236 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



do it without knowledge, but with experience. 

 Farm-yard manures will certainly develop and 

 prosper the nitrifying micro-organisms in the soil 

 more than artificials would. If so, then the superior 

 nitrification of natural soils by natural manures is 

 explained. 



Mr. Fred. Mather, the well-known fish cul- 

 turist, has been estimating the number of eggs in a 

 six-pound eel in November (in what is known to 

 fishermen as "eel fat," but which are really the 

 ovaries), and credits that eel with fully 9,000,000. 

 Under the microscope he found that they measured 

 eighty to the linear inch, and taking one ovary and 

 dividing it by means of the most delicate scales 

 known to science, he halved, quartered, and further 

 divided the mass seventeen times, until he had a 

 section small enough to count the eggs in it. This 

 section represented 1,131,072 of the total number, 

 and three sections were laboriously counted under the 

 microscope. One of the sections contained sixty- 

 eight eggs, making the total 8,912,896 eggs. The 

 second held seventy-seven eggs, or 10,992,544 in the 

 whole. The third section consisted of seventy-one, 

 from which it would appear that there were 9,306,112 

 eggs in the eel. Taking the last as the medium 

 number, Mr, Mather figures, in round numbers, that 

 a six-pound eel contained 9,000,000 eggs. 



" The Naturalist " is publishing every month an 

 important series of papers on the Bibliography of 

 Birds, 1887. 



Under the title of "The Naturalist's Record," we 

 have to welcome a new competitor. The first 

 number promises well. 



Professor T. Rupert Jones and Dr. H. Wood- 

 ward announce, in " The Geological Magazine " for 

 September, the discovery of some new Devonian 

 entomostraca to which they have given the following 

 names : — Echinocoris Whidbornei^ and Beyrkhia 

 Devonica. 



Professor Lobley's new illustrated work on 

 Mount Vesuvius — dedicated by special permission to 

 the King of Italy — will be published immediately by 

 Messrs. Roper and Drowley. All geologists will be 

 glad to hear the news. 



We have received Nos. 15, 16 and 17 of Mr. Howard 



Saunders' "Illustrated Manual of British Birds." 

 They are as full of interesting matter, and as highly 

 artistic figures, as usual. 



Mr. S. B. J. Skertchly has an interesting paper 

 in " The Annals and Magazine of Natural History " 

 for September, "On the Habits of certain Bornean 

 Butterflies." The most interesting portion is that 

 relating to sexual selection. Mr. Skertchly shows 

 that it is not always the males who are the wooers, 

 and the females the choosers, but that they often 

 change places like bashful bachelors and eager spinsters 



in Leap year. The wooer is as a rule handsomer 

 than the chooser, as well as more common, but this 

 is not always the case. 



The "Annals and Magazine of Natural History" 

 for September contains an illustrated article by A. 

 Smith Woodward, ' ' On Atherstonia, A New Genus 

 of Palseoniscid Fishes from the Karoo Formation of 

 South Africa." Till this fossil {Atherstonia sciitata) 

 (now in the possession of the British Museum) was 

 found, the only remains of Palseoniscid fishes from 

 the Early Mesozoic Karoo Series of South Africa 

 consisted of a few detached scales. 



We have received the " Report on the Progress 

 and Condition of the Botanic Garden (South Australia), 

 for 1888," by Dr. R. Schomburgh. The gardens are 

 in a very flourishing condition ; and the report gives 

 coloured illustrations of several of the newest and 

 m.ost interesting trees and shrubs planted there. 



Dr. a. GiJNTHER writes to "The Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural History " with regard to some 

 dredgings made by the Rev. W. S. Green, last July, 

 off the South-Western coast of Ireland. The collec- 

 tions, which were made for the British [Museum, are 

 extremely interesting, and add several new species to 

 the British Fauna. 



The Pharmaceutical Conference (which always 

 assembles in the same town as the British Associa- 

 tion) appears to have been unusually interesting this 

 year, under the presidency of Mr. C. Umney, F.C.S., 

 F.I.C. The papers read were both highly practical 

 and interesting. As might be expected, from a 

 recent trial for murder, arsenic came in for its full 

 share of discussion. 



An important volume, freely illustrated, entitled 

 " Service Chemistry," will be issued immediately by 

 Messrs. W. B. Whittingham & Co. It is a work 

 upon which Professor Vivian B. Lewes, Professor of 

 Chemistry at the Royal Naval College, has been 

 laboriously engaged for the past year, with a view to 

 bringing the entire subject up to the latest date. 

 Chemistry, as affecting not only the navy and the 

 army, but also the merchant service, is treated with 

 technical detail. 



Mr. Mond, the President of the Society of 

 Chemical Industry, in his address, gave the result 

 of considerable and varied research, demonstrating 

 that nitrogen in the form of sulphate of ammonia can 

 be recovered from coal on a profitable commercial 

 basis. He says that the loss in gasifying coal in order 

 to recover ammonia from it amounts to about twenty 

 per cent, of the fuel used. From 125 tons of fuel four 

 tons of sulphate of ammonia can be obtained, and 

 beyond that the same result would be obtained from 

 the 125 tons as from loo tons which had not been 

 treated for the purpose of recovering the nitrogen. 

 That means that twenty-five tons of fuel are consumed 



