23S 



HABDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Oct. 1, 1867. 



poison, as it must do, from both, and then holding 

 the fly by the same fangs while it consumes its con- 

 tents.—!?. T. S. 



Hedgehog Eccentricities. — Whilst one corre- 

 spondent writes sceptically on the subject of the 

 communication in our last number, two others send 

 us similar narratives. In the face of four inde- 

 pendent assertions of the fact, we think that the 

 assumption is strongly in its favour, and that all 

 who are still disposed to be sceptical must for a 

 while suspend their judgment. 



Eossil Coleopteea. — In a freestone quarry near 

 Eifeness, the workmen recently came upon a 

 stratum of de-bituminized peat thirty yards in 

 length, fourteen inches thick, and about the same 

 in breadth ; at the top it had somewhat the 

 appearance of cubic coal, but gradually changing, 

 till at the bottom it resembled a dirty sand. The 

 greater part of it had been carted away as rubbish 

 before it attracted attention ; but in what remained 

 there were a few inches in the middle thickly 

 studded with the remains of coleopteran insects in 

 a very perfect state of preservation. ' There were 

 wing cases, mandibles, and legs of a dark but bright 

 green colour ; four species have been detected, but 

 whether or not the same as any at present in ex- 

 istence, I am unable to say. Along with them there 

 was a small piece of unfossilized wood, apparently 

 allied to the bamboo, a fruit with a corrugated 

 shining pericarp, and a hazel nut was also stated to 

 have been found in the same deposit. The rock 

 containing that stratum is a gritty sandstone, about 

 fifty feet in thickness, and has always been con- 

 sidered as belonging to the lower carboniferous 

 series, and does not appear to be unconformable to 

 the rocks on the beach in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood, which undoubtedly belong to that system ; 

 indeed, what seems to be a part of it is overlaid by 

 them. But the fact of these remains being so 

 different from those which are said to have existed 

 during the deposition of the carboniferous strata, 

 makes it a matter of almost positive certainty that 

 they are the product of a more recent era, although, 

 on the other hand, that is almost incompatible with 

 the lie of the rocks ; but on account of the over- 

 lying soil, and of the way in which the quarry is 

 wrought, it is very difficult_ to obtain a complete 

 section. The upper part of the deposit was about 

 ten feet from the surface, and, according to the 

 report of the workmen, above it was solid rock. 

 Another brownish deposit was found, but void of 

 organic remains. — S., Fifeshire. 



Poisoned by Mushrooms. — A year or two ago, 

 a man in the north of England cooked a large 

 batch of what he called mushrooms for supper, and 

 succeeded in poisoning his wife and family to death, 

 and himself nearly so. Part of the things he cooked 

 were sent to me for identification, and lo ! he had 



fathered everything he could lay his hands upon ; 

 arge and small, sweet and foul— off horsedung 

 rotten palings, or wherever he could And anything 

 with a stalk, and a top to it after the manner of an 

 umbrella. When he had buried his family, and 

 recovered his own health, he carelessly walked into 

 a well, and either killed or much damaged himself, 

 I forget which. I mention this to show the sort of 

 men they are who poison themselves with mush- 

 rooms. They would poison themselves with any- 

 thing else if they had the opportunity, would get 

 under a cart-wheel, or do any absurd thing. — W. G. 

 Smith's " Mushrooms and Toadstools." 



Ealse Champignon {Marasmius urens). — I think 

 I was once poisoned by it in Bedfordshire. I well 

 remember on my way home, late one evening, 

 gathering a quantity of champignons for supper ; as 

 it was dark, I imagine I gathered both species. I 

 did not cook them myself, neither did 1 examine 

 them after they were taken from the basket ; but I 

 noticed at supper-time they were unusually hot, and 

 I thought the old woman who cooked them had put 

 too much pepper in the stew. I never suspected 

 the fungi. In about half an hour after partaking 

 of them, my head began to ache, my brain to swim, 

 and my throat and stomach to burn as if in contact 

 with fire. After being ill for some hours, a terrible 

 fit of purging and vomiting set in, which appeared 

 soon to set me to rights, for after a day or so I 

 was . no worse for it.— -Smith's " Mushrooms and 

 Toadstools." 



Worms in Cockroaches. — In reply to your 

 correspondent W. Hanwell, the worms (?) found in 

 cockroaches are doubtless Gregarinidse. They are 

 inhabitants, for the most part, of the bodies of in- 

 vertebrates, but are also found invetebrate animals, 

 and are very common indeed in the intestines of 

 the cockroach and earthworm. They may be said 

 to consist of a sac, enclosed by an almost structure- 

 less membrane containing a somewhat fluid sub- 

 stance, in which lies a delicate vesicle within wdiich 

 is a more solid particle. In this group there is no 

 distinction of the body into separate layers, &c._ 

 As they live entirely by absorbing the juices of 

 their " host " through their membraneous coat, they 

 are devoid of mouth and alimentary canal. The 

 most striking signs of life shown by them are 

 certain expansions and contractions of their bodies. 

 Some have a constricted body, some are stalked 

 with homy heads, but generally gelatinous, and not 

 distinguishable. — Archibald Liversedge. 



Cleaning Aquaria. — I have seen various modes 

 of cleaning aquaria suggested, but know of none so 

 efficient as the following: — Take a small piece of 

 coarse brown paper, and apply it to the side of the 

 aquarium, and rub it freely over the surface. If the 

 aquarium is large, roll up a mass of the paper into 

 a ball, and scrub with this. This method entirely- 

 removes all confervoid growth, and has the merit of 

 not scratching the glass. — L. 



Ophiocytium. — The species figured in the June 

 number of Science-Gossip, p. 127, as 0. majus, 

 seems to be rather the 0. apiculatum (Nag.) Figures 

 of both forms may be seen on Tab. iv. of Nageli's 

 " Gattungen Einze'lliger Algen," from which it would 

 appear that majus, in addition to being much larger, 

 affects a sigmoid rather than a spiral mode of 

 growth. 0. apiculatum I found in March, IS53, 

 amongst other algae, chiefly Tetraspora gelatinosa, 

 in a small boggy pool on Cannock Chase, Stafford- 

 shire. — Robert C. Douglas. 



Ckara. — I fancy that there is something par- 

 ticularly favourable to the growth of conferva in 

 the sulphuretted hydrogen-like smell which all the 

 characeae emit. If water-snails won't keep the 

 aquarium free, I know not what to suggest— the 

 March shell and the Trumpet snail are the best 

 scavengers. The singular crust of carbonate of 

 lime with which the stems of some of the genus 

 are covered, renders them pretty objects in an 

 aquarium. Sir David Brewster made an interesting 

 discovery relative to these minute particles of lime. 

 — Helen E. Watney.\ 



