HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



237 



the Rev. Canon Tristram, describing the Proceedings 

 of the members at the various meetings held between 

 the spring of 1879, up to April 1880. Notes on a 

 hitherto undescribed Roman Camp near Foulplay 

 Head, Rochester, Rudwater, by G. T. Clough, of 

 H. M. Geol. Survey, with two plates. Miscellanea, 

 consisting of notes on various subjects, by Mr. John 

 Hancock and others. Memoir of the late Thomas 

 J. Bold, by Mr. Joseph Wright, acting curator of the 

 Newcastle Museum. Mr. Bold was an extensive 

 contributor to these and other natural-history 

 publications ; the list of his papers, as given by 

 IMr. Wright, amounting to about 160, which are 

 chiefiy on Entomology. Notes on the Vertebral 

 column and other remains of Loxomma Allmanni, 

 Huxley, by the late Thomas Atthey. Mr. Atthey left 

 behind him one of the largest and best collections of 

 coal -measure fossils in the kingdom, which fortu- 

 nately have been secured for the Newcastle Museum. 

 The Yorkshire Caves ; a three days' trip with the 

 Tyneside Field Club, 1882, by Thomas T. Clarke; 

 •a very interesting article, and especially to those 

 who have not visited these natural curiosities. 

 Address to the members of the Tyneside Naturalists' 

 Field Club, by the President, the Rev. A. M. 

 Norman, D.C.L., F.L.S., May 1S81. This is a very 

 important paper and is divided into two parts — one 

 describing the Proceedings of the members at the 

 various meetings, held during the year, and the other 

 describing the faunre met with at various dredging 

 expeditions, in which he himself took part. He also 

 gives an extensive catalogue of the Fauna, as far as 

 yet known, which lives in the North Atlantic Ocean 

 at greater depths than 1,000 fathoms. A voyage to 

 Spitzbergen and the Arctic Seas, by Abel Chapman) 

 Esq., Silksworth Hall, Sunderland, with four 

 beautifully executed plates. Mr. Chapman describes 

 the ornithology of Spitzbergen, so far as was 

 witnessed by himself. Presidential Address to the 

 members by E. T. J. Browell Esq., in May 1882. 

 Mr. Browell gives a very interesting account of the 

 field meetings held during his year of office, and 

 concludes with a reference to the death of Charles 

 Darwin and his works. The concluding section of 

 this part is headed "Miscellanea," and consists of 

 several notes contributed by Earl Percy and others. 

 — Dij^ton Burn. 



Natural History of Jersey. — In consequence 

 • of the author's not receiving proof of his paper last 

 month, the following errata occur : — " Graps " pools, 

 instead of ' ' grass pools ; " Trochus niagnus, for 

 T. mag7ts, T. pallastra for T. pallustra, and suckers 

 of the skin, instead of on the skin. 



Zoological Character of the Duck-Billed 

 Platypus. — At the recent meeting of the British 

 Association at Montreal, the president of the Bio- 

 logical Section, Professor Moseley, read a telegram, 

 stating that Mr. Caldwell finds the Monotremes to be 



viviparous with mesoblastic ovum. Professor Moseley 

 said that this contained the most important scientific 

 news that had been communicated to the meeting of 

 the Association. Briefly its significance was thus 

 explained. The lowest known mammal, the 

 ornithorhynchus or duck-billed platypus, and the 

 echidna or so called spiny anteater of the Australian 

 region, although like other mammals they suckle 

 their young, lay eggs like birds. Further, the early 

 stages of development of the ovum are unlike all other 

 mammals, including, as Mr. Caldwell has shown, 

 marsupials, but are identical with those of birds and 

 reptiles. The segmentation of the ovum is meso- 

 blastic, not holoblastic. These important results. 

 Professor Moseley continued, point to the origin of the 

 raonotremata, and thus of all mammalia, and inci- 

 dentally of man himself, from the reptilia rather than 

 from amphibia, which latter origin has been lately 

 advocated by several naturalists of the highest 

 distinction. 



Gigantic Earthworms. — A gigantic earthworm 

 has been sent from Cape Colony for Mr. Frank 

 Biddard, the prosector of the Royal Zoological 

 Society. The Rev. G. Fisk, F.Z.S., with whom Mr. 

 Biddard has corresponded on the subject, received the 

 worm from Mr. H. W. Bidwell, who found it in the 

 Botanic Garden at Uitenhage. The longest measure- 

 ment of the creature yet taken reaches six feet five 

 inches. The surface of the upper portion of the body 

 shows a bright green colour of variable intensity, but 

 otherwise it is a loathly animal. Licmbricics 

 microclmta is the name by which it will be known. 



The Polyzoa and the RoTiFERi^.— At the 

 Biological Section of the British Association Meeting, 

 Mr. Sidney F. Harmer's paper on the Development of 

 Polyzoa gives the results of his work on Loxosoma, 

 conducted while occupying the Cambridge table at 

 the Naples Zoological station. They indicate that 

 the polyzoa are allied to the rotiferse, and have little 

 connection with the brachiopoda. The excretory 

 organ of the adult belongs entirely to the head ; the 

 dorsal organ of the larva takes no part in budding. 

 Its development and structure exhibit the character- 

 istics of nervous tissue ; it is in fact a brain. During 

 the degeneration of the alimentary canal the free 

 larva produces a pair of buds, probably never becom- 

 ing itself adult. 



Fox Cubs reared by a Cat. — I send you a copy 

 of the "East Sussex News," which gives a short 

 account of the curious fact in natural history, viz., 

 the rearing of two fox cubs by a cat. It appears the 

 mother of the cubs was killed in the hunting-field 

 and the cubs were dug out of a hole some feet deep. 

 The cat took readily to the cubs, and seems very fond 

 of them. I have seen them to-day, about the twelfth 

 of their existence, and they appear to be strong and 

 healthy with their eyes still closed. — J. G. Braden. 



