20 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



latter have no neural regions ; the former have a 

 nervous system branching from a ring with pseudo- 

 ganglia : the latter have thread-cells ; the former are 

 without thread-cells : the latter generally are com- 

 posite ; the former are always simple. The annuloid 

 structure of the sea-lily has nothing whatever to do 

 with the "ringed" appearance of the stem. The 

 segments, which are five in number, are "ringed" 

 in a horizontal plane, like the figures on the dial of a 

 watch laid upon a table. This is true of all the 

 Echinodermata, The star-fish is therefore not a 

 rayed animal. From an example of a " mend" in a 

 fragment from the plume of a sea-lily, the subject of 

 the restoration of lost parts led to the following 

 remarks. How a speck of "plasma" having from 

 its position a special junction can take upon itself to 

 change that junction, and charge itself with the 

 duties attached to a fertilised ovum ; at the same 

 time having its embryological potency modified so 

 as exactly to suit the special requirements of a situa- 

 tion determined by an accident, is an enquiry from 

 the threshold of which he that assumes to be 

 scientifically rich must be sent empty away. 



The Director-General of the Geological 

 Survey. — Professor Ramsay, the Director-General of 

 the United Kingdom Geological Survey, has just 

 received the honour of Knighthood. We understand 

 that Sir Andrew Ramsay retired from the post of 

 Director at the end of December, and Professor 

 Geikie takes his place. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Carbolic Acid and Snakes. — Notice was 

 brought to me yesterday (I write from Calcutta) that 

 a large snake had been seen on a piece of waste 

 land which adjoins my house, and which lies between 

 two walls that meet at an angle. A native servant 

 refused to attack it, as it was of a very deadly species, 

 and had got away into the corner where the walls 

 meet, and where, owing to the jungle, &c., it would be 

 difficult to get at, while it would have the advantage 

 of its assailant, at whom it would have sprung with 

 ease. I thereupon mounted one of the walls, a wall 

 between ten and twelve feet high, and saw the snake 

 with his head and about six inches of his body pro- 

 truding from a hole close into the corner. As soon 

 as he noticed me he turned to escape, and in doing so 

 managed to expose the whole of his body. I called 

 for a bottle of carbolic acid, and poured some on the 

 snake, but not more than a tea-spoonful actually fell 

 on him. He then glided rapidly into his hole, and I 

 feared he was lost. In three or four minutes he 

 emerged, moving very much more slowly than at 

 lirst, and making liis way out of the corner. I nov^ 

 called for a stick and some stones, and my attention 

 was thus drawn off for a minute or two ; when I 

 looked again, I found that a second snake longer and 

 considerably thicker than the first had entered an 

 appearance. I succeeded in pouring quite a table- 

 spoonful of carbolic on snake No. 2, which was 

 making for the same hole. The instant the acid 

 touched him he became perfectly confused. He tried 

 to wriggle into the hole, but could not manage it, and 



turned to get out of the corner. He was evidently in 

 pain. As he passed under me I dropped a brick-bat 

 on his back, which disabled him. Snake No. i had 

 meanwhile made his way through the weeds, for a 

 distance of about fifteen feet from the corner where 

 the carbolic was ])oured on him. He soon came to 

 a dead halt. I noticed the weeds round him quiver- 

 ing, probably from some tremulous motion of his 

 body, for he was otherwise perfectly stationary. My 

 servant now ventured to jump on the triangular plot 

 of ground, armed with a stick, and soon smashed the 

 head of snake No. 2. I directed the man to the spot 

 where snake No. i was, but the reptile was already 

 stone dead ; the carbolic acid alone seemed to have 

 done for him, within ten minutes from the time it 

 touched him. On a previous occasion I employed 

 carbolic acid to disable a bad snake which had lodged 

 himself at night in a small closet, and on a window 

 frame where he could not be got at without some risk. 

 The acid is a poison for both snakes and toads. Two 

 or three drops placed on a large toad's back kill 

 it in a few minutes. Persons residing in a snaky 

 locality should always keep a supply of carbolic acid, 

 the quality known as commercial, and used as a dis- 

 infectant, will be found most useful. I managed to get 

 two very good micro slides from the blood of my 

 victims yesterday, which I have mounted dry. They 

 show the oval corpuscles splendidly. The snakts 

 were between three and four feet in length, the longer 

 of the two about three feet seven inches. — IV. J. 

 Simmons. 



Tadpoles in October. — I have this week found 

 some young tadpoles of the newt (I do not know 

 which) ; is not this rather an unusual time of year for 

 them ? They were in a pond entirely shaded by trees, 

 which the sun seldom or never sees. — Wilson Noble. 



Larks and Toads. — Can any person inform me 

 what is the meaning of Shakespeare's line, " Some 

 say the loathed toad and lark change eyes " ? — F. I. B. 



Cormorants. — An English farmer tells me he 

 has shot cormorants on the banks of the river Teify, 

 between Ystrad Meurig and Tregaron, and has seen 

 them in the neighbourhood of Llyn Teify and Llyn 

 Gynnow. The former locality is eleven and the 

 latter sixteen miles in a direct line from the sea. 

 There is no doubt they paid a visit to these waters 

 for poaching purposes, as both river and lakes contain 

 trout. — E. liaise. 



Objects in Aquarium. — About a month ago, I 

 got a glass jar, filled it with sea-water, and put in 

 some weed, a few anemones, and a periwinkle or 

 two. This morning, whilst 1 was aerating the 

 water, I observed some very minute creatures darting 

 about amongst the weed. On looking at them through 

 a quarter-inch lens, I saw they were quite transparent, 

 and had a black line right througli the centre of their 

 bodies, which, I suppose, is all the digestive system 

 they possess. They also had, what seemed to me 

 antenuK, at each end of them. On first looking at 

 them, they appear very much like the common rat- 

 tailed maggot, on a small scale. Can any of the 

 readers of Science-Gossip tell me what they are, 

 and oblige— -^« Amatciir Lady Naturalist. 



IIivE AND Humble Bees.— During ten years' 

 experience of bee-keeping, I have noticed one 

 circumstance that maybe of interest to entomologists, 

 viz. that the hive or its vicinity is a favourite resort 

 for a great variety of insects. Generally my hives 

 are sixteen inches in diameter, and covered with 

 large bread-pans of the old-fashioned conical type. 



