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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



patients, just incidentally stating that the mountain 

 was situated on his estate, and that he would afford 

 these poor people an opportunity of verifying my 

 description by allowing them to make the ascent for 

 themselves. An attendant then came to take him 

 back to his quarters ; he obeyed, but graciously 

 smiling, pointed to this man and anotherandsaidtome, 

 *.* These are some of my servants, I go with them to 

 see that you are supplied with refreshments." He 

 then gave orders for wines, &c. How many vain 

 and conceited lunatics there are outside the asylum 

 and unrestrained, who in like manner deceive them- 

 selves in their swaggering efforts to impose on others. 



Munchausen Science. — I find the following in 

 "CasselPs Saturday Journal," April 9, 1887, p. 436, 

 under the general heading of " Popular Science." 

 The readers of Hardwicke's Science-Gossip have 

 sufficient knowledge of Natural History to form their 

 own estimate of its veracity : — - 



" A Living Fish Line. — Down amongst the sea- 

 weed stems and pointed rocks you may find a long, 

 black, tangled string, like a giant's leather boot-lace 

 set to soak. Let us trace it in its various folds and 

 twists, and disentangle some of it. We shall then 

 have in hand a tough, slippery, indiarubber-like 

 substance, which might well be pronounced a sea- 

 string, and classed with the long, trailing weeds 

 amongst which we have found it. 



" A sea-string it is, but not a weed ; it is a living 

 lasso, capable of consuming the prey it encircles 

 within its treacherous folds. From twenty to thirty 

 feet is no uncommon length for this artful, animated 

 fishing-line to reach ; but its diameter rarely exceeds 

 an eighth of an inch. It has a mouth, however, 

 capable of considerable distension and holding power. 

 What can appear more innocent than this delicate- 

 looking creeper, trailing here and there as the 

 heaving water swells and flows as the tide comes in? 

 Let an unwary tube-dweller, lulled into a false 

 security, stretch forth its tentacles to meet the 

 welcome wave, and a pointed head encounters them. 

 The mouth effects its tenacious grasp on the yielding 

 tissues, and the tenant of the tube becomes food for 

 the Nermetes Borlasci, for such is the name of this 

 cord-like freebooter. 



"Pick up this strange creature, and it hangs helpless 

 and motionless, a mere velvet string, across the hand. 

 But put it before the fry of the rock-fishes, or into a 

 vase at home, and we shall see that it lies motionless, 

 trailing itself among the gravel. You cannot tell 

 where it begins or ends. It may seem like a strip 

 of dead seaweed, or even appear to be a tarred 

 string. 



" So thinks the little fish that plays over and over it, 

 till it touches at last what is too surely a head. In 

 an instant a bell-shaped sucker-mouth has fastened to 

 its side ; in another instant, from one lip, a concave, 

 double proboscis, just like a tapir's (another instance 



of the repetition of forms), has clasped it like a finger. 

 And now it begins to struggle, but in vain. It is 

 being 'played' with such a fishing-rod as the skill 

 of a Wilson or a Stoddart never could invent ; a 

 living line, with elasticity beyond that of the most 

 delicate fly-rod, which follows every lunge, shortening 

 and lengthening, slipping and twisting round every 

 piece of gravel and stem of seaweed with a tiring 

 drag, such as no Highland wrist or step could ever 

 bring to bear on salmon or trout. The victim is tired 

 now, and slowly, yet dexterously, his blind assailant 

 is feeling and shifting along his side till he reaches 

 one end of him, and then the black lips expand, and 

 slowly and surely the curved finger begins packing 

 him end foremost down into the gullet, where he 

 sinks inch by inch, till the swelling which marks his 

 place is lost among the coils, and he is probably 

 macerated into a pulp long before he has reached the 

 opposite extremity. Once safely down, the black 

 murderer contracts again into a knotted heap, and 

 lies like a boa with a stag inside him, motionless and 

 blest." 



In another number of the same journal is an equally 

 sensational account of "the latest method" of dis- 

 posing of the dead, by electro-plating the corpse. 

 For reasons that I have stated in the last number of 

 " The Gentleman's Magazine," the idea is demonstra- 

 bly impracticable ; to an electro-metallurgist it is 

 an obvious absurdity. It is nevertheless described 

 not as a mere project, but as an actual achievement 

 that is " growing into popular favour." A departed 

 friend or relation is transformed into "a beautiful 

 statue, form, features, and even expression being 

 perfectly preserved," and "no change is brought 

 about in appearance except that face and figure are 

 covered with a shining veil, through which the 

 familiar lineaments appear with all their well-remem- 

 bered characteristics and expression." It is not my 

 wont to be presumptuous, but in this case I do 

 venture to suggest that for such revelations the 

 general title of Popular Science should be exchanged 

 for that which I have given above. 



The Colours of Animals and Plants. — In 

 the " Proceedings of the Physiological Society" for 

 the current year is a paper by Mr. C. A. MacMunn 

 on Invertebrate Chromatology. Broadly speaking, 

 the sustaining fluid, the blood, of animals is red, while 

 that of vegetables, the chlorophyll, is green. (I note 

 by the way that these colours are complementary, 

 and that the functions of animals and vegetables are 

 similarly related.) When, however, we descend in 

 the animal scale, and thereby approach the vegetable, 

 these contrasts fade, and in some cases the character- 

 istics become exchanged. 



Readers of this magazine whose acquaintance with 

 natural history is more extended than mine, will be 

 able to quote exceptional examples of green-blooded 

 animals and red-blooded vegetables. Delesseria 



