68 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[March 1, 1863. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Tiie Winter Quarters of a Spider. — When 

 out pupae digging the other day, I came upon a 

 moderate-sized spider completely entombed in the 

 earth. It seemed to be rather dull, and, when any 

 one touched it, would only move a short way. The 

 cave, which probably had been hewn out by the 

 spider, was shaped as an egg, and was lined with a 

 fine web. In it there seemed to be only just room 

 for the Arachnide with its legs in a very cramped 

 position. Do spiders generally inhabit such a 

 prison during the winter months ? And, now we are 

 upon the subject, I will put another question to any 

 of your numerous correspondents who would venture 

 an answer. Last summer I had a fancy for always 

 carrying a bottle in my pocket when out for a walk, 

 and in it I put four spiders (Epeira diadema), de- 

 bating in my mind whether there would be peace or 

 war. It turned out that the latter was the result, 

 and a general fight ensued. The last comer, how- 

 ever, kept very sensibly out of the way of the jaws 

 below at the top of the bottle, now and then 

 descending a thread to have a snap at the com- 

 batants, escaping again unhurt. In a minute all 

 was quiet, but the state of the game seemed to be 

 that each was content to suffer pain as long as lie 

 inflicted injury on another ; for the first had its jaws 

 embedded in the abdomen of the second, the second 

 behaved in the same polite manner to the third, who 

 continued calmly to suck the juices of the first. In 

 this way they formed a sort of triangle, and thus in 

 each other's embrace, died in about five minutes. 

 The other spider acted in its lofty regions as a judge. 

 Now, the problem to be solved is, did these spiders 

 poison each other, or did they die from the wounds 

 inflicted, not taking into account the poison ? Which • 

 is most probable ?— F. R. R. 



Sponges.— The books and papers to be consulted 

 on this subject are, Dr. Johnston's "History of 

 British Sponges," Dr. Bowerbank's " Monograph of 

 the British Spongiadse," Dr. Oscar Schmidt's "der 

 Spongien des Adriatischen Meeres," Duchassaing 

 and Michelottis' " Spongiaires de la mer Caraibe," 

 Lieberkuhn's "Beitrage zur Anatomie der Kalk- 

 spongien," Dr. Bowerbank's "Monograph of the 

 Spqngillidse," in Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society of London, part iii., December, 1803. Dr. 

 J. E. Gray's "notes on the Arrangement of Sponges," 

 in Proc. Zool. Soc, part ii., May, 1867, and Albany 

 Hancock's " note on the Excavating Sponges," in 

 the Natural History Transactions of Northumber- 

 land and Durham, vol. i., part iii., 1807, &c. &c. 



Holly Berries Poisonous.— Several cases of 

 poisoning from time to time have been brought 

 under our notice, through children eating of the 

 berries of the common holly, and it is to be feared 

 that many more fatal cases through this cause have 

 occurred without being suspected. The danger of 

 placing holly berries, whether red or yellow, within 

 the reach of children should never be forgotten by 

 parents or servants ; a hazard, which by-the-bye, 

 never terror-struck me more than I was made so on 

 Candlemas Day of the present year, in seeing a lot 

 of little children from two years old and upwards, 

 picking the berries from off the holly sprigs that 

 had been used for the Christmas decorating of the 

 cottage, and to their heart's content amusing them- 

 selves in the collecting all they could for a display 

 in their little innocent games. Now I thought I 

 would like to say a few words in Science-Gossip 



by way of caution, trusting that thev may draw 

 attention to a source of danger very little suspected 

 by many persons. There is not one in a county 

 who dreams that the berries, whether red or yellow, 

 with which churches and country houses are so 

 copiously decorated from Christmas to Candlemas, 

 are little less dangerous than so many pills of red 

 lead, or even arsenic. Though it is not a little 

 curious that the berries of the holly tree should be 

 never named as poisons, even by writers of vegetable 

 products. Orfila is silent as far as can be discovered 

 in a couple of heavy volumes without an index. 

 Ohristison says nothing, at least not in the third 

 edition of his book on poisons. The Materia 

 Medica authors, Richard Wood and Bache treat the 

 holly as a harmless tree. All that Smith could find 

 to relate is that " The Druids are said to have intro- 

 duced this custom (that of Christmas), for the 

 accommodation of certain sylvan spirits of a chilly 

 constitution while the oaks were leafless ! " And 

 yet he might have found something more worthy of 

 science than such anility ; for Rembrandt Dodoens 

 had 250 years before announced that holly berries 

 are purgative in doses of 10 or 12. There are, how- 

 ever, botanical writers who have pointed out the 

 dangerous properties of these berries. De Candolle, 

 in his " Flore Francaise " says they are purgative ; 

 Achille Richard quotes Dodoens ; Endlicher in his 

 Enchiridion describes them as being violently 

 purgative (vehementius purgant) ; and in Lindley's 

 " Vegetable Kingdom " their character is given still 

 more distinctly : " the berries are purgative and 

 emetic ; six or eight will occasion violent vomiting." 

 It would seem, however, that none of these authors 

 had ever heard of fatal cases. Nevertheless / have, 

 and further add that I possess a scrap of paper 

 containing a report of a " Death from eating holly 

 berries," which, singular to say, I came across by 

 chance while penning my notes on the subject. — 

 George Newlyn. 



Expansion and Contraction in Fluids.— In 

 the article on the " Temperature of Lakes," 1 find 

 the following : "It is well known that water (unlike 

 other fluid bodies) contracts during the process of 



cooling, until it reaches the freezing-point 



and that it again expands as it gets colder." Taken 

 as written, this means that water is the only fluid 

 that contracts in cooling. I do not think the writer 

 meant that, as it is obviously incorrect ; Mercury 

 contracts in the thermometer, for instance. I take 

 it, the meaning intended is that water is the only 

 body that increases in bulk below a certain degree 

 of cold. This is a statement very common in books. 

 We are told that, while ice floats, all other solids sink 

 in their liquids, and that it is a wonderful instance 

 of a providential arrangement. One after another 

 repeats this, and thus it obtains general credence. 

 No one, however, tells us that he has tried the 

 experiments necessary to prove this statement. 

 Iron solid floats on molten iron, solid lead on lead, 

 copper on copper, zinc on zinc, tin on tin; and 

 so I might go on. Every solid 1 have ever noticed 

 floats on its own liquid. True, when these fluids 

 are poured into receptacles many degrees colder 

 than themselves, they will solidify on the sides 

 as well as the top, and so would water if treated 

 in the same manner; and if, say, melted iron could 

 be put into a vessel of as high a degree of tempe- 

 rature as itself, and the air in contact raised to 

 a heat only a little below, it would solidify on 

 the top and downwards even as water does. It is 

 a general law applicable to all fluids that water 

 obeys in increasing in bulk below a certain tern- 



