274 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



the quantity we Ijrought to the surface as " three 

 hats fulls." My own estimate was very much smaller, 

 but I never before or since witnessed any approach 

 to such a display of that form of animal life. When 

 we emerged we appeared to be wearing brown 

 gaiters, the enemy was marching from our boots 

 upwards. The limestone there is simply a con- 

 glomeration of fossils. There was a legitimate 

 natural demand for very large cave spiders. It 

 would be a curious experiment to take a brood of the 

 Tasmanian cave spiders, and deposit them in the 

 Syracusan flea cavern. 



There is a large harmless lizard in Tasmania 

 (^Cyclodtis iiigrohitctis), which ignorant prejudice is 

 treating as our harmless lizard, the " blind worm," is 

 treated here. The Tasmanian victim is named the 

 "death adder," and hunted down as a poisonous 

 reptile, while, according to Mr. Dyer, it should be 

 j ealously protected, as it kills young' poisonous ser- 

 pents. Our blind worm feeds voraciously on garden 

 slugs. I have supplied those I have tamed, and still 

 keep as domestic. pets, with three or four slugs daily, 

 and all have been swallowed. A walled garden 

 might be cleared of slugs, liy the aid of these pretty 

 little creatures. After swallowing the last slug, they 

 would still have earthworms to fall back upon, 

 besides the larvn; of beetles, and other underground 

 grubs, which I lind they greatly enjoy as a change 

 of diet. 



The report on " The Mineral Resources of the 

 United States," published at Washington, by the 

 United States Geological Survey, is very interesting, 

 not only to United States citizens, but also to our- 

 selves. Mere politicians may be alarmed at this 

 display of the magnitude of the mineral resources in 

 the hands of those of our own race, who are regarded 

 by such politicians as our rivals. 



Those who look a little deeper and from a truly 

 scientific point of view, will see therein so much 

 prospective increase of the world's wealth, of which, 

 in the natural course of events, we shall, next to the 

 Americans themselves, obtain tlie largest share. 

 There is no mistake about the fact that they have 

 vastly more coal, more iron, more copper, more lead, 

 more of all the raw materials of the earth than we 

 have ; that we shall cease to send them coal, pig 

 iron, iron rails, copper ingots, (S:c., or otherwise we 

 shall cease to be their coal-diggers, their iron miners 

 and smelters, &c. ; but shall we cease to be English- 

 men, because we cease to do such dirty work ? I 

 think not. We must look the facts in the face, and , 

 prepare for the inevitable change by elevating the 

 character, and enriching the intellect of our artizans ; 

 this must begin with education in science, whereby 

 they shall be fitted to do higher and better paid work 

 than coal-digging, furnace feeding, puddling, casting, 

 forging, and thus, instead of sending out crude iron at 

 ifis. or 50J-. per ton, we shall work it up with elabor- 

 ate machinery, into other_useful and artistic products 



of which every ton weight shall be raised by 

 skilled labour to the value of a hundred or a thou- 

 sand tons of pig-iron or mere rails. Our " black 

 country " will be but whity-brown compared to that of 

 Lake Superior, with its inexhaustible deposits of rich 

 haematite, suitable for Bessemer pigs, and its wonderful 

 deposits of native copper. As an example of growth, 

 Colorado only produced 56 tons of lead in 1S73 ; now 

 the production of the state has risen to 58,642 tons, 

 chiefly from the carbonate deposits of Leadville in the 

 Rocky Mountains, where the lead is regarded as a 

 secondary product, and named " base bullion," the ore 

 being smelted for the gold and silver it contains. The 

 volume above named should be studied, not only by 

 mineralogists, but by manufacturers, especially by 

 those who have capital invested in blast furnaces ; and 

 by all concerned in the education of the productive 

 classes. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Small-pox was accurately described by Rhazes, 

 an Arabian physician, about the year 900 A.D. The 

 disease is supposed to have been introduced into 

 Europe by the Saracens. 



Dr. Wilson, of Louisville, Kentucky, states he 

 has made some of his most successful skin-grafts from 

 the inner membrane of a perfectly fresh hen's egg. 

 He prefers it, for this purpose, to human skin. 



A Hungarian scientist has beaten M. Reinsch. 

 The latter only professed to find bacteria, &c., in 

 dirty old money ; the former states he finds them in 

 bank-notes. Both money and bank-notes will have 

 no attraction after this ! 



A Scottish Geographical Society has been formed, 

 with Lord Rosebery as its first President. 



The opening meeting of the session for 1884-5, of 

 the Geologists' Association took place at University 

 College on November 7th, when the president. Dr. 

 Hicks, gave an address on " Bone caves." 



On Friday evening, October 17th, the Society of 

 Amateur Geologists held their first meeting at 

 31, King William Street, E.C., when Professor 

 Boulger, one of the vice-presidents of the Society, 

 delivered the inaugural address, taking for his subject 

 the " History of Geology." The society, which is 

 receiving the support of many eminent geologists, 

 has secured excellent rooms at 31 King William 

 Street, E.G., where its meetings will be held on the 

 third Friday in each month. 



An International Electrical Exhibition has lately 

 been held at Turin. A notable feature was a Siemens' 

 Dynamo-electric machine of thirty-horse power, which 

 generated alternative currents, simultaneously utilised 

 by the Swan, Siemens, and Bernstein systems, 

 distributed over a circuit of twenty-four miles. 



