HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



223 



known Valley of Nidderdale in North Yorkshire, 

 and from the quaint dialect he extracts the Gaelic, 

 Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Norwegian, and other words, 

 wlrich tell of the early inhabitants of the region. The 

 structure of the old houses, bams, sheep and cow- 

 pens, the fixtures of the houses, the ovens, bakestones, 

 pots, chimney ingles, cheese-presses, the very names 

 given to the dogs, all are passed through a critical 

 dissection, and made to yield unlocked for and 

 valuable archrcological information. The influence 

 of the physical features of the district on farming, the 

 habits of the people, the names, &c., is very ably 

 traced. There are studies of plants, birds, and 

 mammals of the dale, inter-sprinkled with much folk- 

 lore. And lastly there is a glossary of the county 

 words, with their lingual derivations. We congratu- 

 late Mr. Lucas on a novel, but valuable and deeply 

 interesting book. 



Notes on Cage Birds, edited by Dr. W. T. Greene 

 ( London : L. Upcott Gill), appears under the literary 

 supervision of our old and valued contributor to 

 Science-Gossip, Dr. Greene has made the natural 

 history of domesticated pets his own study, and the 

 publishers of this book did well to secure his services 

 as editor. It contains practical hints in the manage- 

 ment, breeding, diseases, and cures of British and 

 foreign cage birds, hybrid, canaries, &c. As we 

 have been frequently asked to recommend a work on 

 this subject, it is with much pleasure we draw special 

 attention to that before us. 



Studies ill the Theoiy of Descent, by Dr. Aug. 

 Weismann, translated by R. Meldola (London : 

 Sampson Low & Co.), is the third part of this deeply 

 interesting work, dealing with the transformation of 

 the Mexican Axolotl into Amblystoma and contain- 

 ing an essay on "The Mechanical Conception of 

 Nature." We have already drawn attention to the 

 two preceding parts, and think it is a pity the work 

 did not conclude (as regards the English translation) 

 with the second part. It would then have been 

 more uniform in character and subject. 



modern Elementary Cheinistiy, by E. W, Volckx- 

 son, F.C.S. (London : Kegan Paul & Co.), is in 

 reality a collection of answers to all the questions in 

 chemistry which have been set for candidates at the 

 matriculation of the University of London during the 

 last forty years. 



Faith the Life-Root of Science, &^c., by H. Griffith, 

 F.G.S. (London : Elliot Stock), is a very thought- 

 ful, reverent, and even enthusiastic endeavour to 

 harmonise the loftiest scientific discoveries and 

 generalisation with religious belief. The author 

 displays evidences of extensive reading and research. 

 This is a little work eminently worth reading. 



Remote Antiquity of Man Not Proven, by B. C. Y. 

 (London : Elliot Stock), is unanswerable, but not 

 from the point of view the author adopts. It is un- 

 answerable because no scientific man will think it 

 worth while to lose time in attempting to answer it. 



And so the author may pose as having maintained 

 his position, because people have something else to 

 do than slay the slain. Denying the evidences of the 

 antiquity of man (additional proofs of which are 

 coming in week after week) is now very properly 

 placed among that category of denials which includes 

 the rotundity of the earth, and the origin of species. 

 And yet the author displays inteUigence which 

 indicates he might have done better. 



NOTES ON THE SCHIZOMYCETES. 



\C out imicd from i>age 202.] 



No. III. ^ 



V. Bacterium, Cohn. Cells shortly cylindrical, 

 elongated-elliptic or fusiform, increasing by transverse 

 division, spontaneously motile. The daughter-cells 

 either separate from one another soon after divi- 

 sion, or remain united in a chain of two or more. 

 The formation of a Zoogloea is also frequent. Sparc 

 formation like that of Bacillus. 



A. — Colourless Species. 



24, B. Termo, Dujardin. 



Manas Termo, Miiller. 

 1 Palmella Infusionum, Ehrb, 

 Zooglcea Termo, Cohn. 

 Cells shortly cylindrical, oblong, about I5-2 \il 

 long, with a flagellum at each end. 



In the most various substances capable of putre- 

 faction, especially in great numbers in macerations 

 of meat, etc. 



Bacterium Termo is the ferment of decay ; it produces the 

 decay of organic substances, and multiplies abundantly so long 

 as any putrescible material is present, while it disappears when 

 the decay is completed. It may be obtained with certainty by 

 putting a piece of meat into water, and leaving it to itself, 

 allowing the vessel to stand open in a warm place. In conse- 

 quence of their enormous power of multiplication, the Bac- 

 terium cells which are conveyed by the air into the fluid, or 

 which adhere to the meat, form in a short time so numerous a 

 progeny, that even in twenty-four hours the water shows a 

 decided milkiness, which is caused by the fungus-cells floating 

 in it. Moreover that B. Termo is the cause of the decay, and 

 does not, as might be supposed, appear secondarily in the 

 decaying substance, is easily shoA'n by a simple experiment. 

 For if the air is allowed to penetrate without hindrance to a 

 putrescible substance, the decay begins very soon, because the 

 air always contains a number of Bacterium-cells. But if the 

 putrescible organic substance is strongly heated (above 50° C.) 

 and then protected from the air, it does not putrefy. It might 

 indeed be objected, that the air itself or the oxygen thereof 

 causes the decay ; but this objection also can be easily refuted. 

 Air may be admitted to easily putrefying substances which have 

 been strongly heated, but be deprived by filtration through 

 cotton-wool of solid bodies (and therefore of Bacterium-cells) — 

 and in spite of the admission of air no decay will result. 



25. B. Lineola (Miiller), Cohn. 



Vibrio Lineola, Miiller. 

 V. tremiilaus, Ehbg. (Infusionsth., p. 79, 



sec. Cohn ! ) 

 Bacterium triloculare, Ehbg. (I, c. p. 75). 

 Cells exactly similar to those of B. Termo, but 



