HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



89 



MICROSCOPY. 



"The Journal of the Postal Microscopical 

 Society." — Part five of the second volume of this 

 journal is to hand, edited by Mr. Alfred Allen. It 

 contains papers on "The Exhibition of Magnified 

 Objects," by Dr. C. P. Coombs ; " The Microscope 

 in Medicine," by J. B. Jeaffres ; "A Method of 

 making and mounting Transparent Rock-sections for 

 the Microscope," by John Smith ; " The Maggot of 

 the Blow-fly," by A. Hammond, F.L.S. (illustrated 

 by some exquisitely drawn plates) ; " Half-an-hour 

 at the Microscope " with Mr. Tuffen West, F.L.S. 

 (beautifully illustrated) ; selections from the Postal 

 Microscopical Society's Note-book, &c. This is the 

 best part yet issued, and we are pleased to note the 

 progressive character of the journal under its able 

 editorship. 



"Journal of the Royal Microscopical So- 

 ciety."— The February part of this ably-edited 

 journal contains papers as follows: "Observations 

 on the Oribatidae," by A. D. Michael; " On the use 

 of Incandescent Electric Lamps, as accessories to the 

 Microscope," by C. H. Steam; and " On a Minute 

 Form of Parasitical Protophyte," by Mr. G. F. 

 Dowdeswell. The latter describes a form of bacillus 

 he had found in the lung of a mouse infected with 

 septicaemia, and states it as his belief that the number 

 in which these organisms may exist in the blood of 

 an infected animal is incalculable, and may even be 

 greater than in the case of Davaine's septicaemia 

 in the rabbit, where the author had found that in 

 some cases one drop of infected blood contained 

 upwards of three-thousand millions of them ! The 

 journal contains, besides the papers, the usual ency- 

 clopaedic epitome of recent contributions to micro- 

 scopical science. 



"TheMicrographicalDictionary." — We have 

 received parts 18, 19, 20, 21 of the 4th edition of this 

 important work, bringing it to a conclusion. Micro- 

 scopic workers are fully aware of the high value it 

 possesses, and what a vast repertory of information 

 it contains relating to microscopical research. But 

 younger students may not be cognizant of its import- 

 ance to them as a hand-book, and to them we com- 

 mend it in the strongest and most commendatory 

 terms. The present edition is edited by Dr. J. W. 

 Griffith, the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, F.R.S., and Professor 

 T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S. It is illustrated by fifty- 

 three plates, and more than eight hundred woodcuts. 

 The publisher is John Van Voorst, 1, Paternoster 

 Row. 



Highbury Microscopical and Scientific 

 Society. — The members of this society last month 

 presented to their honorary secretary one of Crouch's 

 Premier Binocular microscopes, with rotating stage, 

 removeable substage, four objectives, Wenham's 



achromatic condenser, and numerous other acces- 

 sories of the latest design. The instrument bears 

 the following inscription : " Presented to Bernard 

 H. Woodward, by the members of the Highbury 

 Microscopical and Scientific Society, as a token of 

 their appreciation of his services as honorary secre- 

 tary, January, 1883." 



ZOOLOGY. 



Helix obvoluta. — Mr. Tomlin asks (p. 67) for 

 localities where this shell has been taken. The 

 following short list includes, I believe, all the places 

 which have been recorded, but I shall be glad to be 

 corrected if it is incomplete. Proceeding from west 

 to east, — Winchester, Buriton, Stoner Hill, Up 

 Park, Singleton, Graffham and Duncton. The range 

 is thus a narrow strip of country about thirty-five 

 miles long and about six wide, following the line of 

 the downs. Mr. Tomlin would do good service by 

 tracking it westward towards Salisbury. — C. Ashford. 



The Dugong. — A fine specimen of the Dugong, 

 or sea-cow {Halichore Indicus), from the Indian 

 Ocean, measuring seven feet from the snout to the 

 tip of the crescent-like tail, has just been received, 

 together with the skeleton at the Museum, Owens 

 College ; a few words upon which may not be out 

 of place. It belongs to the Sirenian group of 

 Mammalia ; only one other species in this suborder 

 is now known to be living, the manatee ; they are 

 very closely allied to the cetacea. The bones of the 

 skeleton are remarkable for their heavy, close, ivory- 

 like texture, thus adapted for its peculiar life in the 

 ocean-bed, where it feeds upon sea-weeds. The hind 

 limbs being absent, the pelvis is rudimentary, and it 

 possesses no sacrum, whilst the fore-limbs are con- 

 verted into a pair of flippers, or swimming paddles. 

 The mammae are situated on the chest. This species 



has two sets of teeth ; the molar teeth are — - when 



5-5 



young, but reduced to — in the adult ; the incisors, 



said to be present in the young, are wanting in the 

 mature animal. Many of the figures in our popular 

 books are incorrect, especially about the head ; the 

 snout is prominent and fleshy, whilst the lower por- 

 tion of the upper jaw is bristly. This, conjoined 

 with the pectoral teats, aided by the flippers, has 

 caused them, when observed at a distance with the 

 upper part of the body out of the water, to be mis- 

 taken for the human form. In this way not a few 

 stories of mermaids have arisen, and it is not at all 

 improbable, says Scoresby, that the walrus has 

 afforded foundation for others, equally wonderful. I 

 have seen a sea-cow, in such a position that it 

 required little imagination to mistake it for the 

 human being, in fact, the surgeon of the ship actually 

 reported it as a man swimming with his head out of 



