56 



JHAKDWICKE'S SC 1 E NCE-GO SSJ P. 



in character with the smell made when angry by the 

 wasps of the S. American genus Pepris — dark blue 

 wasps with red wings. This odour at first produces 

 a stinging sensation on the nerve of smell, but when 

 inhaled in large measure becomes very nauseating. 

 On one occasion, while I was opening a nest, several 

 of the bees buzzing round my head and thrusting 

 their stings through the veil I wore for protection, 

 gave out so pungent a smell that I was compelled to 

 retreat. 



It seems strange that a species armed with a 

 venomous sting and possessing the fierce courage of 

 the humble-beff should also have this repulsive odour 

 for a protection. It is, in fact, as incongruous as it 

 would be were our soldiers provided with guns and 

 swords first, and after that with phials of assafcetida to 

 be uncorked in the face of an enemy. 



Why, or how, animals came to be possessed of the 

 power of emitting pestiferous odours is a mystery ; 

 wc only see that natural selection has, in some 

 instances, taken advantage of it to furnish some of 

 the weaker, more unprotected species with a means 

 of escape from their enemies. The most striking 

 example I know is that of a large hairy caterpillar I 

 have found on dry wood in Patagonia, and which, 

 when touched, emits an intensely nauseous effluvium. 

 Happily it is very volatile, but while it lasts it is even 

 moie detestable than that of the skunk. 



The skunk itself offers perhaps the one instance 

 amongst the higher vertebrates of an animal in which 

 nil the original instincts of self-preservation have died 

 out, giving place to this lower kind of protection. 

 All the other members of the family it belongs 'o are 

 cunning, swift of foot, and, when overtaken, fierce- 

 tempered and well able to defend themselves with 

 their teeth. 



For some occult reason they are provided with a 

 gland charged with a malodorous secretion. The 

 skunk alone when attacked makes no attempt to 

 escape or to defend itself by biting ; but thrown by 

 its agitation into a violent convulsion discharges its 

 foetid liquor into the face of its opponent. When 

 this animal had once ceased to use so good a weapon 

 as its teeth in defending itself, degenerating at the 

 same time into a slow-moving creature, without fear 

 and without cunning, the strength and vileness of 

 its odour would be continually increased by the 

 cumulative process of natural selection : and how 

 effective the protection has become is shown by the 

 abundance of the species throughout the whole 

 American continent. It is lucky for mankind — 

 especially for naturalists and sportsmen — that other 

 species have not been improved in the same direction. 



Put what can we say of the common deer of the 

 pampas [Cervus campestris), the male of which gives 

 out an effluvium, quite as far-reaching if not so 

 abominable in character as that of the Mephitis ''. It 

 comes in disagreeable whiffs to the human nostril 

 •vhen the perfumer of the wilderness is not even in 



| sight. Yet it is not a protection ; on the contrary, it 

 I is the reverse, and, like the dazzling white plumage 

 I so attractive to birds of prey, a direct disadvantage, 

 ! informing all enemies for leagues around of its where- 

 j abouts. It is not, therefore, strange that wherever 

 pumas are found, deer are never very abundant ; the 

 only wonder is that, like the ancient horse of 

 America, they have not become extinct. 



GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOPICS. 

 By W. Mattieu Williams, F.R.A.S. 



I HAVE just turned up an account of the Superga 

 Railway in the " Journal of the Society of Arts," 

 of September 12th last. Carriages are there run on 

 the system invented by Tommaso Aguido, and they 

 climb an incline of I in 51 by means of an endless 

 rope connected with a stationary engine ; the rope, 

 however, does not pull up the carriages, but merely 

 communicates motion to the driving carriage of the 

 train, thereby saving the weight of locomotive and 

 tender, and demanding a much tighter rope than 

 would do the haulage. This system having been 

 practically tested on a small scale with a gradient of 

 1 in 2- 53, the Italian Government gave a subsidy 

 of ,£36,000, and the city of Turin a further subsidy of 

 ,£12,000, together with special concession to a 

 company for making the line. This is how such 

 projects for the practical application of science are 

 generally encouraged on the continent, but what 

 occurs here ? A company is formed to carry out a 

 project that shall benefit the nation at large— such 

 for example as the Manchester Canal, and immedi- 

 ately all the obstructive parliamentary machinery of 

 both houses is hired by vested interests for the purpose 

 of suppressing it. Some years ago I travelled from 

 Flintshire to Westminster in order to give evidence 

 to a parliamentary committee in favour of the 

 Wrexham, Mold, and Connah's Quay Railway, which, 

 besides opening out a rich mineral district, would 

 have shortened the route between London and 

 Holyhead by some miles when extended to Fllesmere, 

 &c. But, just in proportion to such usefulness, would 

 it compete with the vested interests of the Great 

 Western and North-Western Railways, and there- 

 fore they combined to crush it. On presenting 

 myself at the committee room with others, we were 

 informed by the counsel for the small line that the 

 chairman of the committee was a Great Western 

 man, the rest were either ditto or North-Western, 

 and therefore the case was prejudged and no evidence 

 could be of any use. We all returned to Wales 

 accordingly, and gave no evidence. Finally only a 

 bit of the line was graciously permitted by the big 

 companies to be constructed, that bit which could 

 not compete with their monopoly. The parliamentary 

 expenses of this far exceeded those of construction, 

 and the trains carried a sheriffs officer " in possession." 



