HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



267 



it is some eighteen years since his valuable work on 

 the blow-fly was published. Since then there have 

 been immense improvements in our methods of 

 preparation as well as the instruments for making 

 sections, which enables us to see the internal struc- 

 ture of these small organs without their tissues being 

 displaced, whilst Mr. Lowne and his predecessors had 

 to depend on their skill and patience in dissection, 

 and such was the wonderful work they did that it will 

 be an everlasting memorial to them. 



GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOPICS. 

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



THE AIR OF COAL MINES.— Some popular 

 fallacies connected with this subject prevail 

 rather widely. It is natural to suppose that, in the 

 gloomy regions underground, the atmosphere and 

 general climate must be very bad. This, however, is 

 not the case. The climate, as regards temperature, 

 is positively luxurious ; cool in summer, and mild 

 in winter. 



It is well known that the ponies, taken down to 

 work in the pits, improve so much in condition that 

 a few weeks vacation underground adds materially to 

 their market value, if sold immediately they come up. 

 This is due to the mild, equal temperature. I have 

 described this before, and have been critically over- 

 hauled for perpetrating a supposed paradox. 



Mr. S. G. Nasmyth has recently conducted a 

 series of physical, chemical and biological observa- 

 tions on the subject, and has communicated his 

 results to the current volume of the " British 

 Medical Journal" (pages 222 to 229). He found 

 that during three months, the highest temperature 

 was 55 , and the lowest 53 Fahr., and that for 

 twenty-one consecutive days, it remained constant 

 at 53 . Victims of bronchitis think of that ! Only 

 two degrees of maximum variation during three 

 months, and for three weeks no variation at all ! 



The chemical composition of the air in reference to 

 carbonic acid, oxygen supply, and organic matter, 

 did not prove quite so favourable ; but still it 

 warranted the general conclusion, that the air of coal 

 mines " compares favourably with that of one-roomed 

 houses, schools, and work-shops." Mr. Nasmyth 

 adds, that miners are not unhealthy, and are not 

 particularly affected by phthisis or bronchitis, a con- 

 clusion which quite accords with my own experience 

 among the colliers of Flintshire, and that of my friend 

 Robert Piatt, who was the medical practitioner of 

 the district, attending all the colliers and their families 

 by contract, i.e., by an arrangement with the pro- 

 prietors, who paid him a fixed amount for attendance 

 on their employes and their families. He frequently 

 told me that, if the atmosphere of the colliers' cottages 

 and of the public houses had been as good as that under- 

 ground, his work would have been much lighter. 



I observed, however, two peculiarities of the 

 miners, first, their delicate complexions (after re- 

 moval of coal dust) and their delicate appetites as 

 compared with out of door labourers. The collier 

 cannot digest the hard skim milk cheese, and the fat 

 bacon that is welcome to the farm labourer. I 

 have heard certain useless people (who, earning 

 nothing, deserve to starve) sneer at this daintiness of 

 appetite as an affectation. It is not so,; both this and 

 the pale transparent skin are consequences of lacking 

 the natural stimulus of daylight. 



Science in Australasia.— We that have not 

 visited the antipodes are apt to regard Australia as 

 altogether a land of sheep runs and shanties. It is 

 rarely associated in our minds with any ideas of 

 cities, cathedrals, universities, and such like old- 

 world developments. With these impressions, how- 

 ever vague, we are naturally surprised to learn that 

 on the 28th of August last, "The Australasian 

 Association for the Advancement of Science," com- 

 menced its proceedings with an opening speech by 

 Lord Carrington, followed by Presidential address by 

 Mr. C. H. Russell, and that the sectional meetings 

 commenced on the next day, and continued through- 

 out the week, during which one hundred and ten 

 papers were read on various branches of science, and 

 that the association already numbers about 850 

 members. 



The meetings were held at the University of 

 Sydney ; the leading citizens of that city entertaining 

 the visitors with great hospitality, and many pleasant 

 excursions were made by the members of the associa- 

 tion. The next meeting is to be held in Melbourne, 

 Baron Sir, Ferdinand Von Miiller, the government 

 Botanist of Victoria, being the President elect. 



The association which, as its name indicates, 

 embraces the whole of Australasia, will meet in New 

 Zealand in 1890. I have not heard whether any 

 invitation from the Fiji Islands has yet come under 

 the consideration of the council. 



Surgical Meat Preserving.— We still have 

 much to learn from the lower animals even in the 

 business of meat preserving. At the recent meeting 

 of the British Association, Sir John Lubbock described 

 some of the scientific proceedings of certain solitary 

 wasps. The female of one of these (Ammo- 

 phila) feeds k her young on a full grown caterpillar, 

 which is placed in the nursery cell of her infant 

 maggot. To prevent the inconvenience of struggling 

 meat on one hand, or decomposing meat on the 

 other, the mother-wasp performs very skilfully an 

 elaborate surgical operation demanding accurate 

 knowledge of the anatomy of the nervous system of 

 the caterpillars, which, as some of my readers will 

 remember, consists of a series of ganglia ; one set, the 

 supra-cesophagal, from which the nerves connected 

 with vision, &c, radiate, and others at each segment 



N 2 



