114 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The Report of the South London Entomological 

 Society, for r883, has appeared. It contains the 

 address of the President (Mr. W. West), and a record 

 of the captures made during the year by the members. 



At a meeting of the College of Physicians recently 

 held in Philadelphia, Professor Harrison Allen spoke 

 of an interesting discovery, by which spoken words 

 can be represented by a series of curved lines or 

 receiving surface composed of white paper covered 

 with soot. The experiments were suggested from 

 watching the movements of the soft palate, when 

 conducting experiments connected with the human 

 throat. By means of this device, Professor Allen is 

 enabled to register upon the surface of the sooted 

 paper the lines and curves which represent the 

 various phonetic sounds of the human voice. In 

 diagnosing cases of disease of the palate, this inven- 

 tion may prove of great value. Singularly enough, 

 by its aid, Professor Allen has already discovered 

 that many of the sounds which have long been con- 

 sidered by elocutionists and others to be formed by 

 the direct action of the lips, the teeth, or the tongue, 

 are in reality formed primarily by the direct action of 

 the palate. The instrument has been named the 

 Palate-Myograph. 



An important' gathering of English scientists, 

 chiefly biologists, has taken place at the rooms of 

 the Royal Society, under the Presidency of Professor 

 Huxley, when resolutions were passed to the effect 

 that biological laboratories, similar to those existing 

 in France, Austria, Italy and America, were urgently 

 needed on the British coast, where accurate researches 

 may be carried on leading to the improvement of 

 zoological and botanical science, and to the increase 

 of our knowledge regarding the food, life, habits, and 

 condition of our British food-fishes, and mollusca 

 especially, and the animal and vegetable resources of 

 the sea in general. The meeting eventually re- 

 solved itself into a society, to be henceforth known 

 as "The Society for the Biological Investigation of 

 the Coasts of the United Kingdom." 



MICROSCOPY. 



Carbolic Acid and Cement. — Will some reader 

 of Science-Gossip oblige by saying what cement 

 will not be dissolved by carbolic acid when forming 

 the medium for mounting insects ? Carbolic acid 

 acts upon chitine in an extraordinary manner, showing 

 a kind of imbrication on one side (of some insects, 

 notably parasites), and reticulation on the other. 

 The insect when treated with oil of cloves or 

 aniseed, after the carbolic acid, loses its interesting 

 appearance, and the imbricated character is almost 

 destroyed. Again, if treated with glycerine, after 

 carbolic acid, the change is greater still. Will some 

 onehelp?— /F. //. 



The Bacillus of Cholera. — Professor Koch, 

 whose investigations into the nature and history of the 

 lower fungi have already gained him a world-wide 

 renown, has recently discovered the Bacillus of 

 Cholera in tank- water, in one of the suburbs of 

 Calcutta. Accompanied by two other savants he 

 came to India, at the instance of the German Govern- 

 ment, for the purpose of studying cholera, in what may 

 be its original home. For some time after his arrival 

 he made little progress. The bacillus detected by 

 him in the lower intestines of cholera patients in 

 Egypt was readily found in several bodies which he 

 examined at one of the hospitals in Calcutta ; but, 

 beyond ascertaining that it did not exist in the intes- 

 tines of persons who suffered from either diarrhoea or 

 dysentery, he was unable to trace the cholera bacillus 

 further. The disease, shortly after this, broke out in 

 the neighbourhood of a tank at Balliaghatte, in 

 the suburbs of Calcutta. Professor Koch and his 

 colleagues submitted the water of the tank in question 

 to microscopic examination, and found that it teemed 

 with the bacillus of cholera ; and further that as the 

 bacilli in the water decreased in number, the disease 

 decreased in the vicinity of the tank. Professor Koch 

 has not been able to communicate the complaint by 

 inoculation to cats, dogs, &c. I have never heard of 

 dogs being attacked with cholera, but it has recently 

 been announced that an epidemic resembling that 

 disease carried off hundreds of cats in Guzerat. The 

 question suggests itself naturally — is the disease 

 communicable by inoculation ? The German Com- 

 missioners will, however, return to India next winter, 

 and continue their investigations, and extend them 

 to the study of malarial fevers. In the meantime I 

 have no doubt some of Professor Koch's stained and 

 mounted preparations will find their way into the 

 cabinets of European microscopists ; and that we in 

 Calcutta will first learn from drawings in English 

 scientific journals what is the peculiar form and 

 fashion of the deadly saprophyte which has been 

 discovered in our midst. — W. J. S. , Calcutta. 



Mounting Chitine.' — Can any reader inform me 

 by what process I can render thin sections of chitine 

 transparent, and what is the best medium to mount 

 them in 'i—B. H. 



" Petrological Studies." — The last two slides 

 sent out from Messrs. Ady & Hensoldt's morpho- 

 logical laboratory fully sustain the high chaftcter 

 which these petrological studies have already earned 

 among geologists and mineralogists. The first is a 

 specimen of Pitchstone, from the Isle of Arran, and 

 is accompanied by a gracefully-written and very 

 interesting essay, with a coloured plate showing the 

 composition of the mineral as it appears when X 150, 

 and a detailed explanation of each substance. The 

 second slide is a beautifully-prepared section of 

 Anamesite, from Craiglockhart, Scotland. The phy- 

 siological preparations have been commenced, one 



