HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



89 



has recently been tested by a well-known French 

 chemist, who has demonstrated that natural carbon- 

 ate of soda is produced in all permeable calcareous 

 soils in proportion to the quantity of marine salt con- 

 tained in them. This being the case, common salt 

 ought to be a valuable manure on all limey soils 

 where plants are to be grown which require carbon- 

 ate of soda as their mineral food. 



Long distance telephonic communication has 

 hitherto been a difficulty, but it seems as though 

 the recently introduced bronze wire will overcome 

 it. At any rate, it is expected that by the 1st of 

 July next, long-distance telephonic connection will 

 be made between Paris and Marseilles, over 500 

 miles of wire. Telephonic communication has 

 already been effected between Brussels and Paris, 

 which is nearly half the above distance. 



Talking about telephoning, there was a novel 

 application of it the other clay in an American paper 

 devoted to the interests of animals. A gentleman 

 owned a favourite dog, which happened to be at his 

 father's office when the owner was too ill to venture 

 out. So the owner asked them to hold the dog up 

 to the telephone. The dog being held, the owner 

 whistled, the creature knew the call and pricked 

 up its ears, whereupon it was bidden to " come 

 home." It was then put down, the door opened for 

 it, and away it trotted off "home," as it was tele- 

 phonically ordered ! 



It is stated that the Dutch are entertaining the 

 grand engineering idea of pumping out and dyking 

 off the waters of the Zuyder Zee, and of thus recover- 

 ing from the ocean the vast area submerged by it 

 five hundred years ago. 



Many colliery explosions have doubtless been 

 caused by the use of gunpowder for blasting. To 

 overcome this, certain lime-cartridges were invented. 

 Now it seems probable that Nobel's gelatine dyna- 

 mite in Settle's water cartridges will be used, as 

 neither spark nor flame is emitted by them. 



M. Trauvelot has supplemented the observa- 

 tions of several astronomers that, so far from the 

 rings of Saturn being stable, they are, on the con- 

 trary, exceedingly variable, and subject to constant 

 fluctuations. 



In these days there are only two classes of people 

 — those who cannot get enough to eat, and those 

 who habitually eat too much. The recent experiments 

 of Messieurs Henriot and Richet, therefore, will be 

 interesting to the latter. They have been investiga- 

 ting the influence of various diets on the interchanges 

 of gases in respiration, and find that respiration 

 increases with the increase of food, but only when 

 the latter consists of hydrates of carbon. The inter- 

 change of the gases is but slightly affected by a nitro- 



genous and fatty diet. Feculent substances increased 

 the absorption of oxygen, and therefore cause a larger 

 amount of carbonic acid to be given off. (Think of 

 that, ye who delight in "high" game and venison.) 



The veteran Professor Prestwich, whose name is 

 historically associated with the vast strides made by 

 Geology during the last half century, has resigned the 

 Geological Professorship at Oxford, and Professor 

 Green, of the Yorkshire College of Science, reigns- 

 in his stead. Professor Prestwich was originally a 

 wine-merchant, and it was when following that 

 business that he made nearly all his discoveries. He 

 was elected to the Chair of Geology at Oxford in the 

 place of the late Professor John Phillips. 



It has recently been proved in the Zoological 

 Gardens at Halle, that hybrids between the jackal 

 and the domestic dog are capable of reproduction 

 among themselves. 



An Electric Club has been formed in New York, 

 which was duly and brillantly opened on the 31st of 

 last month. As we should naturally expect, it is 

 fitted up with all sorts of electrical novelties. You 

 ring the bell by standing on a metal plate, and the 

 door is then unlocked by electricity ; chops and steaks 

 are cooked on electric gridirons ; boots and shoes 

 are blacked and polished by a machine worked by 

 an electric-motor. The clocks are wound up by 

 electricity ; and even the club piano can be played 

 by the same versatile agent ! 



We have just lost one of our best botanists in the 

 death of Mr. John Smith, of Kew Gardens, at the 

 ripe age of ninety-two years. Most people are ac- 

 quainted with his books on Ferns, of which he made 

 an especial study. He retired from active work at 

 the Gardens twenty years ago, but not until he had 

 largely helped to make Kew the celebrated place 

 it is. 



Pasteur has gone in thoroughly for stamping out 

 the rabbit pest in Australia, and he apparently hopes 

 to win the ^25,000 offered by the New South Wales 

 Government to him who stamps them out. There is 

 an ingenious scheme by which the rabbits are per- 

 petuated. A price per head is offered for them, and 

 a new industry has sprung up at the Antipodes. It 

 pays the rabbit-exterminators to keep the rabbits 

 from extinction. In case of the last sad event their 

 occupation would be gone. In one colony the 

 Government offered so much per dozen rabbit-heads, 

 in another for so many tads. Forthwith there was 

 business done, the rabbit-catchers in one colony 

 dealing in tails, and those in the next in heads, 

 exchanging with each other, in order to get the 

 Government grants. 



A Russian scientist states that he has discovered 

 Bacilli, or germs, in hailstones, and he calculated 



