40 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SI P. 



Tasmania. I remember when the retail price in 

 London was sixpence per dozen for the best natives, 

 and fourpence for large common oysters. Large 

 profits were made at these prices. The present price 

 of natives is y. 6d. per dozen. We have tens of 

 thousands of acres of fine oyster ground on the 

 coasts of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, 

 where millions of bushels might be annually raised, 

 if proper means were adopted. All this would be 

 newly created wealth for the nation, in the production 

 of which many thousands would be most healthily 

 employed. Nothing but ignorance and lack of 

 enterprise stands in the way of the development of 

 this most desirable industry. 



The Canals of Mars. — No astronomer has yet 

 succeeded in supplying a satisfactory, or even a 

 plausible explanation of these curious features of this 

 planet. They appear as nearly straight lines, 

 apparently cuttings with perfectly parallel borders 

 stretching across the continents of the planet and 

 reaching from sea to sea. They are about 15 miles 

 wide. We have nothing like them on the earth, nor 

 does the moon present any such phenomena They 

 were first observed by Schiaparelli, whose obser- 

 vations have since been confirmed by M. Perrotin 

 with the great equatorial of the Nice observatory, 

 and further verified by MM. Trepied and Thillon. 



Clean and Dirty Pigs. — The American Consul 

 at Copenhagen has been studying pigs, and has 

 reported some of the results of his investigations 

 One of these is that their powers of mastication are 

 small, so small that if fed with whole corn not more 

 than half of it is available as food, the other half 

 passing away in an undigested form. Therefore all 

 such food for pigs should be boiled or steamed ; or 

 ground or bruised, and well soaked. Roots should 

 be sliced. Peas should be allowed to sprout and be 

 then bruised. A number of other instructions are 

 given which the reader who is practically interested 

 in the subject may find specified in the Journal of 

 the Society of Arts of August 27th, 1866. The 

 following is very interesting. Six pigs of equal 

 weight were fed for seven weeks on an uniform diet. 

 Three of them were daily cleaned with a comb and 

 brush, the other three left in an unclean state. The 

 three clean pigs gained 3olbs more weight than their 

 dirty brethren. In another farm in Denmark, where 

 the pigs were washed daily, there was not a single case 

 of hog disease during three years, although it was 

 very prevalent in the neighbourhood. The Danes 

 are doing well in the pig business. When Jesse 

 Collings's millennium is attained in this country, when 

 every rustic shall have a minimum freehold of three 

 acres and a cow, we shall be independent of Chicago 

 and all other foreign sources of pork and bacon 

 supply, for it is the cottager's pig that enjoys in the 

 highest degree those blessings of civilisation which 



adds 20 per cent, to his final result in bacon-value. 

 I have seen and smelled wholesale pig farms in the 

 suburbs of London that are spectacles of filthy 

 horror, have admired the pigsties of Welsh and 

 Irish cottagers, and have caressed their sleek in- 

 habitants, after witnessing the tubbing and scrubbing 

 so diligently administered to them by the mother of 

 all the family, biped and quadruped. I can now 

 purchase in London, Chicago hams at 6d. to 7d. per lb. 

 retail, but must pay cjd. to iod. for Irish hams, or 

 about one shilling for York hams. All these dearer 

 hams (and they are fully worth the difference of price), 

 are derived from cottagers' pigs, pigs that dwell in 

 clean comfortable homes and live in a condition of 

 personal cleanliness. 



OUR SCIENTIFIC DIRECTORY. 



Alton Microscopical Society: President, Rev. F. 

 Howlett ; Hon. Sec. and Treasurer, Rev. J. Vaughan. 



Chorlcy Microscopical and Natural History Society : 

 President, J. A. Harris, Esq., M.D., Chorley ; Hon. 

 Sec, Richard Gill. 



Harrogate and District Naturalist and Scientific 

 Society: Patron, The Right Hon. Lord Walsingham, 

 M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., etc. (Ex. 

 Pres. Yorkshire Nat. Union) ; President, Mr. Wm. 

 Storer ; Hon. Sec. and Treasurer, Mr. F. R. Fitz- 

 gerald, F.S.Sc, etc., Clifford House, Harrogate. 



Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society. 

 [Meets last Monday in each month in the class-room 

 of the Free Public Library, Liverpool.] President, 

 S. J. Capper, F.L.S. ; Hon. Secretary, John W. 

 Ellis, L.R.C.P., F.E.S., 3 Brougham Terrace, 

 Liverpool. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



We understand that Mr. S. H. Yines is entirely 

 recasting and almost entirely rewriting his edition of 

 Professor Prantl's "Elementary Text Book of 

 Botany," and that his new work may be expected 

 from Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. in the course 

 of this year. In the meantime the publishers are 

 reissuing the existing book without alteration. 



The churches are rousing themselves to the value 

 of scientific knowledge. A Society has been formed 

 for the purpose of promoting intercourse among 

 Wesleyan students of science. The basis and objects 

 of the Society are not denominational, its intention 

 being purely to bring into association with one 

 another those members of the Wesleyan Church who 

 are interested in scientific studies ; hence it will be 

 worked mainly by those who are attached to that 

 church. The chief objects of the Society will be 



