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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



and parasitic organisms, and we accordingly find 

 it crowded with infusorial, monadinic, and schizo- 

 mycete forms. Among the latter curved forms are 

 frequently and, under certain conditions, apparently 

 normally present in very large numbers." In his 

 memoir, Dr. Cunningham goes on to show how 

 " comma bacilli " can be obtained with certainty, 

 and in large quantity, by taking a mass of this scum, 

 and introducing it into ajar of water. The Euglenre 

 die off, and a scum accumulates composed of their 

 bodies, empty cysts and stems, sometimes to the 

 depth of a quarter of an inch ; curved schizomycetes 

 precisely resembling those found in choleraic media 

 in their morphological characters crowd the under 

 surface of the scum. In two cases Dr. Cunningham 

 succeeded in developing distinct commas in cultiva- 

 tions where the scum material was used with feebly 

 alkaline agar-agar jelly. — IV. y. Simmons, Calcutta. 



An Additional Suggestion on the Origin 

 of Species. — At a recent meeting of the Linnean 

 Society Dr. G. J. Romanes read a paper " On 

 Physiological Selection : an Additional Suggestion 

 on the Origin of Species." The author contended 

 that the theory of natural selection has been misnamed 

 a theory of the origin of species. It is, in truth, a 

 theory of the origin of adaptive structures, and, if 

 unassisted by any other principle, could not effect the 

 evolution of species. The only other principle that 

 could here assist natural selections would be one that 

 might mitigate the swamping effects of intercrossing. 

 This may be done by geographical barriers shutting 

 off a portion of a species from the rest, and allowing 

 that portion to develop an independent course of 

 varietal history without intercrossing with the parent 

 form. It may also be done by portions of species 

 migrating, changing habitual stations, etc. But it may 

 also be done by what the author calls physiological 

 selection, or in virtue of a variation taking place in 

 the reproductive system in the direction of sterility 

 (whether absolute or partial) with the parent form, 

 without impairment of fertility within the varietal 

 form. For instance, the season of flowering or of 

 pairing may be either advanced or retarded in a 

 portion of a species, when all the individuals in that 

 portion (or new variety) would be absolutely sterile 

 towards the rest of the species, while completely 

 fertile among themselves. They would thus start on 

 an independent course of variated history. 



Erratum : p. 123, line 2 from bottom of 2nd col., 

 for " 10," read " 1." Arion ater var. cinerea (p. 142) : 

 Abdomine fasciis tribus atris, body with three black 

 bands ; lateribus pallidis sesquipollicdris, with the sides 

 pale for the space of an inch and a half. — T. D. A. C. 



Albino Immature Herring-Gull. — I have a 

 fine specimen of the herring -gull, in its first year, 

 which is white. This bird was shot in September 

 1884, on the Filey beach, and was then in company 



with several others of its own species, and to all 

 appearance of the same age. There has once and 

 again been seen about the breeding haunts, a few 

 miles from this place, a white guillemot. But the 

 oldest fisherman here does not remember having 

 before seen the same freak of nature in the herring- 

 gull. I am sending a photo of the gull to the curator 

 of the South Kensington Museum. — yoshua Fountain. 



Clathrulina elegans in Lancashire. — On 

 the 19th December, 1SS5, I found in a pond within 

 a mile of Ashton-under-Lyne Clathrulina elegans, a 

 freshwater radiolarian described in the 188 1 edition 

 of Carpenter's " Microscope." I have been unable 

 to find any previous record of its discovery in 

 England. Mr. Archer recorded it in 1869 for 

 Ireland and Wales, and it had previously been noted 

 on the Continent. Dr. Leidy, in his "Freshwater 

 Rhizopods of North America," describes it and gives 

 some excellent plates from specimens found by him 

 in the United States. Recently Mr. Whitelegge, a 

 well-known naturalist from this locality, has dis- 

 covered it in Australia. Its resemblance to some 

 forms of Polycystina is very striking. The first 

 specimen of Clathrulina I met with consisted of four 

 individuals attached to each other. No sarcode was 

 visible, but each capsule contained a cyst-like object. 

 Although I carefully searched many gatherings from 

 the same pond, I did not again meet with it until 

 May 15th, when in some material from another 

 pond I found two dead capsules. On the 22nd May, 

 in another pond (about four miles distant from the 

 pond where I found the first specimen, and five 

 from the second), I discovered the living object. 

 This specimen was solitary and attached to a stem, 

 the pseudopodia streaming through the apertures in 

 all directions. I have only found one other living 

 specimen. The last gathering contained many 

 capsules, 'some empty and solitary, others containing 

 cysts, mostly detached from the stems. I have 

 mounted one specimen containing six cysts, which 

 can be seen quite distinctly within the capsule. 

 Another contains five. The colour of these cysts is 

 a decided brown. Other capsules from the same 

 gathering were found attached to each other. I am 

 indebted to my friend Mr. Chaffers, of Manchester, 

 for the accompanying drawing of a group of four, 

 which illustrates beautifully the appearance of one 

 specimen of the dead object. — William Moss, Ashton- 

 under-Lyne. 



Mice eating Bitter-sweet Berries. — There 

 is in my garden a "rockery" formed of bog-oak 

 stumps and large stones, over which is trained, to 

 form a screen, a luxuriant plant of the bitter-sweet 

 nightshade (Solanum dulcamara, L.). Every autumn 

 this is covered with a profusion of the beautiful red 

 fruit-clusters, on which I notice in early winter mice 

 feed, clearing the twigs of the berries in a very short 

 time after they first attack them. They have done 



