HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF. 



191 



making use of black wool for home manufactures. 

 The farmers in the hilly districts use the wool of the 

 black-faced sheep for stocking";, which are usually 

 firmer, closer, and warmer than can be procured in 

 any shop. 



Torpedo Improvements. — The torpedoes now 

 being made at the Austrian port of Fiume run below 

 water at a rate of thirty-five miles an hour, and 

 carry a charge of two hundred and forty pounds of 

 gun-cotton, the explosion of which is so irresistible 

 that probably no ship could endure it. What is 

 more, the crinoline of steel rings which has been 

 successful hitherto in keeping at a distance all 

 smaller torpedoes yields, it is asserted, at once to the 

 weight and impact of the large Whitehead imple- 

 ment. 



The Rarest Metals. — Iridium, a very heavy 

 metal of the platinum group, so named from the 

 iridescence of some of its solutions, and well known 

 in connection with its use for the points of gold pens, 

 may be bought to-day at approximately ^140 per 

 pound. The present price of platinum, the better- 

 known tin-white, ductile, but very infusible metal, 

 is on a par with that of gold, namely, about £^0 per 

 pound. But generally its value fluctuates between 

 its more popular brothers, gold and silver. The 

 rarest metal — and it is so rare that recent discoveries 

 have thrown doubt on its elemental character — is 

 didymium, and its present market price, if one may 

 thus term the quotation of an article that never 

 appears on the market, is ^900 per pound. The 

 next costliest metal is barium, an element belonging 

 to the alkaline earth group ; its value is £tS'^. 

 Beryllium, or glucinum, a metallic substance found 

 in the beautiful beryl, is quoted at £(>TS. 



Execution by Electricity. — Four criminals 

 were put to death by electricity in New York a few 

 days ago. No reporters were present, but it has 

 transpired that death was instantaneous in each 

 instance. The only witness who gives an account is 

 the gaol chaplain, who says : " I was fully convinced 

 that execution by electricity was a failure, but now 

 I am equally convinced of the contrary. Every one 

 of the men went to the chair calmly, and died easily 

 without pain or contortion, death being instanta- 

 neous." The apparatus used was the same as that 

 of last year, with improvements suggested by experi- 

 ence. There is no further question in New York 

 about the method being in every way an improve- 

 ment upon execution by hanging. The tested 

 voltage of the dynamos used was 3,000, while the 

 estimated voltage turned into Kemmler's body was 

 only 750. The medical men present agree in saying 

 that the executions were completely successful. 

 Dr. Southwick says that death resulted instantly in 

 each case, and was painless. There was not a burn 

 or mark of any kind left on the bodies of the 

 victims. Dr. Daniels says tliat the execution was 

 highly successful from a scientific and from a humane 

 standpoint. Every man is said to have died instantly 

 and painlessly. 



Trout and Viper.— Mr. Clay and Mr. Mead, 

 two London gentleman, residing at Altnacealgach 

 Hotel, in Sutherland, while fishing Loch Veyatie in 

 the same boat, made, in one day, a total basket 

 of twenty-six trout, aggregating ten pounds. The 

 heaviest fish weighed a pound and a half, and on 

 being opened it was found to contain a viper 

 measuring eighteen inches in length. 



Sir George Airy, the "doyen" of British 

 scientists, has just completed his ninetieth year. Sir 

 peorge is in excellent health, and takes the keenest 

 interest in all matters connected with the astrono- 

 mical and mathematical sciences to which he has 

 devoted his life, and especially in the Observatory at 

 Greenwich, over which he presided for nearly half 

 a century. He tells a story, and repeats a ballad, 

 as well and lively as if he were half a century 

 younger. 



NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



To Correspondents and Ex-changers. — As we now 

 publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un- 

 dertake to insert in the following number any communications 

 which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month. 



To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of 

 not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names. 



To Dealers and Others.— We are always glad to treat 

 dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general 

 ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are 

 fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are 

 simply Disguised Advertisements, for thepurpose of evading 

 the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken ol our g'ratuitous 

 insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated. 



We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or 

 initials) and full address at the end. 



Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some 

 exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow 

 this in the case of writers of papers. 



To our Recent Exchangers. — We are willing to be helpful 

 to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis- 

 guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to us 

 to appear unless as advertisements. 



A. V. Bennett.— We received your exchange for insertion 

 and also your note, but neither contains your address. 



F. Tyndall. — Get Stark's " British Mosses," with coloured 

 plates and descriptions; or Hobkirk's "Synopsis of British 

 Mosses " (no illustrations, but clearly-defined characters of all 

 our species of mosses, which are much more instructive and 

 lasting). You will then hardly require to trouble anybody. 

 Or, if you can afford it, get Dr. Braithwaite's " Descriptions 

 of British Mosses " (with plates, &c.) now being issued. 



T. B. CovvAP. — Your specimen of malformation in fuchsia is 

 not uncommon. It is due to the usually scarlet calyx being 

 transformed into a true green leaf, possessed with a mid-rib, 

 veins, &c. — a genuine reversion. It may be observed in any 

 garden just now, especially among the commoner and more 

 neglected roses. That it is the calyx parts which return to 

 their ancestral leaf condition before any other floral organs, is 

 just what we ought to expect on the theory of floral whorls, 

 suppression of internodes, foliar transformations to floral, &c. 



T. M. P.— Vou cannot do better than procure the late P. H. 

 Gosse's "Marine Zoology" of our coasts, if you want to go 

 down to the seaside for pleasurable work. It is numerously, 

 although sketchily illustrated, — enough, however, to help a 

 student and would-be worker. We have no sympathy, in these 

 days of abundant manuals, with those embryonic naturalists 

 who send up the first, simplest, and commonest specimens they 

 deign to gather to " be named." A million such recruits will 

 never make one naturalist. They had all best stick to tennis. 



B. C. R. — The "Botanical Gazette" is an American journal, 

 published monthly at Crawfordsville, Indiana. 



M. J. Taylor. — The tiger beetle (JOicindela catnpestris). 1 



A Beginner. — i. It is not uncommon to find the feet of 



Dytiscus in the condition you describe. 2. Perhaps the pond 



which contained most duck-weed had most drainage leading 



into it. 



S. A. B. — The "caterpillars" in the abnormal buds of 



Cardamine pratensis appear to be a form of red planarian, 



entirely new to us. 



H. G. W. B. — It is exceedingly difficult to give you any 

 account of where to find books, &c., relating to the entomology 

 of Sierra Leone. You had best get Dalton's "Art of Travel," 

 and the vols, relating to tropical butterflies and beetles in 

 Jardine's "Naturalists' Library." 



