HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



41 



the ruins erected upon a more solid foundation. 

 These are surely the words of truth and soberness, and 

 apply with equal force to the fungologist, botanist, 

 eivtomologist, ornithologist, as to the diatomist. In 

 fact, the students in every branch of biology may in 

 this respect, with few exceptions, cry : " wfa culpa, 

 mai maxima culpa." — F. Kittoii, J Ton. F.R.M.S. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Local Names, co. Fermanagh.— Yellow Bunt- 

 ing [Emheriza citrhtellu), •' Vellow-yorlin " ; Coot 

 (Fulica atra), " Baldy " ; Cormorant {Phalacrocorax 

 carbo), " Cormorel " ; Lesser Grebe or Dab-chick 

 {Podiaps minor), "Puffin"; WtxQXi {Ardca cinerea), 

 " Crane " ; Kingfisher {Alccdo hispida), " Blue-bird " ; 

 CMs\\3.t or l<.\i\g-do\e {Columba palinubus), "Wood- 

 quest"; Jack Snipe [Galliitago galliiiula), " Weather- 

 blate" ; Starling {Sturnus vulgaris), " Starbird " ; 

 Missel Thrush (Turdus viscivorus), "Jay"; Newt 

 {Triton punctatus), "Man-keeper"; Horse-leech 

 {Hicmopis sanguisorba), "Lough-leech"; Large 

 Moths, "Bats"; Stickleback (C(7j/<7w/<v/j-), " Strid- 

 ley" ; male ditto (when in bridal attire), "Red 

 Roach"; Freshwater Mussel (Alasmodon margari- 

 iifera), " Slig" ; Lampern or River Lamprey {Petro- 

 myzon fluviatilis), " Ramper Eel"; Shrew {Sonx 

 vulgaris), " Grass-mouse."— y". //. //. 



North Middlesex Natural History Associa- 

 I'lox. — A society has just been founded bearing the 

 above name, of which Mr. W. J. V. Vanderberger is 

 President, and Mr. C. M. Allan, Secretary. The 

 temporary address of the Association is 29 Ingleby 

 Road, Grove Road, Holloway, N. 



Reaumur and the Germ Theory of Disease. 

 — It has struck me that some remarks I recently met 

 with in the fourth volume of Reaumur's M^moires, (in 

 the end of the tenth Memoire, on viviparous diptera, 

 pp. 432-6,) would not be without interest at the 

 present time. After relating some experiments with 

 vegetable infusions in tubes, from which he con- 

 cluded that, since boihng killed all organisms con- 

 tained in them, any life subsequently developed in 

 such infusions must have come from without (p. 432), 

 he leads up to his hypothesis with the following 

 noticeable sentence, (p. 434). " Ce que nous s^avons 

 de mieux en physique, est assurement ce que nous 

 pouvons voir, mais pourtant nous pouvons y etendre 

 nos connoissances par-dela ce que nous voyons." 

 \Vith him, as with Tyndall, " the vision of the mind 

 authoritatively supplements the vision of the eye. By 

 an intellectual necessity he crosses the boundary of 

 the experimental evidence," &c., [Belfast Address. 

 Fragments of Science, 5th ed. p. 524.] He uses the 

 same algebra of the imagination in postulating an 

 unknown quantity to be afterwards tested by reason 



and experiment. He goes on (p. 435) to say : " It 

 is then extremely probable, it is perhaps only too 

 true, that our air is peopled with winged insects ; and 

 perhaps these little insects, whose existence is not 

 even suspected by men in general, are more formid- 

 able for us than those which we actually know to be 

 venomous, as scorpions, tarantulas, &c. Some years 

 may be much more favourable to their multiplication 

 than others, as there are years more favourable to 

 the multiplication of different species of caterpillars, 

 locusts, flies, gnats, &c. In some years the air may 

 be excessively loaded with these little flies,"— (flies, 

 I should say, which he supposes to be of microscopic 

 size developed from infusorial animalcules, and in 

 which what we now call Musas volitantcs may possibly 

 have an objective existence [pp. 433-4])— " so loaded 

 that with every breath we draw thousands, nay, 



millions of them into our lungs The heat 



there is able to kill them instantaneously, or at any 

 rate, unable to fly, they remain in the air-cells, where 

 they cannot thus accumulate and corrupt, without our 

 suffering from it. Many epidemic diseases which 

 attack a whole town, and even a great extent of coun- 

 try in a brief time, may have a such-like cause. How 

 do we know but that the colds to which the name of 

 follcttcs, is given, and which have been attributed to 

 fogs, may be caused by an atmosphere too full of 

 insects ? The air does not enter only our lungs ; it is 

 mingled with our food, it passes into our stomachs, 

 and the foreign bodies with which it is filled pass 

 there with it. We see the caterpillars, the locusts, 

 which ravage our fields ; but if there are insects of a 

 prodigious minuteness that commit ravages as great 

 within our bodies, those we are unable to see." With 

 regard to what Reaumur includes under the term 

 insect, it may be right to say that he (vol. I. p. 58) 

 would make it cover every animal not included in the 

 mammalia, birds and fishes — not only all arthropoda, 

 mollusca, radiata and infusoria, but, as "La grandeur 

 d'un animal ne doit pas suffire pour I'oter du nombre 

 des insectes," all reptiles, even crocodiles and alli- 

 gators. —J. A. Osborne, M.P., Milford, co. Donegal. 



The Grey Phalarope {Phalaropus lobatus). — 

 A specimen of this beautiful little bird was brought 

 to me on the 12th of December, having been shot by 

 a fisherman of this village in close proximity to the 

 Thames. It has likewise been shot in other parts of 

 the country this winter according to the Field news- 

 paper. Is it not a somewhat uncommon occurrence 

 to meet with this sea-bird so far inland ? Its summer 

 home is the Arctic regions.— IV. If. IVarner, Stand- 

 lake, IVitiuy. 



What relation does the position of the 

 Emisryo of the Chick hold to the long axis 

 OF the Shell ?— In the " Elements of Embryology " 

 by Foster and Balfour, Part i, page 46, it is stated : 

 " If an egg be placed with its broad end to the right- 

 hand of the observer, the head of the embryo will in 



