68 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



The International Geological Congress of all the 

 nations employing geological surveys is fixed to meet 

 in London on September 17th of the present year, 

 under the presidency of Professor Huxley. This 

 congress assembles in a different country every three 

 years. This will be the first time it has met in 

 England. 



A NOVEL and important invention for the manu- 

 facture of copper-tubing has just been made by 

 Mr. W. Elmore. He slowly deposits the copper by 

 electrolytic action in a bath upon an iron mandril, 

 which is kept rotating there. The copper is de- 

 posited in thin films, and as it is thrown down it is 

 compressed by an agate burnisher into a hard and 

 solid mass, of such great tensile strength that it has 

 sustained a breaking strain of forty tons to the square 

 inch. 



An American inventor, Mr. A. P. Wade, has 

 brought out a combined potato-digging and harvest- 

 ing machine, which not only ploughs the potatoes 

 out of the ground, but also separates them from soil 

 and dirt, and either transfers them to a waggon or 

 arranges them in rows, as may be desired. 



Hitherto it has been laid down by physicists 

 that the dull red rays of light are the first luminous 

 rays to appear, but Mr. Weber has just shown that 

 the filaments of solid carbon, gold, iron, and platinum 

 give a grey glow first, and at a temperature below 

 that of "red heat." 



Some very suggestive and important experiments 

 to chemists have been made by Professor Meyer, of 

 Gottingen, on the ultimate atoms of carbon. He 

 thinks that the atoms of carbon are spheres, each 

 surrounded by an "ether shell," which latter forms 

 the seat of its well-known four-coupling (quadri- 

 valency) power. He imagines the "four-coupling" 

 powers have some electric centres of connection, 

 which he calls " electrules." 



Our knowledge of the sun is increasing, thanks to 

 the new spectroscopes. Tire latest bit of scientific 

 information thus afforded is that platinum is a solar 

 element. 



Mr. W. E. Case has recently read a paper before 

 the American Institute of Electric Engineers which 

 is causing much attention. It is on the possibility of 

 obtaining energy from carbon by electrical means 

 without heat. 



Botanical Evercirculator about to be started. 

 Members wanted. No charge. Address J. Hamson, 

 editor, 19 Victoria Road, Bedford. 



The members of the Woolhope Naturalists' Club 

 have contributed to the materials collected and 

 arranged by the late Dr. Bull, of Hereford, on the 

 birds of that district. The " Birds of Herefordshire " 

 is therefore announced, price 5.?. 



The Natural History Society of Glasgow appears 

 to have recently taken out a new lease of vigorous 

 life, judging by the quality and character of the 

 papers read. 



A Canadian naturalist says that the bee's sting is 

 by no means used for stinging only, but is utilised in 

 doing all manner of artistic work, in capping the 

 comb, and infusing formic acid, by means of which 

 honey receives its keeping properties. The sting is 

 in reality an exquisitely finished tiny trowel, with 

 which the bee rounds and caps the cells when they 

 are brimful of honey. This explains why honey 

 extracted before it is capped over does not keep 

 well ; the formic acid has not been injected into it. 



We are sorry to have to record the death of the 

 well-known botanist, Dr. J. T. I. Boswell (an old 

 and valued contributor to SciENCE-Gossir). He is 

 best known to many people as the editor of 

 " Sowerby's Botany," to which he devoted twenty 

 years of his life. 



The annual meeting of the Geological Society 

 awarded medals as follows, for distinguished services 

 in this special science : H. B. Medlicott, the 

 "Wollaston"; Professor Newberry (New York), 

 the " Murchison," and Professor H. AUeyn Nicholson 

 (the well-known author) the " Lyell." 



During December and January Dr. J. E. Taylor 

 delivered popular science lectures on geological, 

 zoological, botanical and other subjects, to large 

 audiences in various parts of the country, at 

 Leigh ton Buzzard, Ipswich Museum, Wolver- 

 hampton Literary and Scientific Society, Hadleigh, 

 Southwold, Windsor, Lowestoft, Manningtree, 

 Chelmsford Museum, etc. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Notholca SCAPHA. — I may perhaps be allowed 

 to mention that I found these species in some abund- 

 ance in this neighbourhood in October last. For 

 some time after I met with it I did not know that it 

 had ever been found in fresh water ; and this fact, 

 together with the long oval shape described by Mr. 

 Lord, led me to doubt whether I had not had the 

 good fortune to light upon a new species. After a 

 time, however, I found that a dead specimen closely 

 resembled Mr. Gosse's second figure of N. scapha in 

 " The Rotifera." Till then I had thought my speci- 

 mens might belong to a species intermediate between 

 A 7 ", scapha and N. thalassia (not thallasia, as mis- 

 printed in Mr. Lord's article). I sent some of the 

 water in which the Notholca occurred to Mr. Gosse. 

 In the first bottle sent he did not find any specimens 

 of Notholca, thougli he did find an undescribed 

 Furcularia, which was very numerous ; but in the 



