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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP, 



meeting early in April at the Woolhope Club Room, 

 Free Library, Hereford. 



Woolwich District Natural History Society: 

 President, Rev. J. W. Horsley ; Hon. Secretary 

 and Treasurer, F. Barry, II, Green's End, Woolwich. 

 Meets {pro tern.) at Parish Room, Rectory, first 

 Tuesday evening in each month. Rambles every 

 Saturday afternoon, 



St. MargareCs Natural History Society, JVest- 

 minster: President, Ven. Archdeacon Farrar, D.D. ; 

 Chairman, Rev. R. Ashington Bullen, B.A. ; Hon. 

 Secretary, Mr. G. A. Freeman. Meetings, generally 

 on the third Friday of each month in the St. Margaret's 

 Boys' School, New Tothill Street, Westminster, at 

 7.30 P.M. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The Aberdeen Working Men's Natural History 

 Society held their annual exhibition on the 22nd and 

 23rd March. Entomology was well represented by 

 the collection of Messrs. Home, Cowie, Terras, 

 Duncan, Mearns and Rae ; Crustacea by Messrs. 

 Murray, Duncan, and Rae ; shells by Messrs. 

 Simpson, Duncan, Rae, and Fraser ; zoophytes by 

 Mr. Simpson ; spiders by Messrs. Mearns and Terras ; 

 birds by Messrs. Center, Beveridge, Mundie, Fraser, 

 Sim, Duncan, Mitchell, Benzies, and Mathers ; 

 eighteen microscopes by Messrs. Gibb, Cowie, 

 Mearns and Duncan ; botany by Messrs. Duncan, 

 Simpson, and Wallace ; Mr. Wallace exhibited a fine 

 •collection of seaweeds ; a capital collection of micro- 

 iungi was exhibited by Prof. J. W. H. Trail. 



The Kuddersfield Naturalists' Society has started a 

 .monthly circular, of which the first two numbers are 

 before us. Besides the usual announcements, lists of 

 meetings, &c., there are queries and answers, notes 

 on what to observe and what to study, a natural 

 history diary for January, February and March, 

 exchanges, &c. Altogether the circular is a sign of 

 the vitality of the society, and of the energy of its 

 secretary. 



Royal Institution. — The following are the 

 lecture arrangements after Easter : — Dr. Jean Paul 

 ^ichter, three lectures on the Italian Renaissance 

 Painters : their associations, their education, and 

 their employments (with illustrations) ; Professor 

 JE. Ray Lankester, four lectures on Some Recent 

 Biological Discoveries ; Mr. Eadweard Muybridge, 

 of Pennsylvania, two lectures on the Science of 

 Animal Locomotion in its relation to design in art 

 .(illustrated by the Zoopraxiscope) ; Professor Dewar, 

 five experimental lectures on Chemical Affinity ; 

 Mr. Joseph Bennett, four lectures on the Origin 

 .and Development of Opera in England (with musical 

 illustrations) ; Professor W. Knight, of St. Andrews, 



three lectures, on — I. The Classification of the Sciences 

 Historical and Critical ; II. Idealism and Experience, 

 in Philosophy and Literature ; III. Idealism and 

 Experience, in Art and Life (the Tyndall lectures). 

 The Friday evening meetings will be resumed on May 

 3rd, when a discourse will be given by Sir Henry 

 Roscoe, M.P, on Aluminium ; succeeding discourses 

 will probably be given by Professor Dewar, Professor 

 Silvanus P. Thompson, the Rev. S. J. Perry, Pro- 

 fessor D. Mendeleef, Mr. A. Geikie, Mr. C. V. 

 Boys, and other gentlemen. 



In connection with the recent Lantern Slide 

 Competition, instituted by the Proprietors of "The 

 Amateur Photographer," a Public Exhibition of the 

 Slides entered for competition was given in the 

 Theatre of the Crystal Palace, on Friday, April 5th, 

 at 7.30 P.M. Mr. William Brooks had charge of the 

 Lantern, and Mr. T. C. Hepworth, F.C.S., gave 

 particulars of the pictures, which were all the work 

 of amateurs, as they passed on to the screen. The 

 work of amateur photographers has never before 

 been shown under such favourable conditions. 



MICROSCOPY. 



New .Slides. — We have received from Mr. A. J. 

 Doherty, of Manchester, the following excellent slides : 

 — Skin of ear of rabbit (injected carmine) ; tongue of 

 kitten, trans, sec. (injected carmine), a beautiful 

 preparation ; lip of cat, vert. sec. (injected carmine 

 and stained blue) ; medulla oblongata of rabbit 

 (stained hematoxylin), showing the fine nervous 

 structure very beautifully ; ankle of kitten, trans, sec. 

 (injected carmine and stained blue), showing the 

 ossifying cartilage, besides other interesting details ; 

 stomach of frog, trans, sec, pyloric end (stained 

 carmine), showing the glands and columnar epithe- 

 lium ; apothecium of a lichen (Solorina saccata), vert, 

 sec, showing the spores in asci ; anther of Lilium 

 auratum, trans, sec. (stained carmine), showing all 

 the pollen i>t situ; fertile head of field horsetail 

 {Equisctum a>~jense), trans, sec, showing the spores 

 with their spiral elaters ; ovary of foxglove {Digitalis\ 

 trans, sec. (stained carmine), showing all the ovules 

 in situ ; trans, sec of the spine of Acrocladia mat/iil- 

 lata, and echinoderm from the Indian Ocean ; frog's 

 blood (stained picro-carmine). The peri-nuclear 

 portion of each corpuscle is coloured yellow, the 

 nucleus itself red. With a good J-inch objective the 

 " intra-nuclear plexus of fibrils" (Stirling) can be 

 seen distinctly. 



Mr. Hinton's Slides. — We have received from 

 this well-known preparer the following slides, both of 

 high interest to the young botanist : I, an instructive 

 preparation showing the curious mode of reproduc- 

 tion by the strawberry, where the carpels are placed 



