GLEANINGS. 229 



De. Peescott Joule lias been granted a CiYil List Pension of £200 

 per anniun. 



ToEKSHiEE College, Leeds. — The late Mr. Henry Brcmi, J.P., 

 formerly of Bradford, has bequeathed to the College £5,000, for founding 

 and maintaining scholarships. 



A Natural Histoey Museum is to be erected at Bolton. The founda- 

 tion stone was laid eaiiy in July. 



Dlvtohaceous MATEELiL. — Hai'dii'icke's Science Gossip announces that 

 Mr. Clark, the Secretary of the San Francisco Microscopical Society, is 

 now enabled, by the kindness of the State Geological Survej% to offer 

 return exchanges of the Pacific Coast diatoraaceous deposits on receipt 

 of any valuable microscopical material. 



Sciexce axd Aet Depaetmext. — Messrs. Chapman and Hall have just 

 pubhshed for the Department, in one volume, a selection of the Free 

 Evening Lectures, deUvered in connection with the Scientific Apparatus 

 Loan Collection, in 1876. Among these, as of local interest, we note Mr. 

 Han-ison's lectui-e " On the Study of Local Geologj', with Illustrations 

 from Leicestershire." There are also good papers by the Earl of Eosse, 

 Professors Eoscoe, TjTidall, Gladstone, Hull, Spottiswoode, <fcc. 



Dipping Tube. — We desire to draw attention to a useful form of glass 

 dipping tube, which can be obtained of IMr. Bolton, 17, Ann Street, 

 Birmingham, for sixpence. It has a funnel top, on which some thin 

 indiaiiibber is tied. There is a small hole in the side of the tube, which 

 can be closed at '^vill by one finger, when a slight touch of the stretched 

 indiarubber cover of the funnel by another finger will, as may be desired, 

 di-aw up or force out a column of water. The microscopist will find that 

 under a dissecting microscope, with the help of this tube, he can readily 

 pick out very minute and hvely Infusoria, &c., for examination. 



ExcuESiox TO THE Bas Boulonnais. — The Geologists' Association 

 has issued the programme of a week's visit (August 5 — 10) to the neigh- 

 bourhood of Calais and Boulogne, there to inspect the eastern termina- 

 tion of our Wealden area, together with the Oohtic, Carboniferous, and 

 Devonian rocks which crojD out from beneath the former beds. The 

 directors are M. E. Pellat, Dr. C. Barrels, and S. E. Pattison, Esq., and 

 it needs httle power of prevision to indicate a most pleasant and 

 instructive week for those members who cross the Channel. England is 

 evidently getting too small for our scientific societies ! 



A PiOiiAN Villa has recently been found dui-ing some excavations at 

 Abinger, Surrey, on the j)i'opei-ty of Mr. T. H. Farrer. The remains at 

 present disclosed consist of a portion of the atrium, or reception hall, 

 with a pavement of small red tessera, more or less worn in parts, and 

 now well seciu'ed fi'om the weather by a thick thatch of straw placed 

 carefully over it ; an ax^artment to the north-east of this, measimng lift, 

 by 6ft., and divided from the adjoining ones by well-built walls of stone 

 and brick, another room running eastward, of similar dimensions, and 

 another below this, on the south side, of a squax-e form measui-ing lift. 

 6in. by lift. Beyond, du-ectly eastward, as well as southward, are 

 indications of other chambers, but at present Mr. Fan-er has not 

 proceeded further in the excavations. Silver and bronze coins, red and 

 white tesserae, pottery, some pieces Samian, nails attached to portions of 

 roof tiles, &c., have already been met with. 



