9° 



HARDIVICRE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



We are very pleased to notice that the Dover 

 Field Club recognise, in an admirable way, the 

 services of the late Hon. Sec. the Rev. T. Robin- 

 son (who has left the town for the metropolis), by 

 presenting him with a splendid Binocular Micro- 

 scope. Mr. Robinson well deserves it, for he is one 

 of the few men who can " enthusiast " other people. 



Mr. Robert Etheridge jun. F.G.S., is going to 

 Sydney, to occupy the important post of Palaeonto- 

 logist to the School of Mines there. 



A Colonial College and Training Farm (1300 

 acres) has been started at Hollesley Bay, Woodbridge, 

 Suffolk, where young fellows intending Colonial life 

 are being educated for the special purpose. The 

 idea is a capital one, and is being admirably carried 

 out. 



The Centennial International Exhibition will be 

 opened at Melbourne, on August 1st, 1888, to celebrate 

 the founding of the first Australian Colony (New 

 South Wales) in 1788. 



The devastating earthquakes along the mouth of 

 the Rhine valley, and the French and Italian coasts 

 of the Mediterranean, have kept up the public interest 

 in these phenomena. They appear to be connected 

 with Alpine Mountain-building, for Mont Cenis and 

 theLepontine Alps were affected in an intense degree. 

 The French Academy are collecting accurate infor- 

 mation all over the affected area. If they do it as 

 well as Professor Meldola did the " Essex Earth- 

 quake " of 1884, their labour will be of great scientific 

 value. 



We are pleased to receive Mr. W. Collins' No. 16 

 Catalogue of books (mostly second-hand) in Micro- 

 scopy, Natural History, and the [allied sciences. 

 Students will find it a very useful book of reference. 



In the first number of the "Wesley Naturalist" 

 (price 6d. monthly) we are glad to welcome another 

 coadjutor in the field of " Popular Science." The fact 

 that it is edited by the Rev. Dr. Dallinger, the Rev. 

 H. Friend, and others, is a sufficient recommenda- 

 tion that the magazine will have a successful career. 



It is a pardonable vanity for any man to feel he 

 has done good ; and the editor of Science-Gossip 

 never felt this more than after a lecture at Lincoln, 

 in the newly-erected schools of science and art. 

 Dr. Lowe reminded the audience of the course given 

 by the lecturer in Lincoln eight or nine years before, 

 and stated that the scientific interest aroused by 

 those lectures had eventually led to the erection of 

 the building they were then in. The edifice is one 

 of which even Lincoln, with its historically and 

 architecturally famed cathedral, may well be proud. 

 All the newest and best modern appliances for 

 teaching science and art have been adopted. The 

 class-rooms, geological, botanical and physical, as 

 well as the splendid chemical laboratory, are among 



the best we have ever seen ; and it would be a good 

 and a wise thing for committees who are thinking of 

 starting similar schools if they visited those at Lincoln 

 first. It is marvellous how much (and how well done 

 that " much ") has been achieved for the money. To 

 complete the success (as regards the Scientific De- 

 partment) Dr. A. B. Griffiths, F.R.S. (Edin.), an 

 old and valued contributor to Science-Gossip, has 

 been engaged as principal ; and he is throwing all 

 the energy of an enthusiast into his work. No fewer 

 than twenty-six subjects in Theoretical and Practical 

 Science are down in the syllabus to be cheaply 

 taught — in the evening as well as during the day. 

 It made one feel how delightful it would be to be 

 fifteen again, with all the glorious field of study to 

 attack. To nobody in Lincoln is the success of these 

 schools more due than to Mr. R. J. Ward. 



During March Dr. J. E. Taylor, Editor of 

 Science-Gossip, lectured to the Literary and Scien- 

 tific Society at Loughborough, on/' The Lower Forms 

 of Animal Life ; " at the Ipswich Museum, on 

 " Caverns and Underground Rivers," " The Origin 

 of the Sea," and the "Deep Sea Bed and its Inhabi- 

 tants;" at Manningtree, on "The Underground 

 Circulation of Water ; " at Braintree, on " The Origin 

 of Landscape Scenery," " Volcanoes and Earth- 

 quakes," and "The Atmosphere: Its Origin and 

 contents." At the Norwich Church of England 

 Young Men's Society, on "A Naturalist's Holiday in 

 Australia." Most of the lectures were illustrated by 

 the lantern, and by specially prepared slides. 



We are pleased to receive the "Medical Annual" 

 for 1887, (London : Hamilton, Adams, & Co.) edited 

 by Dr. Percy Wilde, to which contributory essays and 

 papers on "Diseases of the Heart," "Syphilis," 

 "Diet," " Rheumatism and Gout," " Spinal Disease," 

 "Ovariotomy," "Diseases of the Eye," "Dental 

 Surgery," &c, are contributed by some of the chief 

 medical writers of the day, forming a " Dictionary of 

 New Treatment in Medicine and Surgery," &c. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Microscopic Queries. — I want to construct an 

 accurate table of the magnifications of my objectives, 

 from 2 in. up to j'g with the various oculars from No. 1 

 to No. 6. The instructions in the Manuals are not 

 precise, and in some particulars are not in harmony. 

 As I have no doubt the information I am requiring 

 will be useful to many besides myself, I will, with 

 the Editor's permission, name the points in the 

 necessary process which 1 should thank some prac- 

 tical brother microscopist to make clear. First, from 

 what point, to what point, along the body, should I 

 measure to arrive at the proper distance from the 

 eye-lens to the drawing-paper? Should I measure 



