 thought that they were very hardy creatures. Any 

 hints will greatly oblige. — R. A. R. Bemidt. 



The Storm-Glass. — W^ould some reader kindly 

 inform me whether the following recipe for the 

 "Chemical Barometer" or "Storm-Glass" usually 

 sold in opticians' shops is correct. " Put into a tube 

 2i drachms camphor, and li drachms spirits of wine. 

 When the camphor is dissolved, which it will readily 

 do by agitation, add the following : water 9 drachms, 

 nitrate of potash, 38 grains, muriate of ammonia, 

 38 grains. Dissolve in water, prior to mixing with 

 the camphorated spirit, then shake the whole to- 

 gether. Cork the bottle well and wax top, but put 

 a little hole in top or cover the top with skin. 

 The above forms an excellent indicator of the 

 change in the weather." I have made several glasses 

 according to the above recipe, but they have all had 

 a heavy white appearance, owing, I think, to the 

 excess of camphor, very different from the fleecy grey 

 matter composing the optician's glass. This thick 

 white matter solidifies, and does not change its 

 position. The optician's storm-glass is sealed at the 

 top with no air-hole. The above leads me to con- 

 clude the recipe I have followed is incorrect. Would 

 you kindly supply me with the proper one, and 

 oblige by inserting the recipe in your answers to 

 correspondents in your valuable periodical. — yohn 

 II. Milne. 



Gold-fish Keeping. — In reply to Mr. Eaton, I 

 offer my own experience. Having tried the usual 

 way with globe, and changing the water twice a week, 

 without success, I obtained a glass aquarium, 12 inches 

 high, 10 inches wide, and 20 inches long. The 

 jjottom is covered with rough sand and small pebbles. 

 A rockery of nice-looking stones is placed at one end, 

 sloping towards the glass. From between the stones, 

 and planted in a small flower-pot saucer amongst 

 some well-washed yellow loam, grow various water- 

 plants. At the other end, and in each corner, is a 

 piece of stone covered with water-moss. When filled 

 up with river water, and having stood undisturbed for 

 some days to allow the water to clear and the plants 

 to take root, the fish may be introduced along with a 

 variety of pond -life, which helps to give the aquarium 



