HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



i55 



them aside to cool. The cinders became coated 

 with beautiful crystals, and appeared like choice 

 mineral specimens. Baskets and other devices in 

 covered wire were similarly coated. Sugar was 

 crystallized, beautiful crystals of sulphur, made by 

 slowly evaporating a solution of sulphur in bisulphide 

 of carbon, and another form of sulphur crystals by 

 fusing sulphur in a crucible or gallipot, breaking the 

 crust which first forms on cooling, and then pitching 

 out the liquid. A nest of beautiful crystals remains. 



I refer to these crudities in order to suggest that 

 crystal making should be reinstated as a popular 

 scientific recreation. The alums, which are so 

 numerous and so varied in colour, would alone afford 

 material for a little museum ; but the amateur avail- 

 ing himself of the achievements of modern chemistry 

 would find the field of recreation to be practically 

 boundless, and the pursuit both elegant and in- 

 structive. 



Among novelties are the isomorphous double chlo- 

 rides of alkalis, iron, and of the alkaline earth-metals, 

 such as chromium, aluminium, magnesium, beryllium, 

 &c. Their colours are magnificent, some of them are 

 described by Dr. Neumann ai crystallising in 

 splendid octahedrons, resembling large diamonds, 

 and reflecting liglu with similar brilliancy. They 

 are chemical first cousins to the alums referred to 

 above. From these the ambitious amateur might 

 proceed to artificial gems, some of which, now 

 within the reach of chemical skill, are quite equal to 

 the' natural specimens. 



Our Much-abused Climate. — We grumble at 

 our climate very unjustly, for though we Lave not 

 the reliable continuance of bright summer weather, 

 we escape its miseries in the consequent drought, 

 the insect vermin, the venomous reptiles, and other 

 pests that are nourished by it. We also escape the 

 violence that usually accompanies the break up of 

 any long spell of fine hot summer weather. An 

 account recently published in the "Times," of Indian 

 weather, should reconcile us to the occasional frus- 

 tration of a picnic or garden party, which is about 

 the greatest calamity to which our climate exposes us. 

 At one of "a series" of storms 150 people were 

 killed by hailstones in Moradabad, and many houses 

 were unroofed. At Delhi the hailstorm was a 

 bombardment of ice lumps lasting but two minutes, 

 but with terrible consequences. One hailstone picked 

 up in the hospital garden weighed ih lbs., another 

 near the telegraph office 2 lbs. 2000 huts were 

 destroyed at Rayebati, in Lower Bengal, 20 people 

 killed and 200 severely injured. Chudressor was 

 wrecked. The wind lifted large boats out of the 

 river, and one small boat was blown up into a tree. 

 We may be caught in a showeT while taking a 

 holiday up the river, but our steam launches are not 

 blown ashore on Eel Pie Island, nor our outriggers 

 up a tree at Henley. 



Stature and Climate. — Those who are inclined 

 to attribute a great deal to the effects of climate on 

 the physical development of man, should reflect on 

 the facts pointed by Professor Flower in a recent 

 lecture at the Royal Institution, that the tallest and 

 the shortest people of Europe, the Norwegians and 

 the Lapps live side by side, and that the tallest race in 

 Africa, the Kaffirs, are close neighbours to the 

 diminutive bushmen. The natives of the Andaman 

 Islands and those of many islands of the equatorial 

 region of the Pacific, in which the conditions are 

 similar, are at opposite ends of the scale of height. 



The Sight-seer's Headache.— The "Lancet" 

 has done well in taking up this subject, describing it 

 as endemic among the frequenters of picture galleries 

 and museums, and controverting the idea that it is 

 attributable to the atmosphere of such places. I have 

 given some attention to it, and made a few experi- 

 ments on myself. The conclusions to which I have 

 arrived nearly correspond to those of the writer in the 

 " Lancet." He says that the effort of mind in long 

 continued observation has probably an appreciable, 

 though a secondary influence, but with most persons 

 it is rather fatigue of muscle than of brain. "The 

 maintenance of the upright position during several 

 hours of languid locomotion, the varied and frequent 

 movements of the head, commonly in an upright 

 direction, and the similar and equal restlessness of the 

 eyes, whose focus of vision shifts at every turn as a 

 new object presents itself, form a combined series of 

 forces more powerful in this respect than the sunlight 

 and frequent changes of mental interest and attention 

 by which they are accompanied. The muscular 

 strain implied in these movements is necessarily very 

 considerable." He adds that "the resulting head- 

 ache has probably much to do with the unusual 

 activity of the cervical extensor and rotator muscles, 

 and of the muscles which move the eyeball." 



An experiment that I have made, and repeated 

 several times, specially confirms this theory con- 

 cerning the neck-moving and eye-moving muscles. I 

 have compared the result of going through galleries 

 and museums with and without a catalogue, and find 

 that the headache commences in a much shorter 

 time with a catalogue than without, in less than half 

 the time. I have spent a whole day in galleries 

 where the pictures are plainly labelled, and have 

 suffered no headache whatever, but always suffer in 

 the course of a few hours when I use a catalogue. 

 I have observed the difference in our mercenary shows 

 — the Royal Academy, &c. — when a friend has 

 appropriated and read out the catalogue. Masterful 

 people like to do this, and being of amiable disposi- 

 tion myself, I submit. 



I suspect that the shifting of the focus of vision 

 from catalogue to picture is the chief cause of the 

 fatigue, which appears to have a peculiarly cerebral 

 character. An anatomist will at once understand that 



