198 



EARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



1. //. ddicatiun, B. & Br. For description and 

 figure, see Cooke's Handbook, p. 56S. 



2. H. chlorocephalum (Fres. ). Pcriconia ch., 

 Fresenius, Mykol. pi. 4, figs. 10-15 (^o). 



Stems simple, black, shining, rigid, straight or 

 slightly bent, gradually thickened below ; head 

 greenish ; spores in dichotomous chains, oval. 

 (Fig. 129.) 



On rotting herbaceous stems, Germany, forming a 

 greenish-black pubescence. Stems about h millimetre 

 high ; spores 7-9 /x. * 



3. H. tc7iuissimum (Corda), Graphium /., Corda, 

 Icones, i. fig 252 (1837). 



Effused, very thin, pale fuscous ; stems simple, 

 straight, filiform, dilated at the base, brown, semi- 

 pellucid ; head subglobose, yellow, its threads straight, 

 of the same colour, very slender ; spores subacute, 

 white. (Fig. 130). 



On wood of beech, Bohemia. Height of stem 

 about \ mm. ; length of spores 45 \i. 



4. H. bicolor, Grove. 



Stems effused, gregarious, occasionally two or three 

 connate at the base, erect, straight, rigid, blackish- 

 brown, opaque, paler and rounded above, bulbous 

 below ; head pale, honey-coloured, obovate, the 

 lower part composed of dense persistent radiating 

 twice penicillately branched threads ; spores oblong or 

 ovate, hyaline, subacute. (Figs. 127 & 128.) 



On rotting wood, Birmingham. Stems |th to ^rd 

 mm. high ; spores 4-5 jj.. long, accompanied by a 

 mucous secretion. Approaching in some respects 

 Cephalotrichum atrtiim, Berk. (Cooke, Handbook, 

 p. 569), but in others differing widely. It will be seen 

 that the structure of the head is much more compli- 

 cated in this than in the other species of Haplogra- 

 phium, and, in fact, is almost sufficient to entitle it 

 to rank as the type of a new sub-genus. 



W.B. Grove, B.A. 

 Bir?ningha7)i. 



GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOPICS. 

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



THE official Report of the British "Association 

 meeting at Montreal, just issued, is rather bulky, 

 and contains much interesting matter. Among the 

 reports on the state of Science may be specified one 

 on a subject which needs serious attention, viz., 

 Chemical nomenclature. The tricks that have been 

 played, and still are being played, with chemical 

 names, have fully constituted themselves a scientific 

 nuisance. Thus we have — in modem text-books 



* It may be as well to repeat, for the benefit of those not 

 familiar with the mode of measuring microscopic objects now 

 becoming almost universal, and which should be quite universal, 

 that the unit (called a micromillimetre or micron, and represen- 

 ted by ix, mk. or mmm.) is 5-^^ of a millimetre or about -^\ tTr> 

 of an inch. Any one, then, who can place his microscope so as 

 to magnify 254 times, and divide an inch into 100 parts, can 

 measure objects by this unit. 



dating from i860 to 1SS0 — no less than seven names 

 for carbonic acid, i.e. the following, besides the old 

 name, carbonic anhydride, carbon anhydride, carbon 

 dioxide, carbonic dioxide, carbon oxide, and carbonic 

 gas. Other similarly familiar compounds are similarly 

 disguised with or without reason, usually without. 

 Pedantic affectation is at the bottom of it, doing "the 

 last thing out " in science as in shirt collars. Archae- 

 ologists tell us that the large families of the Browns 

 and the Blacks and the Greys were originally named 

 from the colour of their hair, but if a rectification of 

 this were attempted on the original basis, how great 

 Would be the confusion ! All the Blacks and all the 

 Browns that attained a respectable old age would have 

 to change their names to Grey. But this would have 

 more rational justification than most of the recent 

 changes in chemical names, as it would represent a 

 change of fact. The tampering with chemical names 

 is all based on mere theories, some of them very wild 

 and ephemeral. The most absurd of these neologies 

 is that of "anhydride," which simply means without 

 water. Thus certain compounds of carbon, sulphur, 

 nitrogen, &c, with oxygen, are called carbon and 

 carbonic anhydride, sulphuric anhydride, nitric anhy- 

 • dride. " Carbon without water" (carbon anhydride), 

 as used by Oding for carbonic acid, is bad enough, 

 for if C Oo is to be called waterless carbon, what is C, 

 the element itself. Carbonic anhydride, sulphuric 

 anhydride, &c, are still more atrocious ; applying an 

 adjective to qualify a negation, as though we should 

 say yellow nothing, blue nothing, big nothing, and 

 little nothing, sweet nothing, and sour nothing. 

 When men take the millinery infection, and go in for 

 the latest fashions, they are worse than women, 

 especially men of science, who ought to know better. 

 After this tabular display of retrogession, it is 

 refreshing to turn to Mr. de Ranee's report of the 

 Underground Waters Committee. This committee 

 has been at work during twelve years, and have 

 worked hard and well with most interesting and 

 practically valuable results. They have collected 

 particulars of the sections passed through by a very 

 large number of wells and borings ; a daily record 

 has been obtained of the height at which water 

 stands in many of these wells ; investigations have 

 been carried out as to the quantity of water held by a 

 cubic foot of various rocks by Mr. Wethered ; and as 

 to the filtering power of sandstones, and the influence - 

 of barometric pressure and lunar changes on the 

 height of underground waters, by Mr. J. Roberts. 

 During the year the attention of the committee has 

 been directed to the remarkable influence of the 

 earthquake which visited the east and east-central 

 counties of England, in March last, in raising the 

 levels of the water in the wells of Colchester and 

 elsewhere. They are still at work, and seeking more 

 detailed information as to the proportion of actual 

 rainfall absorbed by various soils, over extended 

 periods representing typical dry and wet years ; and 



