SCRATCHING IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 245 



be created where the hearthstone rests on wood, unless the hearth 

 itself be protected. It was therefore my duty to find out a means of 

 protecting the hearth. With this view, experiments have been made 

 with ash-pans with double bottoms and a small air-space between the 

 ash-pan and the hearth. The results are shown in the specimens of 

 cotton-wool, wood, etc., which have been exposed under ash-pans of 

 various constructions. My conclusion is that two inches of artificial 

 asbestus at the bottom of an ash-pan would render any hearth safe. 

 Such an ash-pan may be named a " Hearth-Protector." Another cau- 

 tion should be given against erecting one of these improved fireplaces 

 where there is no projecting chimney-breast, lest there should be in- 

 sufficient depth of brick between the back of the fire and the wood- 

 work of a room at the other side. 



" Kitchen Kefuse" In some households there are certain portions 

 of kitchen refuse which are apt to find their way into the dust-bin, 

 instead of the pig-tub. You here see the remains of refuse, consisting 

 of celery-stalks, potato-parings, etc., which have been roasted in a 

 wire cage underneath my kitchen-fire in the chamber closed by the 

 " Economizer." The wire cage is necessary to allow the heat to reach 

 the under surface of the refuse. 



Having now for four years done my best to persuade the public to 

 take measures in reference to fireplaces which will confer upon them 

 a saving in the cost of fuel, a saving in the labor of servants, an in- 

 crease in the warmth and comfort of rooms, a lessening of the soot in 

 the atmosphere of towns, and a possibility of reduction of scavenging 

 rates, it is no little satisfaction to feel that my views are at last 

 making way, and acquiring a momentum of their own. 



It only remains for me now to bring my address to a conclusion 

 with the words of the Roman poet 



" Nonfumum exfulgore, sed exfumo dare lucem." 



Hoe., Aes. Poet. 



which I will translate in the words of one of our greatest Latin 

 scholars, the late Professor Conington : 



" Not smoke from fire my object is to bring, 

 But fire from smoke, a very different thing." 



-*- 



SCRATCHING IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



By Professor SAMUEL LOCKWOOD. 



FOR nearly two weeks, one midwinter, my studies were pleasantly 

 interrupted by a nightly visit of that funny arachnidan, Phalan- 

 gium clorsatum, Say. We often hear it called Daddy-long-legs, which 

 name in England is given only to the long-legged dipteran, the Ttpula, 

 or crane-fly. My visitor's domicile was a nook somewhere in the 



