HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[March 1, 18G9. 



their motion is destroyed by immersion of the 

 animal for a few minutes in fresh water. Professor 

 Lister has made some valuable investigations on 

 this subject. In a paper communicated to the 

 Royal Society in 1858 by Dr. Sharpey (from whom 

 much of our information on this subject has been 

 obtained) he says : — 



" Having cut off a small piece of the tongue of a 

 frog, killed about an hour before, and placed it upon 

 a slip of glass under the microscope, with just 

 enough water to permit the free play of the cilia, I 

 held near to it a piece of lint soaked in chloroform, 

 keeping my eye over the microscope. The effect was 

 instantaneous cessation of the previously rapid 

 action of the cilia, which now stood out straight 

 and motionless like the hairs of a brush. I now 

 immediately withdrew the lint, after which the 

 same state of complete inaction continued for about 

 half a minute, when languid movements began to 

 show themselves, and after a lapse of five minutes 

 more the ciliary motion was going on pretty briskly 

 in some parts, and ten minutes later seemed to have 

 almost completely recovered." 



From the same authority we learn that this lan- 

 guid state of the cilia is also produced by ammonia, 

 by freshly-prepared mustard, and by strong acetic 

 acid. The effect of most chemicals cannot be 

 ascertained, as the tissues and the substance of the 

 cilia are destroyed by them. The experiments 

 mentioned are most instructive, and most easy of 

 performance. 



In several of the lower cryptogamous plants, such 

 as the Vaucheria, cilia are found on the surface of 

 the spores, allowing them to move freely in water, 

 and some of the still simpler Algae are, even when 

 in the adult state, endowed with such powers of 

 locomotion, owing to the presence of these processes, 

 that their vegetable character, though now com- 

 pletely established, was long a matter of doubt. 

 The motion of the cilia found in these situations is 

 of course influenced by external agents in the same 

 way as when they are found in animals. 



W. MlJRRELL. 



University College, Goicer Street, N. W. 



MOSQUITOES. 



nplIE readers of Science Gossip may possibly 

 -"- remember that more than one writer on the 

 .subject of the Mosquitoes supposed to have been 

 met with in this country last summer, spoke most 

 positively as to the identity of its note with that of 

 the East Indian insect; the loud, clear, ringing sound 

 of which they stated to be widely different from that 

 of the gnat, and so peculiar, that no person who has 

 once heard it can ever mistake it for anything else. 

 At the same time it was stated in more than one 

 journal, that all the mosquitoes captured turned out 



to be specimens of Culex pipiens, but no explanation 

 was offered as to the strange fact of the gnats' note 

 undergoing such a remarkable change. Being 

 anxious to see whether any light could be thrown 

 on this obscure phenomenon, I applied to a friend 

 who had been in East India, and on whose state- 

 ments I knew I could thoroughly rely. After some 

 delay, over which neither he nor I had any control, 

 I received his answer, which I now give exactly as 

 it reached me, in the belief that truth, even when 

 late, will always be welcome to the readers of 

 Science Gossip. J. L. Milton. 



"My dear Milton,— During the years 1815-6-7, 

 I made two voyages to India, visiting the port 

 of Bombay twice, and Calcutta once. 



"Being then young and succulent, my arrival 

 created quite a sensation among the mosquitoes, and 

 their attentions to me by night and by day were 

 more flattering than agreeable. My opportunities 

 of learning the habits of the East Indian animal 

 have thus been considerable. 



" In July last (1S6S) I spent a few days in the 

 house of a friend at Hampstead. The weather was 

 very hot, and I slept with my bedroom windows 

 widely open. One morning about 4 a.m. I was 

 suddenly awoke by a sound which I had not 

 heard for more than twenty years, but which in a 

 moment set me on the defensive. It is impossible 

 for any one who has suffered as I have done, to 

 mistake the sharp trumpet of the mosquito, and the 

 peculiar and irritating mode of attack. Eor a time 

 I defended myself vigorously, but at last his perti- 

 nacity prevailed, and I allowed him to have his 

 meal, which he took immediately over my left eye- 

 brow. 



" The consequences which followed were exactly 

 the same as those which used to follow the sting of 

 the East Indian insect — swelling, with intense itch- 

 ing, which gradually increased for about 36 hours, 

 when it slowly subsided, with some desquamation. 

 The whole quite unlike the effect produced on me 

 by the sting of the ordinary gnat, with which, also, 

 I am quite familiar. 



" The insect which stung me was a mosquito in 

 sound, in manner of attack, in the effects of the 

 sting, and in appearance ; for it was quite light 

 enough for me to see him distinctly when he made 

 his retreat, brandishing his spindle shanks with that 

 air of jaunty defiance which irritates his angry 

 victims almost to madness. What scientific name 

 an entomologist would give him, I cannot tell. He 

 did a mosquito's work upon me. " It. T." 



Chicago Microscopical Club. — A new Micro- 

 scopical Club, attached to the Academy of Sciences, 

 has recently been inaugurated at Chicago, Illinois 

 U.S. 



