i86 



HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



SCIENCE DIRECTORY. 



/GREENOCK Natural History Society. Rooms, 

 KJT Watt Institution, Kelly Street, Greenock. 

 President, Dr. W. J. Marshall ; Hon. Sec, Dr. Ma- 

 rens Calder, 13 Newton Street. Lectures and exhi- 

 bitions during winter and excursions in the summer. 



Haslingdo7i Natural History Society. President, 

 J. J. Rushton ; Hon. Sec, J. Rawcliffe. 



Louth Naturalists'' Society. President, Mr. T. E. 

 Markham ; Vice-President, Mr. A. R. Yeoman, 

 M.A. ; Hon. Sec and Treas., Mr. H. Wallis Kew, 

 F.E.S. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



A movement has been started in Manchester to 

 purchase an annuity for Mr J. B. Dancer, the well- 

 known photographic inventor. Mr. Abel Heywood is 

 honorary secretary. 



The Organising Committee of the British Associa- 

 tion has arranged that a special discussion shall be 

 held on " The Physical and Physiological Theories 

 of Colour- Vision " at the Birmingham meeting in the 

 first week of September. The discussion will be 

 opened by Lord Rayleigh ; Dr. Michael Foster and 

 others will take part in it. 



The friends of the late Dr. Flight, F.R.S., are 

 getting up a fund [for his widow and young children. 

 Mr. L. Fletcher, Natural History Museum, Cromwell 

 Road, S.W., is the hon. treasurer. 



Messrs. George Bell & Sons, 4 York Street, 

 Covent Garden, have just published part 1 of the 

 "London Catalogue of British Plants," eighth edition, 

 price 6d. 



The discovery of the so-called allotropic condition 

 of nitrogen is now denied. 



Cellulose has been found in another animal, a 

 Protozoan Ophrydian. The only animals in which 

 this vegetable substance had previously been found 

 were the Ascidians. 



A writer in the "American Naturalist" gives an 

 account of a swallow which set the broken leg of 

 one of its nestlings, and afterwards carefully bandaged 

 it with horse-hair. 



Mr. J. Jenner Muir has examined the hairy 

 people exhibiting at the Egyptian Hall, and terms 

 them cases of hypertrichosis. The man is covered all 

 over with hair several inches long. 



The Geologists' Asociation had a whole day's ex- 

 cursion to the Maidstone district on July 10, in con- 

 junction with the Maidstone and Mid-Kent Natural 

 History Society. The long excursion of the Associa- 

 tion will this year be to Northumberland, and last 

 from August 2 to August 7. 



In the city of Kimberley, South Africa (which is 

 lighted by electricity), the electric current is utilised 

 to kill the abundant stray dogs. 



The Life of Darwin (with a short autobiography) 

 is announced as nearly ready for publication. 



MICROSCOPY. 



A Method of Using Bismarck Brown. — Car- 

 bolic acid, 15 minims; distilled water, 5 a fluid oz. : 

 dissolve. Add saturated alcoholic solution of 

 Bismarck brown | of a fluid dram ; filter, and keep 

 in a corked or stoppered phial. The carbolic acid 

 must be the strongest crystallised, and must be 

 diluted in the usual proportion of one part distilled 

 water to twenty parts of the crystallised acid. This 

 method is an adaptation of a solution of fuchsin 

 recommended by Gradle (" Amer. Monthly Micro. 

 Journal," vol. v. p. 76), Bismarck brown taking the 

 place of fuchsin, of which latter dye Gradle employs 

 only i a fluid dram. I find my stain well adapted for 

 bacilli, and it gives excellent results with cells both 

 animal and vegetable. The epithelial cells from the 

 mouth stain in three or four minutes, the nucleus 

 being well brought out. The nuclei in cells from 

 the common plantain (musa) take a distinct red 

 stain, the cell-wall being brownish-red ; sections of 

 leaves and stems also take a red stain for the 

 nucleus ; the chlorophyll granules at first retain their 

 green colour, producing a very nice effect with the 

 I or I objective. If any readers of Science-Gossip 

 give my stain a trial, I shall be glad to learn their 

 opinions on it in subsequent numbers. — IV. J. 

 Sinunons, Calcutta. 



The "Journal of Microscopy" (edited by Mr. 

 A. Allen). — This welcome periodical is as vigorous 

 as ever. The July number contains original papers 

 on "Anagallis arvensis," by R. H. Moore; "The 

 Power of Movement in Plants," by H. W. S. Worsley- 

 Benison ; " Grosse's Classification of the Bird-Lice," 

 or Mallophaga, by Prof. Macloskie ; "On Making 

 Useful Collections of Insects," " The Microscope, and 

 how to Use it," extracts from the Postal Society's 

 note-books, and a host of memoranda. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Abnormal Form of Planorbis vortex.— 

 Distorted forms of this species are sometimes met 

 with in which the whorls are more or less drawn out 

 and separated from each other, the shell assuming a 

 spiral shape, the diameter being increased as each 

 whorl is added ; thus, if it were possible to squeeze the 

 whorls flat, they would fit into each other, and the 

 shell assume something of its usual shape. I took a 



