HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



worthy of experimental verification or refutation, 

 and the required experiments may be easily made. I 

 cannot help suspecting that the officer most likely 

 to command the highest degree of canine respect 

 would be the watchman or door-keeper, or whoever 

 else had the power of turning the dog out, or allowing 

 him to come in. If otherwise, a very interesting 

 lield of further observation is opened in the determina- 

 tion of the dog's mode of arriving at his conclusions 

 concerning official status : whether the tone of 

 command impresses him, whether he imitates the 

 bipeds, or how otherwise he is impressed. 



Further observations are also demanded in reference 

 to a curious statement made by M. G. Rafin, in a 

 communication to the French Academy of Sciences. 

 Restates that a large wood fire having been kindled 

 near an ant hill in the Island of St. Thomas, the 

 ants precipitated themselves into it by thousands, 

 until it was completely extinguished, and he 

 proposes to name this species of ant the Formica 

 ignivara. The first impulse on reading this account 

 of the fire-eating ants is one of incredulity, but 

 further reflection on well-known facts modifies this 

 impression. The fascination of a bright light on 

 insects effects a wonderful amount of suicide. When 

 I lived in the neighbourhood of Twickenham 

 (towards Fulwell), I observed during three successive 

 summers that the bottom glass of the road lamps was 

 darkened by a deposit of very small flies that had 

 ilung themselves into the flame and perished ; and 

 that the ground around the lamps was strewn with 

 thousands of their bodies. A multitude of similar 

 instances may be named. Possibly the fire exerted a 

 similar fascination upon the ants. 



A correspondent to this journal (page 262) inquires 

 concerning the food of tortoises. I found the same 

 difficulty as he describes in feeding some that I had, 

 but afterwards was very successful by simply placing 

 them on a garden lawn under an inverted packing- 

 case, in the bottom of which was an opening covered 

 with wire gauze, or left open to supply light. They 

 fed heartily on the clover leaves, and also ate some 

 grass. The patches where they had been were 

 distinctly displayed by their industrious mowing. By 

 cutting away about three-quarters of an inch of the 

 edges of opposite sides of the packing case, where it 

 rested on the grass, the tortoises were enabled to shift 

 their prison, and did so in their endeavours to burrow 

 under the raised edges. They thus supplied them- 

 selves with fresh pasture during the summer, but died 

 in the winter. Their mode of eating shows that it is 

 scarcely possible for them to feed upon loose ready- 

 gathered leaves. They do not bite the leaf through, 

 but simply pinch it between their horny jaws, then 

 break it by a jerk of the head, but, for this to be done 

 successfully, the leaf must firmly be fixed by roots or 

 otherwise. 



The practice of swallowing their own cast-off skins 

 observed by another correspondent seems to be a 



part of the established domestic economy of the newt 

 during their breeding time, when they live in water. 

 Those I kept some years ago never failed to perform 

 this duty, though well supplied with earthworms, 

 their staple food. 



The International Conference which decided upon 

 the adoption of an universal prime meridian, and 

 selected that of Greenwich for the purpose, also 

 discussed some questions of clock reform, one being 

 the desirability of counting and naming the 24 hours 

 all round, starting from midnight as 24 o'clock. The 

 advantages of this, especially in railway time-tables, 

 would be very great, and the chief objections I have 

 heard is that which is founded on the mere indolence 

 that shrinks from all innovation. But this is really no 

 innovation, excepting as to the time of fixing the 

 24 o'clock. I spent a few months in Rome in 1842-3 

 when the time was reckoned in 24 hours as a matter 

 of course ; all public announcements of time were 

 made accordingly, but for the benefit of foreigners 

 the time of opening certain theatres, &c , was further 

 explained by adding the " tempo francese" or " French 

 time" as they called the 12-hour enumeration. The 

 "tempo italiano" was counted from the chiaroscuro, 

 or twilight, a very clumsy device, seeing that the 

 24 o'clock had to be shifted every month. Some of 

 the public clocks had (and possibly still have) a double 

 set of figures. Referring to an old play-bill of the 

 Teatro Alibert, I find that the performance on the 

 25th January, 1843, was announced to commence 

 " alle ore due di uotte,'" at two o'clock at night, i.e., 

 two hours after the chiaroscuro. In this play-bill no 

 tempo francese is given. 



When will science be decently represented in the 

 organization of the British Government in such a 

 manner that its scientific expenditure shall be wisely 

 controlled and distributed ? The pitiful anti-climax 

 of the "Challenger" Expedition brings forth this 

 question most glaringly. Here was lavish expenditure 

 in the sumptuous equipment of a magnificent yacht ; 

 every conceivable luxury was generously provided for 

 the selected few who were paid for taking a charming 

 holiday cruise, the avowed object of which was the 

 obtaining of certain scientific information for the 

 enlightenment of mankind at large, and the British 

 nation in particular. By the aid of some genuine 

 workers at home, the crude materials of the yachtsmen 

 have been arranged and edited to form volumes of 

 reference. These volumes contain all the fruits of 

 the expedition (except the pay and personal recreation 

 supplied to the aforesaid holiday-makers) ; all that can 

 come to the nation that "paid the piper" is in these 

 volumes. All the cost of finding and arranging 

 materials, of engraving and setting-up the volumes 

 has been incurred, and a few copies actually printed 

 at a total prime cost of many thousands of pounds for 

 getting up each volume. This having been done, the 

 multiplication of copies would cost about ninepence 

 per pound for paper and press-work on the sheets, 



