H4 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



After a colliery explosion at Unsworth in March 

 last, Mr. C. S. Lindsay showed great endurance and 

 heroism in endeavouring to save the lives of two 

 fellow explorers who were overcome hy choke-damp. 

 Mr. Lindsay is said to have carried iron nails in his 

 mouth, which he sucked, and was thus enabled to 

 resist the effects of the choke-damp longer than his 

 companions. The explanation given was that the 

 carbonic acid gas coming into contact with oxide of 

 iron formed insoluble carbonate of iron and so was 

 rendered innocuous. F. R. S., writing to the 

 "Times," with reference to this explosion, says that 

 the quantity of carbonic acid absorbed by this means 

 is inappreciable, as might indeed be expected, and 

 suggests a respirator filled with cotton-wool and slaked 

 lime or caustic soda, to absorb the carbonic acid gas 

 or choke-damp; "or, better still, a cylinder filled 

 with the same material carried on the back with a 

 flexible breathing tube and mouthpiece will enable 

 an explorer to remain for some time in an atmosphere 

 charged with choke-damp which would be at once 

 fatal if inspired directly." 



Though rather late, it may not be amiss to warn 

 those of our readers who are experimental chemists 

 against phosphorus trichloride. Dr. Edward Divers, 

 principal of the Imperial Engineering College, Japan, 

 has had a severe accident through the bursting of a 

 bottle containing the trichloride. It had been used 

 for years as a lecture specimen, but while Dr. Divers 

 was warming the neck in order to extract the stopper 

 the bottle burst, and the injury caused was so serious 

 that it was feared the sight cf one eye would be 

 destroyed. 



A useful means of cultivating among its readers 

 that desirable faculty, observation, is afforded by the 

 " Natural History Journal and School Reporter," in 

 the form of a list of flowers with dates of opening, 

 the average of three years, appended, so that early 

 appearances may be noted, and a Floral Calendar 

 formed. This Journal which is conducted by the 

 Society of Friends' Schools, and is published by 

 William Sessions, York, is in many respects a good 

 example of a school magazine, and the amount of 

 attention to Natural Science which it reveals is 

 highly commendable. 



Mr. Adam Sedgwick has in preparation a new 

 book, to be entitled " The Elements of Animal 

 Biology," which is intended to serve as an intro- 

 duction to the study of Animal Morphology and 

 Physiology. Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. are 

 to be the publishers. 



We have received a report of a lecture by Mr. E. 

 Lovett, delivered before the Croydon Microscopical 

 and Natural History Club. The subject of the paper 

 was the evolution of the fish-hook from prehistoric 

 times. 



We must have systematic names in science, we 

 cannot communicate our knowledge satisfactorily 

 without them, but they are not science. What do 

 our readers think of " Amblystoma tigrinum viazwr- 

 tium hallowelli suspect um maculatissimum " for a 

 systematic name ? But this is the sort of thing held 

 out in " Nature," as an example of what trinomialism 

 may lead to. It is said that a shortening process has 

 been devised, whereby the above may be written 

 "(C al ) Amblystoma tigrinum." This looks as if 

 scientific knowledge, instead of being open to 

 common folk, as it ought to be, "were to be the 

 exclusive property of the favoured few, and to be 

 hedged round with mystery as it was in the middle 

 ages. 



Japan seems at present to be the headquarters of 

 earthquake study, and we have fortunately so few 

 earthquakes in this country that no such systematic 

 attention has been given to them. Meantime the 

 one which occurred in the East of England in April 

 last year has been turned to good account after the 

 event. In the February number of the " Proceedings 

 of the Geologists' Association," is a paper with map 

 by Mr. R. Meldola, F.R.A.S., on some of its 

 Geological aspects. The author, discussing the 

 position of the paloeozoic and other rocks below the 

 surface, regards the older rocks as not being neces- 

 sarily concerned with the origin of the earthquake. 

 The disturbance originating below later formations 

 was first spread by the harder sub-cretaceous rocks, 

 and at the extreme limits the shock was propagated 

 along the palaeozoic rocks which acted as mecha- 

 nical conductors of the wave, and thus, as it were, 

 exaggerated the westward extension of the^effects. 



MICROSCOPY. 



A new Bacillus. — At a recent meeting of the 

 Royal Microscopical Society, an account of a new 

 Bacillus {B. alvei) was given by Messrs. Cheshire 

 and Cheyne. This bacillus is the cause of a serious 

 disease which has prevailed among hive bees, exter- 

 minating, in some cases, whole stocks ; both larva: 

 and bees, including the queen, being affected by it. 

 The disease readily yields to treatment, which consists 

 in feeding the larva; with syrup containing 1-600 per 

 cent, of phenol. 



Micro-organism of Swine-plague. — At a 

 meeting in January of the New York Microscopical 

 Society it was stated that Dr. Salmon had recently 

 demonstrated the presence of micrococcus in Pneumo- 

 enteritis, or swine-plague, of which bacilli had been 

 said to be characteristic, and that Dr. Sternberg had 

 just obtained a pure culture of the micrococcus of 

 this disease. 



