HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



33 



Since the establishment of the Biological Labora- 

 tory on Puffin Island, near to Beaumaris, under the 

 directorship of Professor Herdman, systematic collec- 

 tions of material are made by tow-net day and night, 

 and several new and rare free-swimming copepoda 

 nre already recorded ; but the above new parasitic 

 species seemed of such special interest that I ventured 

 10 describe it in your pages. 



Isaac C. Thompson. 



Liverpool. 



GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOPICS. 

 By W. Mattieu Williams, F.R.A.S., F.C.S. 



REMARKABLE ADULTERATION. — The 

 following is from the columns of a popular 

 periodical : "Materials, often largely ferruginous, are 

 employed in the manufacture of glass for bottles, and 

 the acids in wine act very powerfully upon these 

 constituents, the consequence being that the liquid 

 gets thoroughly impregnated with a solution of 

 magnesia, or something very detrimental to the juice 

 of the grape. When the wine thus affected, is drunk, 

 it is found to be a sour, more or less nasty concoction." 

 The chemistry of this is very wonderful. The 

 impregnation of the wine with a solution of magnesia 

 as a consequence of the action of its acid upon ferru- 

 ginous materials presents a clear case of the transmu- 

 tation of metals, and the souring of the wine by the 

 using up of its acid is another blow to modern 

 chemistry, one of its fundamental doctrines being 

 that an acid cannot exert its solvent or combining 

 energies without becoming proportionally neutralised. 



Electric Fishing. — One of Tiedmand's pictures 

 in the Norwegian Summer Palace of the King of 

 Sweden and Norway (Oscar's Hall, near Christiania), 

 represents a peasant family spearing salmon at night 

 in one of the fjords. A blazing fire of pine knots, 

 or other resinous wood, is made on an overhanging 

 cage at the prow of the boat. This light is an object 

 of interest to the fish. While they are engaged in 

 their investigations of the unusual phenomenon, the 

 fatal blow is struck and they share the fate of Archi- 

 medes. 



The " Scotsman " tells us that experiments are in 

 progress in the Firth of Forth, in which the electric 

 light is to be substituted for the glare of the wood 

 fire as a means of piscatorial seduction. Electric 

 lamps were sunk to a depth of forty or fifty fathoms, 

 but the pressure of water was too great for the glass 

 globes, which although very thick were broken by 

 the pressure of the water. The account I have states 

 that the glass was \ of an inch thick, but the size of 

 the globes is not stated. An arc light of six thousand 

 candle-power is described as having been used, and 

 that further trials with stronger globes are to be made. 

 If I dared to make a suggestion it would be to 



proceed more modestly at moderate depths. The 

 Norwegians work on the surface for the lake trout 

 and salmon. I have caught cod-fish as fast as I 

 could haul them up by bottom fishing at five or six 

 fathoms, and see no good reason whatever for trying 

 such depths as forty or fifty. 



The Propagation of Cholera. —Certain 

 Frenchmen have accused us of carrying cholera from 

 India to Europe through the Suez Canal, in spite of 

 the fact that it visited this part of the world long 

 before the canal was made. The last visitation has 

 been singularly fatal to this theory, according to 

 which the cholera should follow the course of the 

 East India ships, and therefore should make its 

 European debut in London. Instead of this, London 

 has escaped altogether, while Paris, and other large 

 towns of France, Italy, &c, have suffered severely. 



Herr Pettenkofer referred to this in his address to 

 the International Hygienic Congress at Vienna, and 

 asked the question : " Why do the English, in spite of 

 their enormous traffic with India, where cholera is 

 never extinct, not transfer the disease to their own 

 country?" He replies that England's immunity 

 from cholera is not owing to quarantines and other 

 expensive obstructions to international traffic, such as 

 vainly exist in Italy, France, Spain, Russia, &c, but 

 to superior cleanliness, and attention to the removal 

 of sewage. He adds that the general statistics of 

 the mortality of London show that our proverb 

 "cleanliness is next to godliness" is well founded, 

 and that hygienic piety has been rewarded by the 

 heavens. 



Aluminium. — We may hope that, ere long, useful 

 alloys of this metal will become cheaper. In spite 

 of the difficulty of obtaining the metal itself, M. G. 

 A. Faurie has devised an easy and inexpensive 

 method of obtaining it in alloy with other metals. 

 Two parts of finely powdered alumina with one of 

 petroleum, or other hydrocarbon, are worked into a 

 paste well kneaded, and one part of sulphuric acid 

 added. When the mass becomes homogeneous, with 

 a uniform yellow colour and begins to liberate 

 sulphuric acid, it is put into a paper bag and raised 

 to a good red heat in a crucible. The reduced pro- 

 duct thus obtained is finely powdered and mixed with 

 about its own weight of the metal (also in powder) 

 with which it is to be alloyed and raised to a white 

 heat in a crucible. We are told that on cooling 

 after this, more or less rich grains of aluminium alloy 

 will be found in the middle of a black metallic 

 powder. I have not learned whether this black 

 powder can be fully reduced and utilised by further 

 treatment with carbon or hydro-carbon. If so the 

 whole process is simple enough, and cheap enough, 

 to afford good supplies. 



The Universal Solvent. — The old alchemists 

 sought for three great arcana, the philosopher's stone, 



