HARD WICKE ' S S CIE NCE - G SSI P. 



81 



GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOPICS. 

 By W. Mattieu Williams, F.R.A.S., F.C.S. 



THE DELIGHTS OF RESEARCH.— The 

 vulgar notion that scientific men are all 

 " theorists " is best refuted by referring the subject 

 of such delusion to a monograph by a specialist in 

 any branch of natural history. This will show with 

 what an immense amount of labour the details of 

 science are obtained. A treatise recently published 

 in Belgium on the anatomy of one species of nettle 

 (" Recherches anatomiques sur les Organes vegetatifs 

 de VUrtica dioica, L.," by A. Gravis, Brussels), which 

 covers 250 pages, with twenty-three plates, and 

 describes results obtained by means of 15,000 sections 

 of this one plant, supplies a very good example. To 

 an outsider, one of the self-styled "practical " people, 

 who have never investigated anything thoroughly, 

 such work appears miserably slow and wearisome. 

 In jumping to this conclusion these people are very 

 dreamy theorists indeed ; for, as a matter of practical 

 fact, no occupation is more exciting, more sensa- 

 tionally engrossing and enjoyable than a thoroughly 

 penetrating research into the minute details of anything 

 in Nature. The mere slayer of birds and quadrupeds, 

 the man who strides on a horse and runs after a fox 

 until some dogs kill it, and goes over the same routine 

 of shooting and following again and again and again, 

 is really a weary plodder, who leads a miserably slow 

 life compared with that of the investigating natu- 

 ralist. It is true that the brain must be trained to a 

 very different condition from that of the sportsman 

 before the greater excitement of the chase after truth 

 can be enjoyed, just as the muscles of the thighs must 

 be trained to enable the rider to grip his horse. 



Crystallization and the Coagulation of 

 Blood. — If water that has been well boiled to expel 

 the air from it be placed in a smooth glass vessel, 

 and cooled down without agitation, it may be brought 

 many degrees below the freezing-point before any 

 freezing commences ; but if while in this condition a 

 grain of sand, a minute bubble of air, or a particle of 

 ice be dropped into it, crystals of ice suddenly start 

 from the nucleus thus introduced, and the whole 

 rises to freezing-point. Sulphate of soda (Glauber's 

 salt) is very soluble in hot water — curiously so, as at 

 32° Fahrenheit water will only dissolve about ten 

 per cent, of the crystals; at 91° they are soluble in 

 the water they themselves contain ; at higher tempe- 

 ratures their solubility decreases. If a saturated 

 solution be made in boiling water, and the air be 

 well boiled out, it may cool down nearly to the 

 freezing-point without re-crystallizing, provided the 

 bottle containing it is kept closed ; but directly air is 

 admitted, a sudden crystallization of the contents of 

 the bottle takes place ; they magically change from 

 the liquid to a semi-solid condition. The experiment 

 is very striking. 



I am reminded of these experiments by some recent 

 researches on the coagulation of the blood, which 

 show that if it be poured when fresh into a smooth 

 greased vessel it does not coagulate. It may stand 

 thus for several days, provided no dust or other 

 points are presented to it. It may be stirred with an 

 oiled glass rod without coagulation, but if the rod be 

 dry coagulation is started by it. Other experiments 

 show curious analogies between coagulation of blood, 

 i.e. the formation of fibrin, and crystallization. It 

 must not however be inferred that coagulation is 

 actual crystallization — that the fibrin threads are 

 crystals, but that the act of solidification is in both 

 cases subject to similar conditions. 



Another Application of Photography. — 

 It is well known to those interested that the issue of 

 non-transferable season-tickets to exhibitions, rail- 

 ways, etc., is liable to be abused by unscrupulous 

 holders. This is especially the case in exhibitions. 

 At the recent Hungarian Exhibition of the resources 

 of that country, a simple device for the prevention of 

 transfer was adopted. The tickets were of leather ; 

 on one side was the name of the holder, and on the 

 other his photograph, stamped by the exhibition 

 authorities. 



Minerals in Hungary. — I learn further from 

 Mr. Bennett H. Brough's account of this exhibition, 

 that, in spite of what we hear concerning the terri- 

 torial power of the Magyar aristocracy of that 

 country, all mineral deposits of technical value are 

 the property of the crown, and that "royalties" 

 there really are what their name and common sense 

 and justice indicate. The minerals of Hungary thus 

 belong to the Hungarian nation. I will say no more 

 concerning what becomes of the vast amount of taxes 

 we pay upon all our coal, our ironstone, and all other 

 minerals in this country. I can name collieries 

 where as much as is. 6d. per ton has been paid for 

 the privilege of working the coal. If I say more my 

 gossip will become political. 



Arbor-Day. — The great prairies of Western 

 America, in spite of the fertility of their soil, are 

 barely habitable until planted with trees, on account 

 of the meteorological violences of all kinds to which 

 the vast seas of treeless, shoreless verdure are subject 

 in their naked state. The early settlers protected » 

 themselves to some extent by planting little groves of 

 cotton-wood and other quick-growing trees around 

 their cabins, but still their cattle suffered severely 

 from "blizzards," sirocco blasts, and other storms. 

 Governor Morton, of Nebraska, struggled with the 

 problem of widely extending such plantations, and 

 finally hit upon a very successful expedient, viz. that 

 of making the 1st of May a general holiday, on which 

 all good citizens should make excursions and plant 

 trees, with festal accompaniments, as cheerful as 



