HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE- G O SSI P. 



29 



pulchclla, Hemiaster minimus, Trochocyathiis har- 

 veyana, a few specimens of each were found. Many 

 specimens of a cerithium [?] were found, but not perfect. 

 Natica gaultina, a few were obtained in a fair state 

 of preservation. Hamitcs rotundus, only broken bits 

 of this species could be obtained. Rostcllaria carinata, 

 a few good specimens were found. I also found a few- 

 specimens of Bellaropuina miniata : a species which 

 I understand is rather rare ; it is certainly rather 

 difficult to find, on account of its small size and 

 general resemblance to a rounded fragment of iron- 

 stone. A shark's tooth was obtained fairly perfect, 



Fig. 28. — Ammonites lautus. 



and also a number of small teeth, not yet named. 

 These are remarkably perfect. All the above smaller 

 species require much care to detect and separate 

 them from the sand and stones. I observed that the 

 few persons who did collect the fossils appeared to 

 look for the larger Ammonites only, taking very little 

 notice of the smaller species. I think the fact that I 

 have obtained nearly thirty species in two or three 

 visits to this locality, may be of interest to many. 

 My object in writing the above list, is to induce 

 others to collect. I am indebted to Mr. Newton, of the 

 Geological Museum, London, for his kind assistance 

 in naming my specimens. 



A. H. Shepherd. 

 London. 



GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOPICS. 

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



THE very active people who have lately been 

 denouncing physiological investigations made 

 upon living animals, and misrepresenting 97 per cent, 

 of them by applying the title of "vivisection " ; and 

 who evidently imagine that all perpetrators of physio- 

 logical research are mere sportsmen finding personal 

 enjoyment in the infliction of pain and death upon 

 helpless animals, should read Dr. Richardson's lecture 

 on "The Painless Extinction of Life in the Lower 

 Animals," delivered at the Society of Arts, and 

 published in the Journal of that Society for December 

 26th last. They will learn thereby that a very emi- 

 nent physician and experimentalist, who according to 



their confession of faith should be a heartless beast- 

 torturing ogre, has during more than thirty years 

 been working most industriously, at considerable 

 expense of money and still greater cost of valuable 

 time, without any pay or prospect of pay, in devising 

 methods for rendering the customary slaughtering of 

 animals absolutely painless. If these denouncers of 

 vivisection are really sincere they will at once emu- 

 late the truly humane efforts of Dr. Richardson, will 

 sacrifice their time, their labour, and their cash as he 

 has done, by co-operating in a great national effort to 

 introduce the use of the " lethal chamber" in all our 

 slaughter houses. There is no excuse for holding 

 back, as the effectiveness of the method has been 

 practically demonstrated and is practically carried 

 out at the " Dogs' Home " at Battersea, where as 

 many as a hundred at a time of dogs, that would 

 otherwise be violently butchered, are gently made to 

 sleep, not suffocated, but lulled by a device as pain- 

 less as the cradle rocking of an infant. In this 

 simple sleep they remain until the heart follows 

 the example of the dormant brain, and beats no 

 more. All the practical details are described and 

 illustrated in the above named report ; and a society 

 is already formed for carrying them out on animals 

 to be killed for food (The London Model Abattoir 

 Society of which Dr. Richardson is president) ; the 

 heaviest of the work is already done. I have a list 

 of the names of many that have spoken loudly as 

 antivivisectionists, and shall look for those same 

 names among the leading supporters of this move- 

 ment. If they do not thus appear, I shall be driven to 

 conclusions that need not here be specified and which 

 will be shared by all who appreciate moral consis- 

 tency. 



The Students of the University of Paris are 

 forming an association which is to be worthily in- 

 augurated by a public celebration in honour of the 

 oldest living philosopher, M. Chevreul, whose 

 hundredth birthday will presently be attained. In a 

 paper which he read at the Academy of Sciences two 

 years ago, he had occasion to say : — " Moreover, 

 gentlemen, the observation is not a new one to me. 

 I had the honour to mention it here, at a meeting of 

 the Academy on May 10th, 1812." Here is a 

 chemist about as old as chemistry (which can scarcely 

 be said to have existed before the discovery of 

 oxygen), and still alive, and intellectually vigorous. 

 Fontenelle, who died in 1750, was nearly as old, and 

 shortly before his death said to his inquiring friends, 

 " I have no suffering, but am feeling merely an in- 

 creased difficulty of living." In another part of the 

 same number of " Nature," from which I quote this 

 saying of Fontenelle, are the last words of John 

 Lawrence Smith, the American chemist, geologist, 

 and engineer ; they were " Life has been very sweet to 

 me ; it comforts me. How I pity those to whom 

 memory brings no pleasure." Such expressions, 

 such feelings in the evening of life are the logical 



