278 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF. 



I stooped down and looked. There they were ; 

 large as the Algirus, but smooth and glistening ! 

 Cellarius, Glaber, and, oh joy ! a pale green 

 Radiatulus as large as a florin, with the regular close- 

 set stria; resplendent ! A box— of course I had come 

 without one on Sunday ! Happy thought, my pouch ! 

 I emptied the tobacco hurriedly over the collapsed 

 corpse and reached eagerly for the prey. Hark ! a 

 rustling ! They must be coming out of church ; 

 " And now — "' 



Dear friends, if that sermon had only lasted two 

 seconds longer I should have broken the record in 

 British Zonites. 



L. E. Adams. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



At the Entomological Society of London on the 

 4th November, Dr. D. Sharp, F.R.S., Vice- 

 Tresident in the chair, Mr. Frederick Enock gave a 

 most interesting account of the life-history of Atypus 

 piceiis — the British representative of the Trap-door 

 Spiders — though it does not make a true trap-door 

 nest, but excavates a hole into the sand, lining it 

 with silk, the aerial portion of a mature nest protrud- 

 ing above ground about two to three inches. This 

 purse-like nest is the work of years, the newly- 

 emerged baby spiderling making a tiny tube one 

 sixteenth of an inch in diameter and one inch long — 

 ' increasing it in drain and length as it increases in 

 size, until it sometimes reaches fifteen inches in 

 length. 



The anatomy of the creature was carefully and 

 fully described, the purpose of the vertical movement 

 of the huge jaws and fangs being clearly shown, and 

 the extraordinary ingenuity displayed in obtaining its 

 food : for no sooner does a fly alight on the outside 

 than the fact is communicated to the spider at the 

 bottom by setting the vertical lines or threads in 

 motion, the spider stealthily ascends until exactly 

 underneath the fly, when with lightning-like rapidity 

 it drives its long fangs through the sand-covered tube 

 and into the fly, which it quickly drags right through 

 and down to the bottom of its nest, where it quietly 

 sucks it dry, ascending again in a few minutes to 

 repair and cover in the rent. The interesting court- 

 ship of the male was explained, and the domestic 

 economy, finishing up with the tragedy of the female 

 killing her partner, sucking him dry, and then 

 throwing his dried-up skin out of the nest. 



Every detail in the life-history of this spider was 

 most elaborately illustrated by a very large number 

 of exquisite photographs made by Mr. Enock from 

 his original drawings. The effect when shown by 

 the oxy-hydrogen, lantern was most striking, many of 

 the movements of the spider being shown in a most 

 realistic manner. 



We are pleased to draw the attention of our 

 readers to Messrs. Dulau and Go's new Catalogue of 

 Zoological and Palseontological Works. 



The second largest electric lighting installation in 

 Liverpool has been put in Messrs. Henechsberg and 

 Ellis's, University House, Islington, by Messrs A. 

 Hall & Co. of that city. The shop is lighted by 140 

 glow lamps ; the windows are fitted with electroliers, 

 and the turret is surmounted by a twenty-ampere arc 

 lamp, which is visible from the Welsh mountains, and 

 will form a beacon-light for shipping entering the 

 Mersey. 



An amusing controversy has been taking place in 

 the Manchester City News, respecting the alleged 

 virtue of " Halvivi," as a specific against sea- 

 sickness. 



From various parts of Great Britain, we have 

 received notes of the unusual lateness of the swallows 

 in leaving us this year. Sometimes these swallows 

 are martins ! 



On November 30th, in the large hall of the 

 Athenaeum, Bury St. Edmunds, under the presidency 

 of Earl Cadogan, K.G., Dr. J. E. Taylor, editor of 

 Science Gossip, gave an illustrated lecture to a large 

 audience " On the Probability of finding Coal in East 

 Anglia." It is at Culford, on Earl Cadogan's estate, 

 near Bury, that the supposed primary rocks have 

 been struck at the comparatively small depth of 

 640 feet. 



We confess to a weakness for second-hand book 

 catalogues and for old books generally. Messrs. 

 Pickering and Chatto's last " Book Lover's Leaflet" 

 is one of the most delightful and novel of the series 

 they have yet issued. 



For ordinary nervous toothache, which is caused 

 by the nervous system being out of order or by 

 excessive fatigue, a very hot bath will so soothe the 

 nerves that sleep will naturally follow, and upon 

 getting up, the patient will feel very much refreshed, 

 and the toothache will be a thing of the past. For 

 what is known as "jumping toothache," hot, dry 

 flannel applied to the face and neck is very effective. 

 For common toothache which is caused by indiges- 

 tion, or by strong, sweet acid, or anything very hot 

 or cold in a decayed tooth, a little piece of cotton 

 steeped in strong camphor, or oil of cloves, is the 

 best remedy. 



MICROSCOPY. 



New Slides. — We have received from Mr. Ernest 

 Hinton, 12 Vosley Road, Upper Holloway, two 

 exceedingly beautiful and interesting preparations : 

 the young or larval form of the pretty sea-horse 



