HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



277 



menters. The reason is probably to be found in the 

 instability of the alkaloid, cocaine. Few alkaloids 

 are so sensitive to physical and chemical action, and 

 hence the percentage of active ingredient varies 

 greatly in different samples of the leaves. " Leaves 

 dried in damp weather, or pressed into the sacks 

 before being completely dried, undergo a fermentation 

 that destroys the cocaine. The destruction goes on 

 gradually, until the complete disappearance of the 

 alkaloid." (M. Bignon.) In the new edition of the 

 British Pharmacopoeia, just published, coca leaves 

 are made official, together with the hydrochlorate of 

 cocaine, and a preparation of this salt with gelatine 

 and glycerine, in small discs, each containing J D of a 

 grain of the salt. 



The coca plant blossoms profusely several times a 

 year, but does not produce seed very freely. It is 

 readily propagated from cuttings. Mr. Whittaker 

 describes the flowers as being white, but in an edi- 

 torial in the " Pharmaceutical Journal " for July last, 

 the flowers are said to be "yellow, faintly scented." 

 Probably they vary in colour, although, as far as my 

 experience goes, yellow-flowered plants are least 

 prone to produce albino varieties. 



J. A. YViieldon. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Another journey across Africa has been achieved, 

 the travellers in this case being two Portuguese 

 explorers, Captain Capello and Commander Ivens. 

 They left Mossamedes, a place on the west coast of 

 Africa, lat. about 15 S. in March of last year, and 

 arrived at Quillimane on the east coast, near the 

 mouths of the Zambesi river in May last. They are 

 said to have discovered the sources of the Lualaba, 

 an affluent of the Congo. It seems likely that the 

 regions they have traversed contain a good many 

 elephants, and therefore much ivory, for they noticed 

 the tsetse fly which has disappeared from the south- 

 east country, to be very abundant farther north. 

 The connection between the two statements is 

 supplied by the observation made by these explorers, 

 as well as often stated before, that the tsetse fly 

 abounds where there are plenty of elephants. 



The Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists' Society, 

 18S4-5, came to hand too late to be included in last 

 month's notice. It is more imposing than most 

 similar publications, as it contains a coloured geo- 

 logical map showing the neighbourhood of the Avon 

 from Bristol to Avonmouth, explanatory of a paper 

 on the Sub-aerial Denudation of the Avon Gorge, 

 by Professor C. Lloyd Morgan, F.G.S., three coloured 

 plates of Fungi illustrating notes on the Fungi of 

 the Bristol District, by Mr. C. Bucknall ; and a 

 platinotype of a Finn whale which was lately stranded 

 in the Bristol Channel, on which Mr. E. Wilson, 



F.G.S., curator of the Bristol Museum, contributes 

 some notes. Besides these, Mr. C. T. Druery, 

 F.L.S., gives an account of Apospory in Ferns. On 

 this subject he read a paper before the Linnean 

 Society last year, of which an abstract may be found 

 on p. 164 of this volume. " The Flora of the Bristol 

 Coal-field," Part v. including Dictyogense and 

 Floridse, edited by Mr. J. W. White, concludes the 

 number. 



It appears from a review in " Science " of a book 

 by P. de Lucy-Fossarieu, that the Patagonians, who 

 formerly had the reputation of being giants, are of 

 huge make in the upper part of their bodies, but 

 their legs are disproportionately short and slender, 

 and frequently bend outward. It is stated that 

 before the horse was introduced into that region a 

 little over two centuries ago, the natives used to 

 chase the guanaco and ostrich on foot ; and it is 

 supposed that their present conformation is due to 

 constant horse-riding. It is suggested that they may 

 have lost as much as two inches in stature owing to- 

 the change in their mode of life, which two inches 

 if added to their present height would bring them up 

 to the stature of the giants seen by the companions 

 of Magellan. 



Those members of the Dorset Natural History 

 and Antiquarian Field Club whose tastes are Con- 

 chological owe a debt of thanks to their president, 

 Mr. J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, F.L.S., for his book on 

 the Land and Freshwater Mollusca of the county. 

 Though said to be taken from the Proceedings of the 

 Society, it forms a volume of nearly sixty pages, in 

 which descriptive text and habitats are given to 

 practically all the species named, while at the end 

 are half-a-dozen uncoloured lithographic plates with 

 numerous figures. These alone would make the 

 book useful. 



From a notice which has appeared in "Science" 

 of Thomas Alva Edison, it appears that he was born 

 in 1847, became a train boy on the Grand Trunk 

 Railway ; and later on, when the line was completed 

 between Port Huron and Detroit, he set up a print- 

 ing-office in the baggage-car, employing assistants, 

 and issued therefrom a weekly journal, " The Grand 

 Trunk Herald." His attention was drawn to tele- 

 graphy, and he became a telegraph operator, an 

 inventor and manufacturer, and finally an investigator 

 and inventor only. He has already taken out in 

 America about four hundred patents, among the 

 inventions by which he is perhaps best known being 

 those connected with incandescent electric lighting 

 and the phonograph. The account of Mr. Edison is 

 accompanied by a portrait. 



It appears that Dr. H. Hoffmann has shown in the 

 case of several dioecious plants, including red and 

 white campions {L. diur. and vesp.), dog's mercury 

 [Mer. annua), and hop [Cann. sativa), that the 



