696 



NA TURE 



{Oct. 31, 1878 



tlie latter, then the punctures are, no doubt, true stings ; and I 

 make the alternative suggestion that the wasp is guided by its 

 instinct — as the larva of the ichneumon is when feeding — to 

 select for attack parts of its victim not vital, where the injected 

 acid produces insensibility or partial muscular paralysis, but not 

 death. Because in the rare cases in which a wasp or bee 

 struggling in a spider's web succeeds in stinging his captor, in 

 anger and at random, the spider dies. May the observation 

 made in your columns by a recent correspondent, on the self- 

 administration, through the month, of the poison of the sting by 

 wasps and bees under chloroform not point to a stupefying 

 property in the acid when taken, as the natives of India take 

 the poison of venomous snakes, into the stomach, and not 

 directly into the circulation of the blood ? There is good work 

 here for an observer with patience and a good field microscope. 

 Bregner, Bournemouth, October 19 Henry Cecil 



A Fossil Plant — Misquotation 



In an article on a fossil plant from the Isle of Man, in 

 Nature, vol. xviii. p. 555, the following sentence is attributed, 

 apparently on the authority of Mr. Leo Lesquereux, to my report 

 on the Devonian and upper silurian plants of Canada: "that 

 these fragments are probably originating in the upper silurian of 

 Gaspe ; that as they are found in the lower part of the limestone 

 which underlies the Devonian Gaspe sandstone and become 

 more abundant in the upper beds, this suffices to indicate the 

 existence of the neighbouring land, probably composed of 

 Silurian rocks and supporting vegetation." 



On referring to the report in question, I find that the original 

 of this strange statement stands as follows : — 

 . " These remains of Psilophyton occur in the lower part of the 

 limestone, but are moie abundant in the upper beds, and they 

 suffice to indicate the existence of neighbouring land, probably 

 composed of lower silurian rocks, and supporting vegetation." 

 , I have no doubt that Mr. Lesquereux quoted from memory, 

 and probably supposed that he was expressing my meaning, but 

 an'English writer should have referred to the original. 



I may add that the specimen referred to in Mr. Binney's 

 article does not exhibit the characters of my genus Psilophyton, 

 which does not contain "fucoids," but land plants of the rank 

 of acrogens, and of which not merely the external forms, but 

 also the internal structures are described and figured in the 

 report referred to. The plant in question much more closely 

 resembles Buthotlephis harknessii, Nicholson, from the Skiddaw 

 slates. J. W. Dawson 



McGill College, Montreal, October 5 



Sense of Fear in Chamseleons 



During the past summer I have kept five chamaeleons in 

 captivity, and have repeatedly observed their terror and rage 

 when confronted with snakes. When a large Algerian chamaeleon 

 (C. vulgaris), now^ in my possession, perceives a common snake 

 (Tropidonotus tiairix) wriggling in his vicinity, he at once 

 inflates his body and pouch, sways himself backwards and 

 forwards with considerable energy, or walks rapidly away with 

 his body leaning over in the direction furthest from the snake, 

 opening his huge cavernous mouth, and hissing and even snapping 

 at what he evidently regards as his natural enemy. At the 

 same time his body assumes an almost instantaneous change of 

 colour, and is quickly covered with a large number of small dark 

 brown spots. It is curious that similar symptoms of fear and 

 anger are displayediwhea a lizard {Lacerta viridis), or even a tree- 

 fi'og {Hyla arborea) is exhibited to him. The climax of grotesque 

 nervousness was, however, reached one day, when the sight of a 

 child's doll produced the like effect ; in this case, it is probable 

 that the glass eyes of the doll, giving to it the appearance of 

 life, were what caused this terror in the reptile. 



R. Morton Middleton, Jun. 



West Hartlepool, October 23 



An Unusual Rainbow 



October 28 was a fine day with a brisk westerly wind blowing. 

 At 2 P.M. a splendid well-defined nimbus cloud passed firom north- 

 west to north-east, about a mile to the north of this observatory, 

 and rapidly driving away before the wind, left a large tract of 

 cloudless sky behind it, the sun shining at the time. Suddenly at 

 2.12 P.M. a magnificent rainbow shone out most brilliantly across 



the blue space, the effect being exceedingly novel and charming. 

 The veil of rain-drops forming the bow was so thin as to be 

 invisible except near the zenith, where there appeared to be a 

 thin cirrus. No rain fell on the observatory, and unfortunately 

 there were no means of determining subsequently the area 

 covered by the shower. 



Eventually the rainbow faded away over the cloudless sky, 

 and the 30° or so of the extreme eastern end which overlapped 

 the receding nimbus shone out with a vivid brightness until it 

 disappeared. 



A secondary bow was not visible in ''ront of the clear sky, but 

 the violet band of the primary stood on: with great distinctness, 

 apparently separated from the remainder of the bow. 



Kew Observatory, October 29 G. M. Whipple 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



A Missing Star. — There was a curious, and at 

 the time suspicious, history attaching to an object, 

 shining as a star of 9T0 magnitude, which was compared 

 on several nights with the minor planet Hygeia, while 

 under observation at Washington in the autumn of 1850. 

 This star, which was designated ;^ in a list published in 

 Gould's journal, was missed by Mr. Hind, who reported 

 the circumstance in a letter to Mr, W. C. I3ond, of Har- 

 vard College, by whom the attention of Lieut. Maury, at 

 that time superintendent of the Naval Observatory, 

 Washington, was called to it. Mr. Ferguson having 

 verified the disappearance of this object on August 29, 

 1 85 1, a search was made for it on the assumption of it 

 being a great planet exterior to Neptune ; the reason for 

 this assumption will be apparent from an inspection of 

 the following positions, which result from the obserrations 

 on three evenings : — 



1850. 



Washington 

 Mean Time, 

 .h. m. s. 



Oct. 16 ... 6 52 36 

 „ 21 ... 7 6 40 



„ 22 ... 6 35 35 



Declination. 



Right Ascension, 



h. m. s. o ' // 



19 17 42*81 ... -20 44 57*1 



19 17 42-19 ... -20 44 55-5 



19 17 43-90 ... -20 44 54-6 



It was also observed on the 19th, but the accurate posi- 

 tions of the stars of comparison are not available. These 

 observations appear to indicate that the object had 

 motion in R.A., but that it was stationary at some time 

 between October i6 and 22, and if we suppose it to have 

 been a planet moving in a circular orbit, we find to allow 

 of its being stationary at this elongation from the sun, 

 its distance would be 49'94., and its period of revolution 

 351 years, or about twice the period of Neptune, and the 

 period of Neptune is about twice that of Uranus. Not- 

 withstanding the search was continued from August 29 to 

 December 11, 1851, and extended to all stars of the 

 eleventh magnitude between igh. 20m. and I9h. 36m., and 

 from - 19° to - 21° 20', no planetary body was found. 

 That the Washington observers considered suspicion to 

 attach to the object is obvious, but the only likely ex- 

 planation appears to be that there was a variable star in 

 this position, and that the observations in right ascension 

 were affected with greater error than might be expected, 

 considering that on two of the days of observation 

 several comparisons were made. To our knowledge 

 search was also made in Europe for the Washington 

 star. Further particulars will be found in tw'o letters 

 from Maury, published in Gould' s Astronotnical Journal, 

 No. 36. 



The Saturnian Satellite Mimas.— From some 

 Washington observations of this difficult object between 

 the years 1874 and 1877, it appears that the following 

 elements may be taken as approximately representing the 

 motion of the satellite in the interval on the assumption 

 of a circular orbit in the plane of the rings ; epoch 1878, 

 January 10207 G.M.T., « = 0° o', N = 126° iK'l, 

 1=7° 3'-2, radius of orbit at the mean distance of 

 Saturn 27'''-4o, period of revolution 22h. 37m. 5 "6 14s., or 

 the logarithm of the period in days = 9-9742473. The- 



