HARDWICKE'S SCJENCE-GOSSIP. 



235 



The sums awarded in money grants for scientific 

 purposes, at the conclusion of the recent meeting of 

 ■the British Association Meeting at Montreal, amounted 

 to ^1525. 



The Iron and Steel Institute held their annual 

 meeting at Chester on September 23rd and the three 

 following days. 



The museum recently opened by the Prince of 

 Wales at Newcastle-on-Tyne will cost ^42,000, of 

 which ^^38,000 has already been raised. 



Warehouses for the storage of cold air are now 

 in operation in New York, and from these cold air 

 ■will be served through pipes to any part of the city. 

 In the new Washington market a network of pipes is 

 fixed running through the building, and cold air will 

 ■be served to any of the stalls furnished with perishable 

 articles. 



The French Association for the Advancement of 

 Science commenced its meetings at Blois on the 3rd 

 ■of September. The president was M. Bouquet de la 

 Grye, who gave an address on Oceanic Hydrography. 

 He expressed his belief that the level of the sea 

 presents many variations, owing to the quantity of salt 

 in the water. 



The brilliant sunset glows continue to be almost, if 

 not quite, as strikingly beautiful as ever. 



Drs. Maurier and Lange, who have been work- 

 ing at Marseilles ever since the departure of the German 

 Commission, report that they have found a Mucor 

 which they believe to lie the actual agent in the pro- 

 pagation of cholera. They state the mucor is the 

 mature form of which Dr. Koch's bacillus is only an 

 earlier and lower stage. The mucor appears only on 

 the fourth or fifth day. It consists of a mycelium 

 Avhich bears sporangia, the latter containing myriads 

 of spores. When the latter come into contact with 

 putrid organic matter, they develop into a mucor of 

 another form which produces cholera, and originates 

 the bacillus. 



A LABORATORY devoted to special researches in 

 Bacteria has been established at Munich. 



Captain Button is engaged in the study of the 

 extinct volcanoes of the Rocky Mountains. 



Another Polar expedition is to start next autumn, 

 to attempt to reach the Pole by way of Franz Josef 

 Land! 



Mr. H. H. Johnston writes from Mount Kili- 

 manjaro, in Equatorial Africa, at the altitude of 5000 

 feet. He describes it as one of the loveliest sites in 

 the world. 



M. Olszewski has succeeded in liquifying hydro- 

 gen under a pressure of 190 atmos^Dheres, coolin"- 

 with oxygen boiling in a vacuum. 



A balloon centenary was held on September 15th 

 on the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company. 

 Five thousand invitations were sent out. The balloon 

 steering competition for^^iooo was the chief event. 



The late Lord Lytton's Vril, described in "The 

 Coming Race," was no such wild dream as many 

 supposed ! A French wild-beast tamer has just 

 patented an electrical apparatus, shaped like a stick 

 of about 3 feet long, with which he can inflict severe 

 shocks on the animals. On receiving it, the latter are 

 said to crouch down in terror, all except the bear, 

 which appears to withstand Vril the best ! 



A WILD and improbable story is tramping the 

 round of the newspapers concerning a "solid mountain 

 of alum " in Gila River country — of course, in 

 America ! 



Recent experiments show that oats contain a suId- 

 stance easily soluble in alcohol, which has an irritant 

 action on the motor cells of the nervous system. It 

 has been called Avenin by Sanson. It is a nitrogenous 

 substance, apparently of an alkaloid character. The 

 quantity present varies according to the quality of the 

 grain and soil on which it is grown. The darker 

 varieties contain more than the light. Its composition 

 is given as CjgHjiNOig. The bruising and milling of 

 oats diminishes the quantity of this substance very 

 rapidly, but it is quicker in its action. 



H. Baubigny has determined the atomic weight 

 of chromium to be 52' 16. 



Mr. Edward Lovett has read an important and 

 exhaustive paper before the Croydon Microscopical 

 and Natural History Club, on " The Edible Mollusca 

 of the British Islands." 



Mr. David Houston, F.L.S., who will be well 

 known to our readers as the writer of the Botanical 

 portions of Cole's " Microscopical Studies," is com- 

 mencing a class at the Birkbeck Institution, on 

 Elementary and Advanced Botany, and in General and 

 Vegetable Biology, with systematic laboratory work. 



MICROSCOPY, 



The Journal of the Royal Microscopical 

 Society. — The August number of this highly inter- 

 esting serial, besides the usual summary of current 

 researches relating to zoology, botany, microscopy, 

 &c., contains the following original papers (illus- 

 trated) : — " Researches on the Structure of the Cell- 

 Walls of Diatoms," by Dr. J. H. L. Flogel ; " On a 

 New Microtome," by C. Hilten Golding-Bird ; " On 

 Some Appearances in the Blood of Vertebrated 

 Animals with reference to the occurrence of Bacteria 

 therein," by G. F. Dowdeswell ; "On Protospongia 

 pedicellata, a New Compound Infusorium," by 

 Frederick Oakley ; and " On a New Form of Polar- 

 ising Prism," by C. D. Ahrens. 



