HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



113 



A Russian chemist has succeeded in solidifying 

 alchohol at a temperature of 130° Centigrade. It 

 was transformed into a solid white body. 



Professor Landolt exhibited a solid cylinder of 

 carbonic acid at the Berlin Physical Society, which 

 he had made an hour before. The flakes of solid 

 carbonic acid were hammered in a cylindrical vessel 

 into a solid cylinder. The solid gas could be touched 

 by the hand. It resembled common chalk. 



Mr. C. B. Plowright expresses his opinion that 

 " canker " on apple-trees is due to a fungus, probably 

 to a species of Nectria. 



Malgutti's " Elementary Chemistry," Fresenius's 

 " Chemical Analysis," have just been translated into 

 Chinese, for the use of Chinese students at the 

 Imperial Colleges. Western ideas are extending. 

 The first minister has himself written a preface to the 

 first mentioned work. , 



The French viticulturists are said to be import- 

 ing Californian vines to replace those destroyed by 

 phylloxera., 



Mr. Harvie-Brown has shown that both common 

 trout and brown trout were transformed into Salmo 

 ferox when transferred to a barren loch, where 

 there was an abundance of food. 



The Australian representatives assembled at Syd- 

 ney have been discussing various schemes for getting 

 rid of the rabbit pest. These rodents have been 

 spreading with inconceivable rapidity, at the rate of 

 two and three hundred miles in three or four years. 

 They consume so much of the herbage as to have 

 educed the wool in one "run " from Soo to 300 bales. 



Mr. N. Trubner, the well-known publisher and 

 introducer of American scientific works into Great 

 Britain, has just died at the age of sixty-seven. 



No. II. of "The Acadian Scientist," has appeared. 

 It is addressed chiefly to Canadian naturalists, but 

 has some good practical papers on subjects of a 

 general character. 



Captain Lupton has just delivered an excellent 

 lecture before the Stratford-on-Avon Literary Society 

 on "The Natural History of the District," which 

 was reported at full length in the "Stratford 

 Chronicle " of March 14th. 



In the American journal, " Psyche," Dr. C. V. 

 Riley has written a very graceful "Tribute to the 

 Memory of John Lawrence Leconte." 



No. IV. of the " Rochester Naturalist " has ap- 

 peared. This is the quarterly record of the Rochester 

 Naturalists' Club, and contains two capital papers 

 on the " Chalk in the Medway Valley," by A. W. 

 Hood, and on the " Destruction of Birds, and Con- 

 sequent Increase of Insects." There are a good 

 many valuable notes besides. 



Under the title of " Notes from my Aquarium," 

 I. to VI., Mr. George Brook, F.L.S., has published 

 an attractive pamphlet relating how he successfully 

 managed his salt-water aquarium, and giving a well- 

 written account of the various animals and their 

 parasites which lived in the tanks. There are also 

 some valuable observations on the development from 

 the eggs of various podura. 



No. I. of a new American serial has appeared 

 under the title of " The Microscopical Bulletin and 

 Opticians' Circular," 



Two swallows were seen at Kelso, in Roxburgh- 

 shire, on the 27th of March. 



Mr. F. Enock has issued a beautiful slide of the 

 apterous female of the horned aphis (Ceratophis), as 

 figured in SciENCE-GossiP in October last. 



We are glad to welcome back an old friend under 

 a new name. The "Canadian Naturalist," dis- 

 continued last year, has re-appeared under the title 

 of "The Canadian Record of Natural History and 

 Geology," and is published by the Natural History 

 Society of Montreal. The first part is out, and 

 contains articles by Principal Dawson, J. T. Donald, 

 and others. 



The Postal Microscopical Society. — This 

 we]l-known society now publishes "The Journal of 

 Microscopy and Natural Science," edited by Mr. 

 Alfred Allen. Part 10 of vol. iii. has appeared, 

 containing the following papers : " On Psychoptera 

 paliidosa," by Mr. A. Hammond, F.L.S. (illustrated) ; 

 " The Foraminifera of Galway," by F. P. Balkwill 

 and F. W. Millett ; "The Palpi of Freshwater Mites 

 as Aids to distinguishing Sub-Families," by C. F. 

 George (illustrated) ; " Diamonds and their History," 

 by James A. Forster ; " A Bit of Groundsel," by the 

 Rev. H. W. Lett, M.A. ; "An Inexpensive Turn- 

 table," by E. J. E. Creese ; " Stylops," by Mr. V. R. 

 Perkins. In addition to these original papers we 

 have the chapter headed "Halfan-Hour at the 

 Microscope with Mr. Tuffen West," reports of micro- 

 scopical societies, selected notes from the Society's 

 note-books, reviews, current notices, queries, &c., 

 making up a thoroughly good and readable number 

 to all interested in natural history pursuits. 



Sir John Lubbock persists in teaching his dog 

 to read ! He writes to say that when the dog is 

 hungry it always brings him the card with " Food" 

 printed upon it. When it wants to go out it brings 

 the card marked " Out," and when it wants a bone 

 it brings another card on which Sir John has had 

 that word printed. "Water" is asked for in a 

 similar way ; and the dog goes along a whole row 

 of printed cards, and eventually selects one con- 

 taining the word which expresses what it wants. So 

 well has the dog advanced in its literary studies that 

 its master now intends to teach it simple arithmetic ! 



