HARD WJCKE' S SCIENCE- G OSSIF. 



17 



oiothing for his surroundings, that is indeed too 

 terrible. A touching and well-known passage occurs 

 -Jn Thomas de Quincey's works, in which he patheti- 

 cally describes the death of a feeble little bird, and 

 the not unnatural emotions which its last attempt to 

 flutter and sing called forth. No wonder ! And when 

 we think of what country life owes to birds, when I 

 remember the unmixed pleasure they have given me, 

 the peace which the merry songs bring to the soul, I 

 greatly marvel that anyone, calling himself civilised 

 and refined, can seek pleasure in killing the winged 

 messengers, which seem to belong more to Heaven 

 than earth, and whose wholesale destruction would 

 transform the melodious groves and mossy lanes of 

 England into something like the silent, uninteresting 

 and depressing wilds of Australia. 



There are few pictures more fascinating than the 

 life-long devotion of Gilbert White, of Selborne, to the 

 denizens of that secluded and little changed district. 

 The closeness of his observations, the accuracy of his 

 generalisations and conclusions have never been 

 improved upon : and his graceful letters remain, and 

 always must remain, among the treasures of the 

 language. Again, look at VVaterton's life in the 

 country, reading the mysteries which none knew 

 better how to unravel, and, lastly, Frank Buckland's 

 passionate love for animal life. There was nothing 

 coarse or mean in his reverent eyes in anything that 

 had come from the hand of the Creator. Animals, 

 birds and insects were to him fellow-creatures, 

 fellow-servants, fellow-worshippers of God. Then 

 poor Thomas Edward, the humble Scotch naturalist, 

 of Low Shore, Banff; who can refuse to sympathise 

 v/ith his self-sacrificing study of nature ? Night after 

 night in that bleak northern latitude watching 

 creatures which could not be approached by day, and 

 lying for hours in a cramped position not to alarm 

 the timid little things that centuries of oppression had 

 taught to regard man as their bitterest foe. Does 

 not that poor shoe-maker's life teach a lesson of 

 constancy and untiring industry that more than 

 redeems the study of nature from the neglect at 

 times heaped upon it ? The love of birds doubles 

 the joy of living. 

 Wimborne. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., is about to deliver a 

 course of lectures on the Practical Study of the 

 Geology of the Country round London. This course 

 is given at the request of students of the London 

 Geological Field Class, and information concerning 

 them may be obtained from Mr. William Dunn, 

 21 King William Street, Strand, W.C. 



Royal Institution. — The following are the 

 lecture arrangements before Easter : — Prof. Dewar, 



six lectures (adapted to a juvenile auditory) on Clouds 

 and Cloudland ; Prof G. J. Romanes, twelve lectures 

 constituting the second part of a course on Before 

 and After Darwin (the evidences of organic evolution 

 and the theory of natural selection) ; Prof. J. W. 

 Judd, four lectures on the Metamorphoses of Minerals ; 

 Dr. Sidney Martin, four lectures on the poisonous 

 action of Albuminoid Bodies, including those formed 

 in digestion ; Prof. J. H. Middleton, four lectures on 

 Houses and their Decoration, from the Classical to the 

 Mediaeval Period ; Prof. Ernst Pauer, four lectures 

 on the Characters of the Great Composers and the 

 Characteristics of their Works (with illustrations on 

 the pianoforte) ; and eight lectures by the Rt. Hon. 

 Lord Rayleigh on Experimental Optics (polarisation ; 

 the wave theory). The Friday evening meetings will 

 begin on January 25th, when a discourse will be 

 given by Prof. G. H. Darwin ; succeeding discourses 

 will probably be given by Prof. W. C. Mcintosh, Sir 

 William Thomson, Prof. A. W. Riicker, Mr. Harold 

 Crichton Brown, Prof. Oliver Lodge, Prof. Archibald 

 Geikie, the Rev. Alfred Ainger, the Rt. Hon. Lord 

 Rayleigh, and other gentlemen. 



We are sorry to have to record the death of another 

 valued contributor to our columns — Mr. Henry Lee, 

 F.L. S., of aquarium fame, at the age of sixty years. 

 He was known also in scientific literature for his 

 entertaining book entitled "The Octopus; or the 

 Devil-Fish of Fiction and Fact." Mr. Lee was the 

 first curator of the Brighton Aquarium. 



It has been found that the retina absorbs light in 

 much the same way that luminous paint becomes 

 " fluorescent." This was beautifully demonstrated 

 as follows : — The gaze was directed for some time at 

 an object brightly illuminated by an arc light, or at 

 the arc itself, and then the eye was turned to a 

 camera — an accurate photograph of the object seen 

 was the result. The experiment can be performed 

 with the fresh dead eye of an animal, and the gleam 

 of a cat's eye in the dark is probably due to this light- 

 absorbing power. Any one who has examined an eye 

 will be aware of the fact that there is a brightly 

 iridescent coat at the back, known as the tapetum. 

 The function of this is not at all obvious, but some 

 time ago a theory was started which then seemed 

 improbable that this served as a reflector to catch 

 and concentrate the faint light of a starlight night, 

 and condense it into a beam to illuminate and render 

 more visible objects towards which the eye was 

 directed. The present discovery shows that this old 

 theory was not altogether without foundation. 



Messrs. Swinburne have brought out a new 

 invention for obtaining filaments for incandescent 

 lamps from cabbage leaves. The essential novelty of 

 the process consists in employing vegetable fibre for 

 the '* filament " or thread. Almost any plant leaf 

 will do : but, after experiment, it has been found 

 that the leaf of the common cabbage answers the 



