HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



8/ 



the same mysterious mannei*. The Bat in frosty 

 weather remains at home and hybernates till a 

 milder temperature prevails. Some years back I 

 foimd a Long- eared Bat {Plecotus communis) hyber- 

 uating in the cellar of this house in winter. His 

 membranous wings were closely folded round his 

 body, his beautiful semi-transparent ears nicely 

 tucked away, and his little bead-like eyes wrapped 

 in profound sleep. It was rather puzzling to me 

 how the little fellow could snooze away so soundly 

 situated as he was, for his head hung where one 

 would be apt to look for his tail under ordinary 

 circumstances. His dreams— if bats dream at all — 

 must have been full of surprising adventures in such 

 a night-marish and apoplectic position. To sleep 

 with the head downwards is, however, as natural to 

 the Bat as a horizontal posture is to us. The Bat 

 is but a partial hybcrnator, and only disappears in 

 frosty weather. Every mild evening during the 

 present winter the Bat has been flitting about in 

 front of this house in quest of the few gnats and 

 other small insects which gambol about iu winter. 

 Occasionally he is imprudent enough to venture out 

 in frosty weather, and then he often pays dearly for 

 his temerity. I once had a bat brought me which 

 had ventured forth from its retreat one sharp frosty 

 night, and had been picked up more dead than alive. 

 It is probable that it had chosen too warm a nook for 

 its retreat, which, unaffected by tlie weather, had 

 caused the little animal to imagine that a similar 

 genial temperature was prevailing without. After 

 feeling the warmth of the iire for a short time, it 

 revived and flew round and round the room, and 

 when tired suspended itself head-downwards from 

 a flowerpot. William Henby Warner. 



Kingston, Abingdon. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Paste Eels. — ^My directions for procuring paste 

 eels ought perhaps to have concluded, after the 

 manner of old-fashioned recipes, with probatnm est. 

 The directions are according to those I received 

 from that veteran microscopist Pritchard, the 

 author of the "Infusoria, &c." Is Mr. Nicholson 

 quite satisfied that spontaneous generation is a 

 fallacy, and that the experiments of Dr. Bastian and 

 others prove the contrary ? Has Mr. Nicholson 

 ever made any experiments with various infusions, 

 or has he ever found the " eels " in what is called 

 " mothery " vinegar, or the fungoid growths on 

 paste or preserves, or the mycelium developed in 

 distilled water, even when kept in closely-stopped 

 bottles, or a similar growth in the inferior surfaces 

 of dry moulded slides ? Does Mr. Nicholson 

 seriously say these forms would not have appeared 

 if the spores or germs had not been placed there 

 intentionally ? I must, however, ask him where he 



finds in my note any assertion that these eels are 

 spontaneously generated ? I only stated that these 

 forms would be found in paste, if certain directions 

 were followed. I am inclined to imagine that they* 

 like Bacteria, Vibriones, and moulds, are pro- 

 duced from germs floating in the air or existing 

 previously in the flour. Possibly the Anguillula 

 glutinis is the same as A. tritici, although it is stated 

 that the former is more energetic than A. tritici. 

 Dr. Carpenter states that paste eels frequently 

 make tfieir appearance spontaneously in the midst 

 of paste that is turning sour, in other words, when 

 acetous fermentation has commenced. This would 

 lead to the inference that A. aceti was also identical 

 with A. tritici and A. glutinis. Perhaps Mr. 

 Nicholson will favour the readers of Science- 

 Gossip with liis method of obtaining a supply of 

 anguillulse without first putting them into the paste. 

 I suppose he is not prepared to assert that portions 

 of paste containing these forms have been succes- 

 sively handed down by the discoverer from one 

 observer to another — in fact a kind of apostolic 

 succession. — F. K. 



Ox THE Mobility of Spines on Certain 

 Insects' Eggs. — In a paper by Mr. H. Davies 

 E.R.M.S., communicated to the Quekett Club, 

 the author states his observations on the spinous 

 processes found on the eggs of certain parasites, 

 particularly those of the black-quilled Peacock and 

 the Mallee-bird. He observed on the former, that 

 the curved petaloid spines rapidly uncurl, straighten 

 and contract on the lid when the eg^ is placed 

 under water! They remain thus closed until the 

 QgS becomes dry by evaporation, when the spines 

 loosen, then gradually and gracefully recurve until 

 the egg assumes its flower-like form. A group of 

 these eggs in drying makes a pretty sight in the 

 microscope. The author suggests the proba- 

 bility that the spines contract over the lid in wet 

 weather, and thus restrain the hatching of even 

 mature eggs until the weather is more favourable. 



Sections OF Coal.— Mr. J.Slade (in Proceedings 

 of the Quekett Club) gives the following directions 

 for the preparation of sections of this material :— 

 A piece of coal being selected, a surface is at first 

 obtained roughly by a file or a piece of sandstone, 

 then a finer by means of a hone or a piece of fine glass- 

 paper, then a still finer by means of pumice-stone, 

 and, after rubbing upon Arkansas stone, finally 

 brought to the highest polish possible by friction 

 upon plate glass. If the coal be very friable (which 

 it sometime s is), it will be necessary to macerate the 

 specimen m thin lac varuish, and dry it, before the 

 whole process can be accomplished. In order to 

 secure success, it is impossible to bestow too much 

 pains in this preliminary operation. Having made 

 a good surface, next cement it to a glass slip by 



