HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



227 



by an aphis, and so rendered a ready prey to the 

 Peronospora, and says from bis own observations 

 he believes that an aphis invariably punctures the 

 leaves before an attack of the fungus : he holds the 

 same views with respect to the Asconnjces of the 

 peach ; but Berkeley and others nail their colours to 

 the fungus, the whole fungus, and nothing but the 

 fungus,— and not without sufficient grounds; for, 

 amongst other reasons, the immediate allies of 

 the potato fangus do not prey upon decaying 

 matter ; other species of fungi do, but these do not. 



Whilst it is comparatively easy to say when and 

 where the potato murrain was first brought promi- 

 nently into notice, and what the potato disease is, it is 

 by no means an easy matter to suggest an effectual 

 antidote to its ravages. Dr. Hooker has recently 

 published in the daily papers a plan devised by 

 Professor Henslow for preserving the nutritive 

 portions of diseased potatoes ; but, from its tedious 

 nature, it is nerer likely to be carried out to any 

 extent, or made use of by the people at large. 

 When the disease first appeared, a quarter of a 

 century ago, it was suggested tliat the moment it 

 became manifest in the leaves the whole crop 

 should be mown down and burnt before the de- 

 structive virus reached the tubers. Now, after all 

 this lapse of time, no better plan can be suggested ; 

 but such is the rapid growth of the fungus, that 

 unless the haulms be destroyed immediately on the 

 appearance of the parasite, it will be too lute : if a 

 week or less be allowed to elapse, the mycelium 

 will be in the tubers, and all the haulms a rotten 

 mass. 



In the case of the vine disease, sulphur has been 

 found very efficacious ; but it is impossible to apply 

 the fumes of sulphur to the potato crops. Mr. Smee 

 Las destroyed Oidium in his grape-house with the 

 fumes of bisulphide of carbon ; but it is not easy to 

 see how any fumes can be applied in the open fields. 



It has recently been said that it is a disgrace to 

 science and to scientific men that no perfect remedy 

 has yet been found for the ravages of the potato 

 disease : the same may be said, I presume, respect- 

 ing the ravages of the rinderpest, foot-and-mouth 

 disease, and cholera itself; but I fail to see the 

 disgrace to " scientific men." If there is any dis- 

 grace in the matter, it rests with those persons who 

 are commercially interested in the success of our 

 potato crops ; for, although we have had the fatal 

 disease amongst the potatoes for a quarter of a cen- 

 tury, these gentlemen have still the stupidest pos- 

 sible ideas of what it is, and how to cope with it ; as 

 is abundantly proved by the melancholy balderdash 

 recently printed in the newspapers. 



13, North Grove West, Mildmay Park, N. 



Candouk forbids me to say absolutely that any 

 fact is false because I have never been witness to 

 such a fact. — Gilbert White. 



ANCIENT STONE IMPLEMENTS.* 



TRULY a magnificent work, and one that will 

 delight the eyes of every antiquary and geolo- 

 gist in Europe ! It deals with one of the most in- 

 teresting and important of subjects, — the antiquity 

 of the human race, and the stages through which 

 poor humanity passed in its struggles to the light 

 of civilization. Before written history commenced, 

 a vast period had elapsed, compared with which that 

 circumscribed by legendary and historical literature 

 is but a spj'.n. Until the last few years, all our 

 knowledge of this epoch was most meagre ; for, ac- 

 cepting the long-taught doctrine of the appearance 

 of man upon the earth being merely a few thousand 

 years, all, or nearly all, of which was included in 

 written history, we never guessed at the marvellous 

 story that was hidden up in our valley gravels and 

 bone caverns. And now all this is becoming more 

 or less clear. Such antiquaries as Nilsson, Lyell, 

 Perthes, Tylor, Lubbock, and Evans have done 

 for pre-historic times what was so successfully 

 effected only a few years ago in architecture, when 

 all the mixed jumble of archaeological lore was re- 

 duced to the historic orders of "Norman," "Early 

 English," "Perpendicular," "Decorated," &c., and 

 it was discovered that every old church before the 

 Reformation might easily be referred to one of 

 these periods by its architectural characters. The 

 Danish antiquaries, we saj', did the same by ancient 

 stone and other implements and bronzes, and thus 

 founded the divisions of Early Stone Age {Palceo- 

 lithic). Newer Stone Age {Neolithic), kgQ of Bronze 

 and Age of Iron. Although none of these is rounded 

 off by a definite sharp line — any more than the 

 architectural periods are-— yet they are sufficiently 

 useful for classification, and to a wonderful extent 

 convey the actual truth concerning them. 



Mr. Evans stands in the foremost rank of 

 pre-historic workers. None has more than he 

 helped to clear up those " dark ages " when Great 

 Britain was, as regarded her inhabitants, for a long 

 period in the condition that Captain Cook found 

 the aborigines of the South-Sea Islands. His 

 keen, almost intuitive, knowledge of ancient stone 

 implements is well known to every collector. So 

 indefatigable has he been that every fresh "find" 

 has at once brought him down. He has so entered 

 into the spirit of how these wonderful stone weapons 

 were formed without tlie aid of other tools than 

 natural pebbles or boulders, that he has made them 

 himself with such aid, and has patiently worked 

 with stick and sand until he, like some of his earlier 

 and no less skilful ancestors, produced a stone 

 hammer with a hole through for the handle ! Not- 



* " The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Orna- 

 ments of Great Britain." By John Evans, F.R.S., F.S.A., 

 &c. London ; Longmans & Co. 1S72. 



