Jan. 1, 1867.] 



HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



23 



Halo of a Shadow. — The following singular 

 effect, which seems to be due to diffraction, may 

 perhaps be worthy of notice. I have observed, 

 when in a boat on the sea, that, when the sun is 

 shining and the shadow of the person falls upon the 

 water, a peculiar brightness surrounds the shadow ; 

 not unlike one of those softened glories which sur- 

 round some of the pictures of saints in old paintings. 

 The same effect I nave observed in strong moon- 

 light, when the shadow was thrown upon grass 

 covered with hoar-frost ; though the effect is not so 

 marked as it is on the sea. — /. S. Tide. 



Preserving Eossils. — The following extract 

 from Mansell's " Medals of Creation," may be of 

 use to " L. F. R." (S. G., vol. ii., page 2S3) :— 



" The broken porous bones may be repaired by a 

 hot weak solution of glue; and when the joinings 

 are set, the bone should be saturated with thin glue, 

 well brushed in, and the surface be spunged clean 

 with very hot water before the cement is congealed." 

 (A liquid called " Neuber's liquid glue " is an ex- 

 cellent cement. It is sold at 51, Oxford Street, 

 London.) 



" When the bones are tolerably perfect, but 

 dry and friable from the loss of their animal oil, 

 they may be made durable by saturating them with 

 drying-oil, and exposing them to a considerable 

 degree of heat. In this manner the magnificent 

 skeletons of the Sloth tribe — the Megatherium 

 and Mylodon, in the Hunterian Museum— were pre- 

 pared. (The drying-oil is made by boiling litharge 

 in oil, in the proportion of one ounce of litharge to a 

 pint of oil.) 



"For the Ichythyosauri, &c, in the British 

 Museum, Mr. Hawkins employed a strong, watery 

 solution of gum arabic as the cement, and plaster 

 of Paris as the ground, using shallow wooden trays 

 of well-seasoned wood in which the specimens were 

 permanently imbedded : the bones, scales, &c., were 

 then varnished with a solution of mastic, and the 

 ground coloured bluish grey to imitate the Lias." — 

 Vol. i. p. 46 et seq., Bohn' sedition. — A.H., Torquay. 



H a re-Rabbits. — In the October number of this 

 Journal, " G. B. C." mentions a gamekeeper catch- 

 ing a supposed hybrid between a hare and a rabbit. 

 I have not before heard of a wild one being seen ; 

 but quantities are imported from Belgium by the 

 great rabbit-fanciers. They are called Hare-Babbits. 

 Many gentlemen purchase them for turning loose, 

 to improve the wild breed. They may be ob- 

 tained for 15s. each. I kept three last year, a buck 

 and two does. I found that, like other mules, they 

 would not breed with one another ; but they breed 

 very well with the common rabbit, having seven or 

 eight at a time. Their habits are, in all respects, 

 similar to the common rabits. — C. K. 



[" H. S." and other correspondents who write 

 doubtfully, will learn that the question was long 

 since decided by the experiments of M. Bouy, of 

 Angouleme. It can no longer be said that the 

 rabbit will not hybridize with the hare.] 



_ Dyeing Grass, Mosses, &c— By using Judson's 

 simple dyes, which can be procured at any chemist's 

 in bottles at 6d. each with directions, "J. H." can 

 dye grass, &c, a variety of colours without any 

 previous preparation. 1 may also state that I have 

 used the dyes to tinge animal substances (freed from 

 grease), which otherwise were so transparent as to 

 be almost invisible when mounted in balsam, with 

 excellent effect.—/. M., Barnard Castle. 



Tenacious Anemone.— On the 26th of October 

 some sea anemones {Actinia Mesemhrijanthim) were 

 packed in wet sea-weed in a stone jar. On the 30th 

 I received them in good condition. In unpacking 

 them, one was accidentally left in the sea-weed, 

 which was thrown into a wooden bucket without 

 any water. On the 12th of November I found the 

 sea-weed nearly dry, except in one or two places. 

 Whilst I was collecting it to throw it away some- 

 thing stuck to my fingers, which I discovered to be 

 a small actinia nearly dried up. Wishing to try if 

 there was any vitality left in the unfortuuate animal 

 I broke off the bit of sea- weed to which it adhered 

 and which was perfectly dry, and put it into sea- 

 water. In a few minutes it moved almost imper- 

 ceptibly, in an hour it began to put forth its 

 tentacles, and in the course of four or five hours it 

 was sufficiently recovered to produce ten young ones 

 nearly white, with the tentacles formed. The fol- 

 lowing morning the little actinia was perfectly 

 flourishing and fully expanded.— T. L. N. 



_ India-Rubber Cement. — I experienced all the 

 difficulties named by several of your correspondents, 

 until I adopted the following plan, which answers 

 admirably. 1. Dissolve the caoutchouc in chloro- 

 form ; 2. Dissolve the asphalt in benzole ; add 

 No. 1 to No. 2 until you find, by experiment — drying 

 a little on glass — that the brittleness is overcome. 

 — G. S. R, Blachheatli. 



Marine-Glue Varnish.— (In answer to "J. H. 

 McK." and others). I have tried a mixture of 

 marine glue and naphtha with very good results. It 

 dissolves readily in the naphtha, and probably will 

 answer the same result as the asphalt, forming a 

 very useful cement. — F. J. B. 



Mounting in Balsam. — Since sending my last 

 on the difficulty experienced in getting the balsam 

 to harden properly, I have tried baking the slides in 

 a common Dutch oven before the fire, with perfect 

 success. After about six hours' good baking, the 

 balsam becomes perfectly hard and well set. The 

 air bubbles also disappear in a miraculous way. I 

 hope this may be of use to your correspondents. — 

 F. J. B. 



Milky Appearance.— The milky appearance of 

 objects mounted after soaking in liquor potassae is 

 ascribed by numerous correspondents to imperfect 

 washing. "A. B.," " T. S.," "A. M. C," and "V. F." 

 recommend thorough washing, first in water, and 

 afterwards in turpentine, and then mounting in the 

 usual manner, as described by " F. Fletcher," in 

 Science Gossip, vol. ii. p. 282. 



Scarcity op Insects.— "B. C.R." and "F. R." 



complain of scarcity of lepidoptera. They may 

 possibly recollect that at the close of the summer of 

 1865 we had some days of hot weather, swarms of 

 butterflys came out, particularly the common 

 cabbage butterfly ; also numbers of the mischievous 

 though beautiful little white (hawthorn) moth. 

 There was a sudden change in the weather, rain 

 with easterly wind prevailed for some time, and, of 

 course, as they had an untimely birth they met with 

 an untimely end. Having observed this, 1 predicted 

 a paucity of early butterflies in 1866, and have been 

 highly gratified in finding my prediction verified, and, 

 consequently, my cabbages flourishing, and two fine 

 red hawthorn bushes luxuriant in flowers and foliage 

 which in 1S65 were eaten nearly bare by thousands 

 of the tiny caterpillars of the " Little White Moth." 

 — H. C. R, Streatltam Hill. 



