Nov. 1, 1870.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



259 



the conversion of starch into sugar ; albumen into 

 fibrine ; the formation of lethic acid and phosphates 

 in the urine, are the results of dynamic forces co- 

 operating with matter. Heat and light are neces- 

 sary elements of vitality ; and it is our opinion that 

 electrical force, in a variety of forms, fulfils a much 

 more important part in the animal economy than 

 has yet been explained. The contractility of mus- 

 cular fibre, the reflex action of nervous power, sleep, 

 the copulation of animals, post-mortem elevation 

 of temperature, post-mortem rigidity, the twitchings 

 of tetanus, the movements of vital fluids, and the 

 primary movements of the primary molecules of the 

 minutest organic cells, are no doubt brought about 

 by electrical attraction and repulsion. — Dr. Berwick's 

 Forces of the Universe. 



Small Egg. — I have another black Spanish hen's 

 egg, the dimensions of which are — circumference 

 round the two ends 4| inches, round middle 4 in- 

 ches, length If inch. — /. B. 



Assiminea Grayana. — This shell is equally abun- 

 dant on both sides of the Thames wall here : the 

 only difference is, however, that those inhabiting 

 the mud and grass outside it appear never to come 

 to more than half the size of those found in the 

 brackish ditch a few yards off, which seems to be a 

 much more favourable locality for the development 

 of the species, being full of sword-grass, &c. — Harry 

 C. Leslie, Frith. 



Singular Emergence op Fleas. — A friend, on 

 whose truthfulness I can depend, relates the fol- 

 lowing incident, which occurred in his boyhood, but 

 made an ineffaceable impression on his mind. In 

 the house where he was living at the time it hap- 

 pened, there was a cat to which he was greatly 

 attached ; from some disease the animal died when 

 only a few years old (about three, as he thinks), and 

 boy-like he resolved that his pet should be buried 

 in an uncommon way. Accordingly he obtained 

 some mortar and bricks, and in a secluded place in 

 the garden constructed a sort of tomb, in which he 

 placed it, and walled it closely in. Almost imme- 

 diately after he was sent away, and did not return 

 again for five or six weeks. He had not been back 

 long when he remembered his exploit in the way of 

 burial, and resolved to disinter his favourite to have 

 a look at it, and see what change had occurred. 

 Taking a suitable instrument, he knocked off the 

 upper layer, and was about to peep in, when sud- 

 denly out there issued a multitude of fleas ! He 

 could only compare it to the effect produced when 

 a bee-hive is knocked over, and out issue the 

 myriads of those busy creatures to avenge the 

 affront. Eor some hours he was in a terrible state, 

 not ouly from the bites he received, but from the 

 sickening sensation it produced upon him ; he was 

 compelled to frame an excuse to remove his clothes, 



and did not get over the shock for some while. The 

 time was July or August, favourable to the increase 

 of insect life, yet it seems odd that after the death 

 of the animal fleas should have continued to live 

 upon the carcase; in fact, they must have been 

 generated, and passed through the earlier larval 

 stage, since there were no signs of such a host at 

 the time the cat was interred. Owing to the hasty 

 retreat he made, he did not ascertain the state in 

 which the body was, nor did he ever again return to 

 the spot. — J. K. /S'. Clifford. 



Flock or Missel-Thrushes.— About a hundred 

 of these birds were seen in the suburbs of Leicester 

 on the 4th of September. Is it not unusually early? 

 There were too many for a mere " family gathering." 

 — T. T. Molt. 



Ordnance and Eisn.— In the last number of 

 Science-Gossip, p. 213, is a note on the indifference 

 of fish to the firing of heavy ordnance, contrary to 

 the prevalent opinion. I confess to considerable 

 doubt as to fish being any way affected by mere 

 sound, notwithstanding the stories so common in 

 guidebooks, &c, of their assembling in ponds to 

 be fed at the ringing of a bell. An incident very 

 similar to that quoted by Mr. Budge happened 

 to myself many years ago. I sent a note of it 

 at the time to the Zoologist, and now trans- 

 cribe it from the volume for 1815, p. 1194. " I was 

 fishing during a rowing match; it was a sunny 

 day, and there was a shoal of bleak near the sur- 

 face of the water, and though some small cannon 

 on an island about four hundred yards from the 

 spot were repeatedly discharged at intervals, they 

 took not the slightest notice, and I caught one in 

 the midst of the firing." — G. Guyon, Fentnor, Isle of 

 Wight. 



Locusts in Algeria.— There are still traces of 

 the great grasshopper plague of last year (1867), 

 and a fearful scourge it must, have been. They 

 came in flights which appeared as a cloud on the 

 horizon no bigger than a man's hand, and advanced 

 like the wind in such terrible force that the very 

 birds fled dismayed, and the whole heavens were 

 obscured. They remained in the neighbourhood 

 over three months, devouring everything around 

 them, beginning with the delicate shoots that they 

 liked,' and ending with the tough palm-branches 

 which they did not like. They disregarded all the 

 noise and tom-tom music that was got up to frighten 

 them and were killed in millions by the natives who 

 came out to fight them. My friend, the Director of 

 the Jardin d'Acclimitation, took to laying down 

 heaps of grass at intervals, into which the beasts 

 crept in swarms, and when safely in were burnt in 

 a series of funeral piles. Ravenous and. ruinously 

 destructive as they are, they are never known to 

 bite a man, being purely graminivorous in their 

 nature. — Hon. L. Wingfield, Under the Palms. 



