i84 



HARBWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Mr. Montigny has recently drawn attention to 

 the influence of the atmosphere in the apparition of 

 colours seen in the scintillation of stars, and he shows 

 ihat there is some connection between the colours and 

 the coming weather. Thus, when rain is approaching, 

 there is a great predominance of blue in the scintilla- 

 ting colours. 



In the last volume issued of the " Encyclopedia 

 Britannica," Professor Ray Lankester, F.R.S., has 

 a most important article, in which he gives a new 

 classification of the Mollusca. Of late years all 

 naturalists have felt how very slim and unsatisfactory 

 the existing scheme is, and all such will be delighted 

 with this able instalment to what we hope will, ere 

 Jong, form part of a larger work by the same author. 



Mr. Thomas Laurie, 31 Paternoster Row, has 

 published a letter, entitled " Suggestions for estab- 

 lishing cheap popular and Educational Museums of 

 Scientific and Art Collections and Industrial Produc- 

 tions and Inventions in all towns and villages, and 

 for their arrangement and classification on a new 

 plan," &c. 



Messrs. Le Tall and A. R. Waller have edited 

 and issued a new edition of Mr. Henry Ibbotson's 

 " Ferns of York, including also Nidderdale, and the 

 districts around Thirsk, Scarborough, and Whitby." 

 (York : H. Sessions.) The price is only sixpence, 

 but we hope the zealous efforts of the editors will 

 result in realising their wishes that its sale may 

 benefit the original author. 



Mr, T. Roberts, F.G.S., has just described a 

 new species of Conoceras from the Lllanvirn beds, 

 Abereiddy, Pembrokeshire. 



Few fossils have been more debated than the 

 Receptaculites. They have been called fossil pine- 

 cones, foraminifera, corals, cystidians, &c. Dr. 

 Hinde, in a paper just read before the Geological 

 Society, concludes that they constitute a distinct 

 family of siliceous hexactinellid sponges, whose 

 nearest relationships are to Protospongia, Dictyo- 

 phyton, &c. 



We regret to hear that Mr, Edmund Wheeler, so 

 well known for many years to microscopists, has, 

 through continued ill-health, been obliged to retire 

 from business. No man ever pursued it with more 

 devotion or intelligence. During the many years he 

 was in business, Mr. Wheeler accumulated a large 

 and carefully-selected stock of microscopic material, 

 es^Decially prepared objects. We understand that 

 Messrs. Watsons & Sons, of Holborn, have pur- 

 chased the whole of this valuable stock, so that it is 

 still available to microscopists. 



The Brazilian diamonds have been traced to a bed 

 , of white clay, evidently the result of the fclspathic 

 decomposition of the granite mountains, and into this 

 the diamonds seem to have l^een washed. 



We are pleased to see our best biologists strongly 

 denouncing the folly and cowardice of the " mackerel " 

 scare. Professor Huxley has held it up to scorn and 

 ridicule, and Dr. Spencer Cobbold has shown that 

 the ' ' worm " so much talked about (Filaria pisciitm) 

 is perfectly harmless to man, whether swallowed 

 alive or dead, 



Mr. Lamey has been measuring the height of 

 certain mountains on Veiius. He found a perfect 

 protuberance in the southern hemisphere, which may 

 be a volcano, but it must be seventy miles high ! He 

 does not think this height incompatible with the 

 volcanic nature of Venus. 



In Italy, oil is now being extracted from the seeds 

 of grapes. Young grapes yield most, and black 

 kinds more than white. 



We have received a specimen of a skeleton of the 

 common frog, from Mr, Edward Wilton, Fairfield, 

 Buxton, It is admirably dissected and mounted, and 

 we are glad to draw the attention of science teachers 

 to the capital preparations now being issued from 

 Mr. Wilton's laboratory. 



Mr, Gurley, of the Marietta Observatory, United 

 States, has succeeded in photographing a flash of 

 lightning, during a thunderstorm which occurred five 

 miles away. Professor Wheatstone, many years ago, 

 showed that a flash of lightning could not occupy 

 more than the millionth part of a second, Mr, Gurley 

 took the flash by means of the Bromogelatine process. 



Professor Marsh, the distinguished American 

 palaeontologist, has recently named an almost complete 

 reptilian skeleton, of oolitic age, Ceratosaurus. It 

 was seventeen feet long, and had a large horn on its 

 skull (whence its name). The vertebras are of a 

 peculiar type, and the reptile had a pelvis in which 

 all the bones were ossified as they are in birds. 



Dr, Troncin's experiments with oxygen in cholera 

 are attracting much attention. His system appears 

 to be efficacious in preventing the deadly chills which 

 are the usual accompaniments of this dread disease. 

 When the patient inhales oxygen his bodily composi- 

 tion and heat are intensified, and the chills may be 

 thus averted. 



Dr. Spencer Cobbold, in a lecture on Parasites, 

 recently given at the Health Exhibition, said that 

 vegetarians who flattered themselves that liy absten- 

 tion from meat they escaped the ills of parasitism, 

 only jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire, for 

 the most common parasite known in England is 

 almost entirely nourished l)y the cellulose and proto- 

 plasm of vegetables ; and that it was by means of 

 vegetables and the careless use of unfiltered water, 

 employed in the washing of salads and other herbs, 

 that certain parasites were introduced into the human 

 body. 



