HARD WICKE ' S S C/E NCE-GO SSI P. 



257 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Professor Mendeniiall, in a paper read before 

 the American Association for the Promotion of 

 Science, analyses the style of authors by counting 

 the number of words of different lengths employed 

 by them. Different writers employ a style of remark- 

 able uniformity in the general average of words of 

 different lengths they use. By counting and tabulating 

 the number of letters in a thousand or ten thousand 

 words in Dickens, Thackeray, Stuart Mill, and others, 

 Professor Mendeniiall found it possible to represent 

 the results in a characteristic curve for each author, 

 each curve differing from the other. lie proposed 

 to apply his scheme to deciding the authorship of 

 Shakespere — if anybody wants to decide it. The 

 prose and the poetry of the same author are found to 

 contain words of the same average length. Doubters 

 can settle the question of Bacon v. Shakespere for 

 ever on Professor Mendenhall's system at a cost of a 

 couple of hundred pounds. 



Admiral Bedford Pim, well known in connec- 

 tion with Arctic explorations, etc., is dead. 



The North American earthquakes have more or 

 less continued through the month. Shocks have been 

 felt in central Germany and in the Shetland Islands. 

 A hill in Mexico is said to have been riven in twain. 

 A volcanic eruption has occurred in one of the islands 

 of the Tonga group. 



Atropin is stated to be an antidote to fungus 

 poisoning. 



ON the 27th of October, Dr. J. E. Taylor, F.L.S., 

 delivered a public lecture, before the members and 

 friends of the Bolton Microscopical Society, on 

 "Flowers and Fruits ; their Relation to Insects and 

 Birds." 



A FEW days ago Salzburg witnessed a singular 

 sight. From two to four o'clock in the afternoon an 

 immense train of butterflies passed over the city from 

 north-east towards south-west. They flew at a con- 

 siderable height, mostly in groups, and must have 

 amounted to millions. The groups seemed, as they 

 went on in the common direction, to revolve also 

 round the line of direction as an axis. 



The "Youth Scientific and Literary Society," 

 whose headquarters are at the Tolmer's Square 

 Institute, Drummond Street, London, N.W., con- 

 tinues in a prosperous state. Its official organ is 

 "Youth," in which, during the past year, no fewer 

 than twenty-two papers have appeared, besides 

 others in the " Garner," etc. We are pleased to 

 draw attention to the good work that is being done 

 by this society. 



Mr. W. Marshall Watts is bringing out a new 

 and enlarged edition of his "School Flora," and he 



appeals to all gentlemen engaged in teaching botany 

 at the most important schools to help him by 

 furnishing lists of the less common plants of their 

 neighbourhoods. 



We are pleased to see that the movement which is 

 on foot in Norwich, to present Mr. T. G. Bayfield 

 with a substantial testimonial, is progressing in such a 

 way as to do honour to the old city. Mr. Bayfield 

 has been for nearly fifty years one of the most inde- 

 fatigable and modest of local scientific workers, and 

 has exercised an enormous influence for good on the 

 young men of the district. The Norwich Science- 

 Gossip Club has voted 20 guineas, besides the dona- 

 tions of individual members. 



Part eight of Mr. J. J. Harris Teall's valuable 

 'work on " Petrology " has been issued. It continues 

 the minerals of the Serpentine rocks. The plates are 

 those of Olivine-Hornblende-Serpentine, Plagioclase- 

 Augite-Olivine-Mica rock, and Plagioclase-Olivine- 

 Augite rock. It seems a pity more euphonious 

 terms cannot be employed to correctly designate 

 these mineral varieties of rock composition and 

 structure. 



The annual exhibition, in all branches of natural 

 history, of the South London Entomological Society, 

 will be held at the " Bridge House Hotel," London 

 Bridge, S.E., on Thursday, November 25th, next. 

 The committee will welcome exhibits from others, 

 as well as from members of the society. Communi- 

 cations to be addressed to the Exhibition Committee, 

 S. L. E. and N. H. Society, 1 Denman Street, S.E. 



There is a good as well as a bad side to every- 

 thing. Nitro-glycerine is stated to be useful in 

 heart-disease, especially where there is no serious 

 organical disease or change. 



Mr. F. J. Britten has just issued a sixth edition 

 of his " Watch and Clockmakers' Handbook," the 

 fifth edition of which we noticed in May 1884. For 

 this new edition some fresh drawings have been 

 made, and descriptions of new tools and recent 

 horological inventions added, whilst lists of German 

 and French technical terms are given in an Appendix. 



We are sorry to hear that Professor Sir Henry 

 Roscoe is about to resign his position at Owens Col- 

 lege, Manchester. If this is because of Sir Henry's 

 parliamentary engagements, we are all the more sorry, 

 for it is much more important he should retain his 

 connection with chemical teaching than that he 

 should sink and be lost among the crowd of unknown 

 talkers now sent to the House of Commons. 



Mr. Clement L. Wragge now resides near 

 Adelaide, South Australia ; and he has made over 

 his capital collection of ethnological and natural his- 

 tory objects to the town of Stafford, where it will 

 be henceforth known as the " Wragge Museum." 



