,«,, OBSERVATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE. 719 



lost, and the Text-book type of Museum, with little exhibited l)Ut that little in 

 perfect order, to the great disadvantage of the latter. Now, that article was 

 certainly entertaining and contained a few pointed truths, but at the same time 

 its bearing is not quite clear. 



No museum yet built can possibly e.xhibit every specimen it contains, or ought 

 to contain ; and no rational zoologist, when he visits a foreign museum, expects to 

 see all the individuals of his particular group set out (in dust or otherwise) under 

 glass cases. Selection is a necessity, and this being so, it may as well be done on 

 the best principles, and with the intention of interesting or instructing the majority 

 of visitors to the museum, by whom, in many cases, and not by the " poor zoologist," 

 the museum is, in fact, supported. As for the specialist, surely it is more to his 

 convenience that the collection he wishes to examine should be kept in drawers, in 

 perfect order and not dusty, so that the specimens can at once be taken out without 

 disarranging the show-cases, and without giving more than five minutes' trouble to 

 an attendant. Even when specimens are set out under glass, it appears, from the 

 article in question, that the visitor must have the cases unlocked to be able to see 

 them. Were the specimens in drawers and properly catalogued they could be found 

 in less tme than the unaided visitor would take to find them in his walk round. 

 The article was obviously written by one who had suffered ; let me remind him that 

 the specialist visitors to a museum are in a very great minority, and let me suggest 

 that next time he purposes visiting a museum with only one curator he should write 

 and make arrangements beforehand. F. A. Bather. 



The Parasites of Cut Corks. 



I SHALL be extremely grateful if some reader will kindly inform me what para- 

 sites, including fungi (if any), specially attack and destroy cut corks, as used, for 

 example, in the manufacture of floats for fishing nets, for life-belts, and life-buoys, 

 of course often immersed for long periods in fresh and in salt waters. 



Many of these life-saving appliances are covered with painted ccarse canvas. 



The cork floats of fishing nets, with the nets, are boiled together in a solution of 

 oak bark at intervals of about every three weeks. Other fishermen use catechu, tar, 

 tannin, &c., and in Japan the unripe juice of persimmons {Diospynis virginiana). 



I am not aware that these corks are usually superficially waterproofed, for which 

 process I am anxious to learn what materials are best suited. It is evident that such 

 waterproof materials should be as light as possible, having a specific gravity less 

 than that of fresh water, so as not to diminish the buoyancy of the cork used. 



Both the Board of Trade and the Lifeboat Institution rec mmend that only 

 solid cork should be employed for this work in the rescue of the drowning. 



I should be further indebted for a complete list of aquatic animals and plants 

 which attack corks long immersed or sunk in salt water and in fresh water. 



I am also anxious to obtain specimens of old or " rotten " corks which have lost 

 their powers of buoyancy in salt water, especially any which may sink more or less 

 in water, with a view to exhibit these at the Royal Cornish Fisheries, (1893) 

 Exhibition, of which' I am one of the vice-presidents. 



J. Lawrence Hamilton, M.R.C.S. 



30 Sussex Square, Brighton. 



Second Wind. 



Second wind is due to the power of the respiratory centre to suddenly adapt 

 itself to modified or changed circumstances and conditions. The respiratory centre 

 is the nervous mechanism which presides over and guides the movements of 

 respiration It is acted upon or influenced by stimuli reaching it from the respiratory 

 muscles, the lung substance, and the blood circulating in and around the respiratory 

 centre in the iiieiulLi oblongatu (or the basal portion of the brain, which adjoins the 

 spinal cord). 



Any alteration in the composition of the blood will naturally react upon 



