64 



HARD Wl CKE 'S S CIENCE- G O SSI P. 



A French electrician has invented a new sound- 

 ing lead, which tells the exact moment of its reaching 

 the bottom by means of an electric alarm bell. 



In a paper read before the Penzance Natural 

 History Society, ',on " Wild Flowers at the end of 

 the year," by Mr. Samuel Tait, the writer shows that 

 at Christmas, 1882, there were no fewer than III 

 species in bloom at Madron, near Penzance. 



It is with much pleasure we notice the appoint- 

 ment of Professor Flower, F.R.S., the distinguished 

 osteologist and comparative anatomist, to the position 

 of Superintendent of the British Museum, vacant by 

 the retirement of Professor Owen. 



Recently, near Letterkenny, co. Donegal, 

 Domhnal Kinahan shot a young Greenland falcon. 

 These birds are very rare visitors, only about six being 

 recorded during the last century. 



At the meeting of the Royal Hist, and Arch. Ass. 

 of Ireland, in Ballymena, G. H. Kinahan, M.R.I. A., 

 &c., called attention to flint implements picked up in 

 the CO. Donegal. He finds these occur in different 

 localities near the luscas, or cave dwellings, of the 

 primitive inhabitants ; they being exposed when 

 tilling the ground. The luscas are of peculiar types, 

 being long, narrow and low. Allied to them are 

 fosliac or flag dwelling-places on the surface of the 

 ground. These are also long and narrow, having at 

 one or both ends, " standing stones " or gallans, 

 if a ridge pole rested on them to hold up a roof of 

 either rushes, grass or sods ; some, however, were 

 covered by flags ; the roofs appear to have been 

 made of flags when they were found of sufficient size. 



Professor Tait has been lecturing on thunder- 

 storms, with a view to showing the amount of energy 

 involved in changes then produced. He proved that, 

 to evaporate a tenth of an inch of water on a square 

 foot of ground, required a power equal to one horse 

 for half an hour, so that to condense one-tenth of an 

 inch of water on a square mile would require one 

 million horses working for the same time. In this 

 way there is little difficulty in understanding how it 

 is that hurricanes and typhoons can be produced by 

 the amount of energy in the heat formed out of that 

 small quantity of water in condensing from the 

 vaporous into the liquid form. Speaking of the 

 three forms under which lightning is usually mani- 

 fested — forked, sheet, and globular — Professor Tait 

 said that forked lightning was of the same kind that 

 we obtained from an electrical machine. A brilliant 

 ilash of lightning lasts only the one-millionth part of 

 a second. " Sheet" lightning is merely the illumina- 

 tion of the clouds and vapour in the atmosphere by 

 the forked kind. Of " globe " lightning very little 

 is at present known. Professor Tait thinks that 

 atmospherical electricity is caused by the friction of 

 the water-vapour molecules with those of the air. 



The sixth annual reception of the New York 

 Microscopical Society, was held on February ist, in 

 the Lyric Hall. The retiring President, Mr. B. 

 Braman, delivered an address on " The Microscope 

 in Art," and the programme of objects exhibited was 

 unusually interesting. 



Professor Milne, of Japan, has just published 

 in "Nature" an important practical paper on 

 " Earthquakes and Buildings." The hints contained 

 in it ought to be studied by all who are concerned 

 with architecture in countries affected by earthquake 

 disturbances. Mr, Milne recommends, that a house 

 built in such places to be aseismic (that is unaffected 

 by earthquakes) should be a low frame building, with 

 iron roof and chimneys supported by a number of 

 slightly concave surfaces resting on segments of stone, 

 or metal spheres, the latter being in connection with 

 the ground. The streets ought to be wide in earth- 

 quake towns, and open spaces left for refuges. 

 Chimneys with heavy tops, like heavy roofs, should 

 be avoided. The pitch of the roofs must not be too 

 great. If it is necessary to have substantial buildings, 

 their upper portion ought to be as light as is con- 

 sistent with the requisite strength. The city of 

 Manilla has been re-erected much upon this plan, 

 and now presents a singular appearance of light roofs 

 rising from old foundations. 



A French scientist, M. Duchatre, has given an 

 account of some experiments he has been making 

 with seeds. Everybody is aware of the influence 

 which direct sunlight has upon the growth and 

 development of young plants. M. Duchatre has been 

 experimenting upon the germination of seeds with 

 moonlight instead of sunlight. He subjected the 

 seedlings of lentils, vetches, &c., to its influence. 

 When the seeds had sprouted he put them in a dark 

 place, and kept them there for a time, so that their 

 stalks grevr slender and of a yellowish-white colour. 

 Afterwards, on three nights, when there was clear 

 moonlight, he exposed them to its influence for six 

 hours each night. He found that the stalks at once 

 became seleniotropic, that is, they turned towards 

 and followed the moonlight, just as many plants, such 

 as the sun-flower, are heliotropic, or turn towards 

 and follow the progress of the sun through the 

 heavens. From the very first the stalks of the plants 

 began to bend so that they constantly presented 

 themselves and their budding leaves towards the 

 moonlight, or rather towards the moon. 



The Javanese volcanic eruption will perhaps not 

 be required to account for all the dust thrown into 

 the atmosphere, and which is believed to be the 

 efficient cause of the recent beautiful sunsets, for 

 news has just reached us of a great volcanic eruption 

 in Alaska. A new submarine volcano was formed 

 there last summer. It burst out from the bottom of 

 the Behring Sea, and has already formed an island 



