226 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



who have specially studied the subject, and raised 

 seismology to the rank of a special science, find that 

 the best protection for their houses is to rest the 

 foundations on iron shot laid upon a flat sub-founda- 

 tion. I suspect that our gravel, especially that which 

 contains the largest proportion of rolled pebbles, may 

 act to some extent like the stratum of shot under the 

 protected houses of Tokio. 



Photographs of the Corona. — Many of my 

 readers are doubtless aware that Dr. Huggins has 

 been struggling with the difficult problem of obtain- 

 ing photographs of the corona by means of what 

 may be described as an artificial eclipse. He has 

 obtained some faint pictures of rather equivocal 

 character. In order to test the disputed question 

 of whether they are really reliable pictures of the 

 corona, Captain Darwin has, during the recent 

 Grenada eclipse, taken special photographs of the 

 corona (as displayed by the eclipse and com- 

 panion pictures by Dr. Huggins's device in order 

 to compare them. As the form of the corona, its 

 rifts, and partial extensions are now proved to 

 be very variable, such comparison can only be 

 made between pictures taken simultaneously, or as 

 nearly so as the circumstances permit. Let us hope 

 that the result will be satisfactory, and that Dr. 

 Huggins will be encouraged thereby to apply his 

 well proven skill and perseverance, to the further 

 development of another of his most ^valuable con- 

 tributions towards solving the grand problems which 

 solar phenomena present to the minds of thinking 

 men. 



Prehistoric Man.— Another discovery has been 

 made in one of the Tremeirchion caves (near St. 

 Asaph, North Wales), which supplies further de- 

 monstration of the great antiquity of man. A small, 

 but well-worked flint flake was dug up, in the 

 presence of Dr. Hicks and Mr. G. II. Morton. It 

 was in the bone earth associated with teeth of hyena 

 and reindeer, with fragments of bone and teeth of 

 rhinoceros, and a fragment of mammoth's tooth. 

 The date of this deposit is demonstrably anterior to 

 that great submergence which is indicated by various 

 deposits of sea-sand and marine shells at high levels, 

 /pockets of which remain in places protected from the 

 subsequent denudation. The sands of Moel Tryfaen, 

 on the south side of the Menai Straits, at an elevation 

 of 1360 feet above present sea level, present a notable 

 example. Fifty-seven species of marine mollusca 

 have been identified there, all Northern, some of 

 them Arctic. They are associated with vestiges of 

 ancient glaciation. 



Thus the men and animals of the Tremeirchion 

 caverns must have lived when North Wales was at 

 about the same elevation above the sea as at present ; 

 then came a sinking of 1369 feet, reducing North 

 Wales to a group of rocky islets ; then a long period 



during which 34 feet depth of shelly sand and grave 

 was deposited at Moel Tryfaen ; then the re-elevation, 

 to present level. In the meantime the whole 

 country was overspread with ice, for everywhere 

 around moraine matter and general debris of glaciers- 

 are to be found. The man, the mammoth, the hyena, 

 reindeer, and rhinoceros were probably driven south- 

 ward as the ice advanced, the same ice sweeping 

 away all vestiges of previous life, save those deposited 

 in caves and hollows. 



A Male Nurse. — The emu appears to be curi- 

 ously exceptional, as regards domestic division of 

 labour. Mr. Alfred Bennett, who has studied the 

 habits of these birds, states that the hen begins 

 laying about the end of October, or beginning of 

 November, and in about six weeks completes the 

 brood of twenty or more eggs. In the meantime the 

 cock begins to sit, and the eggs subsequently laid are- 

 deposited at his side by the hen, he then stretches 

 forth his foot and draws them under him. He not 

 only hatches the eggs, and does all the subsequent 

 nursing, but has to thrash his wife continually, as she 

 attacks him furiously, and would apparently kill the 

 chicks if she could get at them. 



In the "Italian Archives of Biology" (vol. vi. 

 Rome, February, 1866), the results of the researches 

 of C. Tomassi-Crudeli are published. One of these 

 decidedly contradicts our usually received notion 

 concerning the effect of artificial drainage and recla- 

 mation of marshes, such as those of Ostia and 

 Maccaresa. Crudeli asserts that it would increase 

 greatly the malaria of these regions, and that the 

 hygrometric condition of the subsoil would probably 

 render this increase persistent. He believes that 

 malaria is produced on the earth, not on the water. 

 He finds that while a malarious district is fairly 

 covered with a sheet of water, the malaria is abated 

 or destroyed, and that marshes permanently covered 

 with water are not malarious. I have walked across- 

 the Maremma of Tuscany (on the post-road that 

 passes through), when it was well covered with water,, 

 and in like manner across the Pontine Marshes,, 

 when they were partially covered. Both were then 

 reputed to be safe by the people resident there, but 

 there was something else beside the water to account 

 for this. It was in winter-time, and this is the- 

 season when such marshes are usually covered with 

 water. I suppose that Sig. Crudeli has taken this- 

 into consideration. 



Solution and Chemical Affinity.— Some 

 interesting papers have been read to the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh by W. Durham on this subject. 

 He explains solution to be due to the affinities of the 

 constituent elements of the body dissolved for the 

 constituent elements of the solvent. Thus chloride 

 of sodium, he says, dissolves in water because of ther 



