Jan. 1, 1570.] 



HAHDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



leaves, or bulbs, or roots had been introduced, 

 though some German writers say the peasantry boil 

 the herb now under notice, and eat it with impunity. 

 Perhaps boiling destroys it poisonous properties: 

 heat does in many instances dissipate the acridity of 

 plants. 



And here is a branch of the Elder. What a very 

 grand botanical name it has, Sambuciis, derived 

 from, so the sages say, Sambuca, a musical instru- 

 ment which'was always made of its wood. Were the 

 Sambuca and the Sackbut identical ? Many botani- 

 cal works say that the berries are injurious to 

 fowls ; all I know is, that my hens and chickens de- 

 light in the ripe fruit, and none of them seem one 

 penny the worse (there is a fine Elder-tree in the 

 poultry-yard) ; they perch on the branches, and 

 offer a living actual denial to the assertion that " al- 

 though small birds eat the elder-berries, fowls are 

 poisoned by them." 



Few plants or trees excel this in economical uses, as 

 books have it ; but I am not going to enumerate them 

 here. Elder-flower water makes a very nice wash 

 for the face, and I dare say Madame Rachel is well 

 acquainted with its virtues in this particular way. 



The Elder is found in Arabia and Syria at the 

 present day ; the Uktl Khaman is known and valued 

 there, so I think it exceedingly probable that some 

 highly-lauded skin lotion with an unpronounceable 

 Arabic name may only be a simple extract of flowers 

 of Elder after all. My "findings" are arranged, 

 and as I sit thinking of Mary Howitt's lines, — 



" How pleasant the life of a bird must be, 

 Flitting about in each leafy tree, 

 In the leafy trees so broad and full, 

 Like a green and beautiful palace hall ! " 



and wondering whether flowers do suffer pain when 

 rudely torn from their kindred friends to fade and 

 die between leaves of blotting-paper, — the sound of a 

 gun startles me, and a beautiful woodpigeon falls 

 wounded in the lane (some little tyrant of a village 

 boy, having borrowed without leave his father's gun, 

 is out killing small birds), while my own son, who 

 had been, I fondly thought, safe with his copybook 

 at home, runs up shouting, "Here is a beautiful nest, 

 mamma, and four lovely blackbirds in it; the old 

 mother bird did make such a noise when I took 

 them!" Helen E. Watney. 



The Lodge, Hambledon. 



A NEW ERA IN MICROSCOPY. 



ryiHE progress of microscopical iuquiry during 

 -*- the past twelve months, especially as it 

 displays itself in the labours of the Royal Micro- 

 scopical Society of London, * suggests many serious 

 reflections as to the future of Histology. Un- 

 questionably, the facts and observations which have 

 recently been brought forward lead us to be ex- 



* See the Monthly Microscopical Journal, Nos. 1 to 11, 186g. 



tremely sceptical as to the reliability of the con- 

 clusions of what are called practical microscopists. 

 So many of our old landmarks have been swept 

 away that we feel as though we were commencing 

 the study of Histology de novo ; for if, as it seems- 

 not unlikely to prove, our dry object-glasses are- 

 subject to grave aberrations, and our methods of 

 illumination are calculated to give rise to delusive 

 impressions, on what fixed conditions shall we base 

 our researches ? If our object-glasses of high 

 amplifying power give distorted and unnatural 

 optical images, and if, in addition, our methods of 

 illumination — or, at least, those in use prior to 1869 

 —are calculated to deceive us as to structure and 

 arrangement, what dependence can we place on 

 researches made under such objectionable circum- 

 stances ? Yet we can gather nothing else from the 

 able and lucid papers which, during the past session, 

 have been read before the Microscopical Society. 

 The Rev. J. B. Reade has demonstrated beyond 

 question that the old notion of the diatom valve 

 marked with linear stria; is absolutely erroneous, 

 and due to defective illumination ; for by the em- 

 ployment of a natural method of lighting up the 

 structure he has shown us that these stria? are 

 merely the lines of shadow thrown by a multitude 

 of little hemispherical elevations which stud the 

 surface of the valve. Here, then, is the demolition 

 of one of the most elementary dicta of microscopists. 

 What shall we say of the men who passed their 

 lives in counting and fighting over those shadows 

 which are now proved to be a false expression of 

 structure ! But this is not all. At the very last 

 meeting of the Microscopical Society a paper was 

 read by Dr. Royston Pigott, in which another of 

 the elementary axioms of the microscopist was 

 assailed, and we may almost say annihilated. Dr. 

 Pigott has been studying that favourite of the 

 microscopists the Podura scale, and he has arrived 

 at the conclusion that its structure as hitherto repre- 

 sented is another of the illusions of imperfect optical 

 apparatus. He alleges that the wedge-shaped 

 markings are a mockery and a snare, and that the 

 real constitution of the scale is that of a number of 

 bead-like corpuscles placed end to end, there being 

 separate rows for each side of the scale, and these 

 rows crossing each other obliquely. Here, then, if 

 Dr. Pigott's elaborate mathematical arguments be 

 correct, is another of our landmarks swept away. 



To the outsider it will seem perhaps that micro- 

 scopy is no longer worthy of respect or reliance. 

 We should be very sorry indeed to countenance so 

 incorrect an] idea. That there are errors is un- 

 doubted ; but that those who make them should 

 themselves point them out is one of the happiest of 

 omens for the future of Science ; for it tells us that 

 those men who are working with the microscope 

 have for their highest aim the discovery of that 

 which is right and true. The discovery of error is 



