May 22, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE • 



429 



question. TesstUattim (tessellated), refers to the patches 

 of pale colour on the back of the ileath-watch. In Plimis 

 fur we have a trivial uauie — fur, a thief — eminently con- 

 demnatorv of its possessor, and fully justified by itii 

 destructive habits ; another of the same genus has also 

 been branded with an equally opprobrious epithet — latro, 

 the robber. Both the names of J'lili)iii.s pectinicorm^ 

 refer to the same peculiarity, the comb-like antenniv of the 

 male, the generic name signifying a " feathered creature," 

 and the specitic, " comb-horned." //olokucits (Greek, 

 entirely bright) refers to the uniform silky lustre produced 

 by the golden scales of ^'>j)lits. 



To return to our spider-like trio, the first we have already 



Kig. 1. 



considered ; the second, Jlezium affine (Fig. 1), is even more 

 spider-like than its predecessor. Unlike Niplus, however, 

 it is clothed with hairs only on the head and thorax. Its 

 elytra are perfectly bare, of a chestnut brown colour, bril- 

 liantly shining, and extremely globular, very much like 

 what those of Xiptus would be if denuded of their scales. 

 The head and thorax are covered with yellowish white hairs, 

 so thickly disposed that you might imagine the creature was 

 of an asthmatic temperament, and so needed to protect itself 

 by wrapping its upper regions in a great woollen mnfiler or 

 comforter. 



This is not nearly so common an insect as the last, but it 

 is equally varied in its tastes. An old opera-hat, -which 

 had been laid aside for some time, once nourished a con- 

 siderable colony, and it has also been found inside the 

 carcase of another beetle, the greater part of whose contents 

 its larva had devoured ; the creature had passed through 

 the whole of its changes in these contracted quarters, the 

 larva having formed there a silken cocoon intermixed with 

 particles of its own excrement. 



The third member of our little party is Gibhium, scolias 

 (the hump-backed lover of darkness) (Fig 2). It is much 



Fig. 2. 



like Mezium, but more stumpy, and entirely destitute of 

 hairs, except on its antennae and legs. It looks more like 

 a great mite than a spider, and from its colour and rotundity 

 has been fancifully compared, especially when tucking its 

 legs under its body, to a drop of blood. 



At ^Newcastle this insect has been found in some numbers 

 in a dry cupboard, where, it would seem, they had obtained 

 a comfortable living from the wall-paper and the dried 

 remains of the paste with which it had been hung. This 

 latter is a very favourite repast with several small insects 

 that are pests in natural history collections ; it is well, 

 therefore, to take the precaution to mix a little corrosive 

 sublimate with the paste used in papering the mounting- 

 boards for zoological specimens, thai by being thus poisoned, 

 it may become safe from the attacks of the tiny depredators. 



Gibhium has also been found amongst old hay, and on one 

 occasion a heap of their carcases was discovered amongst a 

 resinous-substance in a vase obtained from a muiimiy at 

 Thebes, but whether they were an original embalmment or 

 a subsoqucut invasion was not very clear. 



(I'o he coiitinxi^d.) 



OVERHKAD ELECTRIC WIRES. 



By W. Slingo. 



MANY, if not the great majority, of the readers of 

 K.NOWLEUCE are aware that for some time past a 

 Select Committee of the House of Commons has been con 

 sidering the law relating to the control over telegraph, 

 telephone, and other wires, with a view to reporting to the 

 House upon the steps, if any, which ought to be taken in 

 the interests of the public. This Committee has issued 

 its report, which is in direct opposition to the draft sub- 

 mitted by the chairman. 



This report, however, bears so very strongly the stamp 

 of a partisan spirit, that it is a matter of impossibility for 

 an uninterested observer to regard it with equanimity. 



In the first place the report says that " the risk of 

 danger from overhead wires has been very greatly exagge- 

 rated." It then proceeds to declare that "the accidents 

 which have been proved in evidence have been few and 

 insignificant." Taking these clauses together, they may 

 fairly be read to mean that as few disasters have resulted 

 from the breakdown of overhead wires, therefore few, if 

 any, are to be apprehended. There is no greater fallacy 

 under the sun than this. Let it be borne in mind that, 

 with the exception of the storm which visited London 

 last March, and which wrecked hundreds (I speak 

 within the margin when I say hundreds) of wires, the 

 South of England has enjoyed tolerable immunity from 

 such visitations for nineteen years. Then nearly every 

 channel of electrical communication was destroyed, and we 

 have surely no guarantee that such a storm may not again 

 visit us at an early date. This year's storm took place on a 

 Saturday evening, when the business thoroughfares were 

 practically deserted. Considering the amount of damage 

 wrought upon property, the loss of life, and personal injury 

 that must have resulted had the storm occurred in the 

 morning or afternoon, it is impossible to conceive. And if 

 such calamities are possible to-day, what must be the state 

 of aflfairs a dozen years hence, when the wires will, in all 

 probability, be enormously increased in number, and when 

 those now in existence will have been reduced in places 

 almost to threads 1 Sir John Hawksbaw and Dr. Percy are 

 no mean authorities on the strength of materials, and the 

 Doctor's reference to this subject at the recent meeting of 

 the Iron and Steel Institute, demands every consideration 

 He said : — 



I trust that a word or two on a question which is now excitiiiK- 

 considerable attention and causing alarm in the public mind may 

 not be deemed irrelevant. J allude to the daily increasing danger 

 from the possible fracture of overhead telegraph wires, and espe- 

 cially cables. So long ago as 1866 I addressed a letter to the editor 

 of the Times on the subject, in which this new source of danger to 

 the inhabitants of London was pointed out ; and to show that it was 

 not imaginary, an instance of a fatal accident having occurred 

 from this canse a short time previously was adduced. It was that 

 of an unfortunate man who, while seated on the top of a vehicle, 

 was killed and nearly decapitated by the sudden breakage of an 

 overhead telegraph wire. My friend, Sir John Hawkshaw, 

 who, it will be admitted by all who have the pleasure of his 

 personal acquaintance, is no alarmist, has, so lately as last 

 month (April, 1885), addressed emphatic words of warning to 

 the public, through the medium of the Times, concerning this 



