162 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



animal to the human being. The patient was 

 Professor von Fleischl, who occupies the chair of 

 physiology in the University of Vienna, and the 

 operator, Dr. Gersung, of Vienna. Sixteen years ago 

 the patient poisoned his right hand, gangrene super- 

 vened, followed by neuromata, or nerve tumour. 

 Operations became necessary, and from time to time 

 were carried out, with the result that two fingers lost 

 the sense of touch, owing to the continuity of the 

 nervous system having been broken. On the 4th of 

 March last, a rabbit was killed, and from its still 

 warm body " as long a piece as possible of the 

 sciatic nerve of the animal " was taken out and 

 transplanted into the hand of Professor von Fleischl. 

 The results are said to be favourable. 



Mr. J. E. Todd has a paper on the subject of 

 "Directive Coloration in Animals "in the "Ameri- 

 can Naturalist." He defines directive coloration as 

 that which is in any way useful to a species, by 

 assisting in mutual recognition between individuals, 

 or by indicating one to another their attitude of body, 

 and probable movements. He gives a number of 

 instances. 



Another competition in the common field of 

 natural science is announced, "Life-Lore," edited 

 by Mr. W. Mawer (an old and valued contributor 

 to Science-Gossip). The price is sixpence, and the 

 first number was to be issued on June 25th. 



Another old friend and contributor to our pages, 

 Mr. Edward Lamplugh, of Hull, is preparing under 

 the title of " Hull and Yorkshire Frescoes," a volume 

 of privately printed poems and sonnets — one for each 

 day of the year, mostly inscribed to Yorkshire men 

 of letters and scientists. One sonnet is inscribed to 

 Science-Gossip. 



Dr. Gamalea has been carrying out some ex- 

 periments on Merino sheep at the experimental 

 station, Odessa, inoculating them protectively against 

 the cattle plague. The results are said to be very 

 hopeful. 



Dr. A. B. Griffiths and his wife, of Lincoln, 

 have recently contributed a joint paper, the result of 

 their joint experiments, showing the influence of the 

 various rays of the solar spectrum on the growth of 

 plants. They planted beans and mustard seeds in 

 lively soils, to which iron sulphate was added, and 

 they found that the greatest amount of iron oxide, 

 and probably of albuminoid were stored up in the 

 plants which had been exposed to the yellow-green 

 rays of the spectrum. 



French Archaeologists have recently discovered 

 in a cave at Mas d'Azil, Ariege, a sub-fossil tooth of 

 horse, carved with the bust of a woman. The pendent 

 breasts and profile of face are said to be carefully 

 delineated. The nose is large and rounded, and the 

 chin retreating. This is the third example found of 

 prehistoric, or Quaternary art. 



The Liverpool naturalists made a six days' marine 

 excursion in Whitsun week, between Liverpool and 

 the Isle of Man, and very successfully employed sub- 

 merged electric lamps to attract swimming objects. 

 These lamps were used both at the bottom and surface 

 of the sea. 



M. Jean Luvini has just read a paper before the 

 Paris Academy on the " Origin of Aurora Borealis." 

 This phenomenon he regards as analogous to the 

 discharge of electricity in thunderstorms, the only 

 difference consisting in their different degrees of 

 intensity. Both are attributed to the friction of 

 particles of water and ice, and occasionally of other 

 minute bodies, drawn by the aerial currents into the 

 higher atmospheric regions and disseminated over 

 the terrestrial atmosphere some hundred miles thick. 

 The northern lights are most frequent about the pole, 

 where the air abounds most in icy particles and where 

 trie field of terrestrial magnetism is most intense. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Magnification in Photo-micrographs. — A 

 friend of mine, Mr. Walter Osmond, who photo- 

 graphs a good deal with the microscope, inquires 

 how he should fix the magnification of his objects as 

 shown in his pictures ? Using a 5-inch objective and 

 an ocular which together give 300 diameters, with 

 the eye-glass at 10 inches from the paper, he gets a 

 field as nearly as possible 6 inches in diameter. 

 Employing the same eye-piece and objective in his 

 camera, he gets a disc in his photos of 2*9 inches. 

 He fixes the magnification in the photo at 145 dia- 

 meters, by the following simple rule-of-three sum : — 

 6 : 2-9 :: 300 : 145. Similarly, with a 2-inch ob- 

 jective and a powerful ocular, which together give 

 55 diameters at the standard height of 10 inches, 

 he fixes the magnification of his photos at 2b\ thus : — 

 6 : 2*9 :: 55 : 26'5S3. Is this correct? You will 

 observe I distinguish in this note between the "mag- 

 nifying power" of an objective and "magnification," 

 implying by the latter term mere enlargement, and 

 confining the former "magnifying power" to that 

 particular degree of enlargement which is obtained 

 when an image is projected by any kind of micro- 

 scopic camera, on a plane horizontal surface parallel 

 to the body of the microscope, and distant exactly 

 10 inches from the centre of the eye-glass of the 

 ocular. I would only add, that such rough measure- 

 ment as can be made by opening both eyes, and 

 comparing an object with a rule laid at the stage, 

 serves to show that Mr. Osmond's method is correct. 

 — IV. J. Simmons^ Calcutta. 



The Combined Use of Celloidin and Paraf- 

 fin. — Kultschizky states that the use of both cel- 

 loidin and paraffin in imbedding microscopical pre- 

 parations has certain advantages over that of either 



