HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



183 



puzzled observers of this beautiful Rotifer. On a 

 piece of weed which I obtained from a pond in this 

 neighbourhood I had a beautiful specimen of the 

 Floscularia omata. I was intently watching her and 

 her method of procuring her food ; at times stamping 

 my foot so as to enable me to see her beautiful sete 

 fall from the lobes ; but, tired of this, I sat admiring 

 the beautiful colours and their transparency, which I 

 thought very singular, when a large brown mass 

 came sailing along, and, as if blind to all danger, he 

 held his course and went straight into the floscule's 

 open mouth. The seta; at once closed up so as not 

 to allow the prey to escape ; and now commenced a 

 determined struggle. The brown mass was too large'to 

 pass from the funnel into the vestibule, and the floscule 

 kept swaying to and fro as if trying by this means 

 to swallow her prey, and evidently bent on doing so, 

 for the hairs formed a network by interlacing each 

 other over the funnel. I made up my mind to watch 

 and see the end of this " life and death struggle," at 

 least for the animalcule, and the means of a "good 

 meal " for Mrs. Floscule. I knew her to be hungry, 

 for I had kept her on short allowance of water, as I 

 wanted to find her should she leave her cell as others 

 had done. Again another wriggle and tussle, but all 

 to no purpose, and then the floscule kept perfectly 

 still ; the vestibule began to swell ; the contractile 

 rim gradually opened, the whole of the setae on the 

 lobes were turned inwards and thrust down the 

 trochal disc on to the brown jelly-like mass piercing 

 it like so many needles, thrusting it from the vestibule 

 through the contractile rim into the mouth, which 

 instantly became distended and the prey passed down 

 into the stomach ; the lobes were drawn upwards 

 and again resumed their feather-like appearance. I 

 could perceive quite plainly the animalcule pass from 

 one stomach into another, and called Mr. Bean of 

 Norwich to witness the termination of what I consider 

 a peculiar phenomenon. — T. B. Kosseter, Canterbury. 



Collecting-Bottle.— On page 136 of Science- 

 Gossip for June, Mr. F. Row describes a collecting- 

 bottle which he has just devised. I beg to say that 



Fig. 102.— Wright's Collecting-bottle. 



a collecting-bottle on precisely the same principle 

 was brought out by myself and advertised in your 

 Journal about ten or twelve years back, and has been 

 sold by Messrs. Baker, Stewart, and other opticians. 

 — Edward Wright. 



Hackney Microscopical and Natural 

 History Society.— At the last general meeting of 

 this society, the president (H. Ramsden, M.A., 

 F.L.S.) introduced a living specimen of the Pyro- 

 phorus noctihtcus (Linn.), or fire-fly, of the order 

 Coleoptera, fam. Elateridoe. It left Cuba on May 6, 

 and arrived in England on May 30. The insect was 

 feeding on its natural food, raw sugar-cane, and 

 from its phosphorescent appearance fully deserves its 

 common name of fire-fly. I doubt not that the 

 appearance of a live specimen of this beautiful insect 

 will interest many of our readers. I should like to 

 know if it has been brought to this country alive 

 before. Mr. Ramsden informed the members present 

 that twenty-two were captured the evening before 

 leaving Cuba, and two only reached England.— 

 Collis Willmott. 



Microscopical Drawings upon Glass. — No 

 doubt it will interest others besides H. W. O. to 

 know how these drawings are done ; the great thing 

 is to get the glass properly prepared. You can 

 get it in this state at Mr. Holmes's, 149 Essex 

 Road ; it is done in the following manner : — first, 

 well wash some emery, so as to get it very fine indeed, 

 then with a piece of wash leather and sweet oil rub it 

 carefully and evenly over the surface of a piece of 

 patent plate glass until a dull surface is produced ; 

 then carefully free it from all traces of grease, and do 

 the drawing with a' HHH pencil; the fine point of 

 the pencil soon wears down, but if the pencil be kept 

 continually turned round it wears a fine point to it- 

 self. When the drawing is finished, the next thing 

 is to colour ; this must be done with aniline colours, 

 such as Judson's dyes, but the colours prepared by 

 E. Atkins, 200 Essex Road, I find work best ; now 

 when you have got it coloured and thoroughly dry, 

 pour over it some Canada balsam diluted with ben- 

 zine, and then place another glass (not a ground one) 

 on the top ; by the aid of the balsam the glass will 

 become perfectly transparent. I have seen some very 

 beautiful slides prepared in this manner. Any further 

 information I shall be most happy to give. — A. Smith. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Living Toads in Stone. — On reading Mr. 

 Eisdell's essay on the above subject in the May 

 number of Science-Gossip, I was much interested 

 with his resume of the evidence of the existence of 

 living toads in solid masses of rock, &c, because I 

 have heard of several instances of these animals 

 having been said to have been found alive in the 

 heart of a block of coal, although I never came across 

 a thoroughly authenticated case ; for, as Dr. Buckland 

 says, " the evidence is never perfect to show that the 

 reptiles were entirely enclosed in a solid rock." The 

 testimony may come from some person perfectly 



