HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



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perfomied without causing any pain. Dr. Kriimmel 

 experimented in the Hamburg Hospital on a boy of 

 thirteen, who, without the slightest sign of flinching 

 allowed him to make a long and very deep cut in his 

 leg, the doctor having rubbed the place with one of 

 these pencils. The process has the advantage of 

 great cheapness, for hlty or sixty operations can be 

 perfomied with it at a cost of from four to eight 

 shillings. 



Mr. a. Stanley Williams, of Sussex, has 

 discovered three delicate but distinct markings in the 

 equatorial region of Saturn. The first and third of 

 these are round, bright spots, somewhat brighter 

 than the white equatorial zone.in which they occur. 

 The second is a smaller dark marking on the equa- 

 torial edge of the shaded belt which forms the 

 southern boundary of the white zone. Mr. Williams 

 has obtained abundant proofs of the reality of these 

 markings, but points out that it requires patience and 

 practice to see them readily. It is very desirable to 

 obtain repeated observations of their times of transit 

 across the planet's central meridian. To facilitate 

 these observations, jNIr. Williams prepared a table 

 for June and July, showing the approximate mean 

 time at which the spots might be expected on Saturn's 

 central meridian. 



Mr. W. Matthews sends us an illustrated paper 

 of his on " The Determination of Personal Identity," 

 by his methods of geometric identification and com- 

 posite photograpic portraiture, which we recommend 

 to all of our photographic readers. 



We commend a new monthly publication to all 

 book-lovers, " Bulletin Bibliographique de la Libraire 



Francaise." 



Mr. Francis P. Pascoe has just privately pub- 

 lished a neat little brochure entitled " A summary of 

 the Darwinian Theory of the Origin of Species." 



We have received Parts 13, 14, and 15 of Mr. R. 

 L. Wallace's " British Cage Birds," the best book on 

 the subject out (London : Upcott Gill). 



On June 28th, about eighty members of the Essex 

 Field Club had a delightful botanical walking ex- 

 cursion from Chelmsford to Maldon. At Danbury, 

 in the midst of the old camp. Dr. J. E. Taylor, 

 F.L.S., &.C., gave an open air lecture on "Where 

 our British Wild Flowers came from." 



Dr. Hardwicke, surgeon to the Sheffield Public 

 Hospital for Skin Diseases, who has studied cancer 

 for a quarter of a century, believes that he has dis- 

 covered a cure for this fell disease without the use of 

 the knife. Professor Moritz recently described a 

 treatment of cancer before the Society of Physicians 

 Vienna, and from communications which have 



passed between him and Dr. Hardwicke, there seems 

 to be much in common between the two systems. 



Fishing with cormorants was recently carried out 

 in the neighbourhood of Wethersfield, in Essex, 

 within forty miles of London. The cormorants 

 belong to Captain Salvin, a gentleman who has kept 

 and trained these birds for many years. The two 

 birds he brought down, by name "Sub-Inspector" 

 and "The Artful Dodger," have been in his posses- 

 sion for the last nine or ten years. The fishing in 

 English streams differs from the Chinese method,' 

 inasmuch as no boats are used, and the birds are 

 turned into pools, while the shallows at either end 

 are guarded by " whippers-in," clad in waders, who 

 keep the birds under control, and catch them for the 

 "master" when wanted. In the three days' fishing 

 the cormorants caught over sixty fish. 



Mr. Carus-Wilson writes to the "Chemical 

 News" to say that he has now succeeded in 

 producing musical notes from sand that was never 

 before musical, and is also able to produce similar 

 results from those mute, or "killed" musical sands 

 which have been temporarily deprived of their 

 musical properties. Full details will shortly be 

 made public. The experiments have been con- 

 ducted on the principles involved in the theory he 

 propounded in 18SS to account for the emission of 

 musical sounds from such sands, and that the results 

 obtained appear to demonstrate indisputably the 

 applicability of this theory. Professor Crookes adds 

 a note, stating he had witnessed Mr. Carus- Wilson's 

 experiments with musical sands — sands originally 

 musical, musical sands which had been killed and 

 then revived, and sands originally mute which had 

 had the gift of music conferred on them. 



We are pleased to draw the attention of students 

 to Messrs. Dulau's scientific catalogues of second- 

 hand books. The last is devoted to " Works on 

 Geology," and runs to 138 pages. It is perhaps the 

 most exhaustive geological catalogue of pamphlets, 

 papers, etc., ever issued. Address 37 Soho Sq., W. 



M. Elisee Reclus, the well-known French 

 writer on scientific subjects, has been awarded a 

 prize of ;^8od by a committee of the French 

 Academy for his services in popularising science. 



The medical officers at the Newcastle Infirmary 

 have issued the result arrived at after seven months' 

 treatment of the Koch "remedy" for tuberculosis. 

 The cases of lupus, it is stated, have been improved ; 

 but in no instance has the condition been eradicated. 

 In the cases of incipient tubercular phthisis, the 

 disease was influenced beneficially for a time, but 

 subsequently progressed. The joint and glandular 

 cases were not favourably influenced. 



