June 26, 1890] 



NATURE 



211 



A. Haly, Director of the Colombo Museum :— Some tropical 

 fishes preserved in a mixture of gum and glycerine, as a means 

 of displaying their natural colours. The results, although not 

 as good as with some of the specimens located in the museum 

 itself, represent the outcome of a series of experiments ex- 

 tending over a number of years, full details of which are to be 

 found in the "Ceylon Administration Reports." Gum and 

 glycerine have long been used in combination in microscopy, as 

 a substitute for Canada balsam ; on account, however, of the 

 difficulty experienced with air-bubbles, their use is now very 

 generally given up. Mr. Haly's experiments have shown that if 

 the specimens preserved in the mixture which he employs be 

 placed in a medium which will precipitate the gum, all colour is 

 quickly lost, wherefore the preservation of the latter would ap- 

 pear to be due to the gum's influence. Mr, Haly is still prose- 

 cuting his experiments, and his latest researches show that the 

 employment of pure glycerine for mounting (a well-nigh pro- 

 hibitory condition) is no longer indispensable. He now finds 

 that gum and glycerine are miscible with alcohol in all propor- 

 tions necessary for his purposes, provided certain precautions be 

 taken in the manipulation. He is thus enabled to check the 

 ravages of fungoid organisms which earlier impeded his progress ; 

 and, by reducing the syrup to the necessary specific gravity 

 with proof spirit, he is enabled to successfully preserve frogs, 

 reptiles, and other organisms with which he originally failed, to 

 no small degree as the result of the excessive dehydrating powers 

 of his original medium. Mollusks, sea anemones, and jelly-fish, 

 are among those forms of life with which the method has been 

 least successful. Mr. Haly tells us, however, that for the 

 Alcyonidae his mixture is a good preservative, and that sea- 

 water saturated with bichromate of potash has been found ex- 

 cellent for hardening jelly-fish. The power to preserve the 

 natural colours of plants and animals is now the desideratum of 

 the museum curator. Some of Mr. Haly's exhibits have stood 

 the test of from two to three years' exposure to the light in a 

 tropical climate. The outlook is a hopeful one ; and the facts 

 show the colonial worker, who is apt to be lost sight of in these 

 days of competition and aggrandisement, to be fully abreast of 

 the times, and alive to the best interests of the public. 



Exhibited by the Zoological Society of London : — Eggs of a 

 large python {Python violurus) laid in the Zoological Society's 

 reptile-house. The pythons lay about thirty to fifty eggs at one 

 time, and incubate like birds. The female python on the present 

 occasion has "declined to sit," but on former occasions this pro- 

 cess has been carried on in the gardens (see Proc. Zool. Soc, 

 1862, p. 365). Abnormal heat is developed by the sitting python 

 as by the sitting hen. 



Exhibited by Prof. A, Macalister, F.R.S. :— Two mummy 

 heads of priests (i2th and i8th Dynasties) from tombs near 

 Assouan, Upper Egypt. 



Exhibited by Sir Archibald C. Campbell, Bart : — Photographs 

 of musical sparks, done at Blythswood, Renfrewshire, by the 

 exhibitor. 



Exhibited by Dr. Augustus D. Waller :— Demonstration of the 

 electrical variations of the heart of man and of the dog. 



The following demonstrations by means of the electric lantern 

 took place in the meeting room : — 



Animal and bird studies, photographed from life, exhibited by 

 Mr. Gambler Bolton. 



The orientation of some ancient temples, exhibited by Prof. 

 |. Norman Lockyer, P'.R.S. 



Experimental demonstrations on electro-magnetic repulsion 

 plienomena, and a series of experimental demonstrations illus- 

 trating the principal facts of the phenomena of electro-magnetic 

 repulsion, discovered by Prof. Elihu Thomson, and their appli- 

 cations in alternate current electro-magnetic motors, as exhibited 

 in the Paris Exhibition, exhibited by Prof. J. A. Fleming and 

 Mr. Ernst Thumauer. 



THE SUNDAY SOCIETY. 



(\^ June 21 the Sunday Society held its fifteenth annual 

 -^ meeting in Prince's Hall, Piccadilly. Prof. G. J. Romanes 

 ilelivered his address as President of the Society. After a brief 

 analysis of the Sunday question in general, he spoke as 

 lollows : — 



As you will see from the fifteenth Annual Report which is now 

 in your hands, the present year is one of unusual activity on the 

 part of our Society. First of all, it has been marked by a wise 



NO. 1078, VOL. 42] 



stroke of policy in sending a deputation to the French Ministry 

 for the purpose of obtaining information as to the practical 

 results of opening the great Exhibition of Paris on Sundays. 

 Moreover, as explained in the Report, the Committee desired to 

 ascertain whether there be any reality in " the great bugbear of 

 the Sabbatarian mind" — viz. that the Continental Sunday is a 

 day of irreligion to the masses, and of overwork to the Govern- 

 ment employes. As you will see from the Report, the result 

 has been conclusively to prove the unreality of the bugbear, so 

 far at all events as the specific question of the opening of 

 national galleries and museums is concerned. With the more 

 general aspects of the Continental Sunday we have not, as a 

 Society, anything to do ; but I may remark in passing that we 

 must here remember differences of national taste and feeling. 

 What would be irreligious levity in one community need not be 

 so in another ; and it would be absurd to attribute these differ- 

 ences of sentiment to differences in the matter of Sunday 

 observance. 



Next, you will find from the Report that the Trustees of the 

 People's Palace received a memorial from the Working Men's 

 Lord's Day Rest Association, which was promptly responded to 

 by a counter-memorial from this Society. The latter document 

 may best be left to speak for itself ; and as it speaks with so 

 much good English common-sense, I scarcely feel it desirable to 

 move a vote of thanks to the Trustees of the People's Palace for 

 having listened to us rather than to our opponents : I prefer to 

 take it for granted that the Trustees perceive as plainly as we do 

 on which side of this matter the truth and the wisdom lie. 



Again, you will learn from the Report that, in addition to the 

 public institutions previously opened on Sundays, several others 

 have been this year added to the list, which now comprises 23 in 

 all. Moreover, this year has likewise witnessed the great reform of 

 throwing open the British Museum on certain week-day evenings ; 

 while both the authorities there and those at the National Gal- 

 lery have expressed, not only their willingness, but their desire 

 to throw open to the public on Sundays these by far the greatest 

 of our national collections. In my opinion it is impossible for us 

 as a Society to over-estimate the importance of having thus 

 gained the express and cordial support of the most representative 

 museum on the one hand, and of the most representative art 

 gallery on the other. It now only remains that the Treasury 

 should allow a small grant to defray the comparatively nominal 

 expenses, and our cause would be won throughout the length 

 and breadth of the land. For if once the British Museum and 

 National Gallery were opened on Sundays, no other museum or 

 art gallery could afford to resist any pressure that might be put 

 upon them to follow so overwhelming an example. Our big 

 guns, therefore, are at last fully charged and ready to fire ; 

 only the trigger waits to be pulled, and this it is that we are 

 now about to attempt. 



For you will observe, in the last place, that the Report in your 

 hands contains a very weightily worded memorial which was 

 sent to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the middle, of April. 

 Where so many forcible considerations are comprised within so 

 small a compass, one is much tempted to read the whole. But 

 as other speakers are to follow me, I shall merely indicate one 

 or two of the points in this memorial which appeal to me as of 

 most importance. 



First, then, I would have you observe how strong a ground 

 the appeal is based upon, where it calls attention to the fact 

 that the House of Commons has already and amply recognized 

 the principle of their obligation to open on Sundays our national 

 museums, galleries, gardens, &c. , by having already furnished 

 the funds requisite for the purpose to Kew, Hampton Court, 

 Greenwich, Dublin, and Edinburgh. Again, as another very 

 notable feature in this memorial, I may mention the enormously 

 strong support to which it draws the attention of Mr. Goschen 

 as having recently been given to the objects of this Society by 

 the London County Council, who passed an almost unanimous 

 resolution in favour of our policy. Yet once more, can any- 

 thing be more calculated to sway the mind of a Minister than 

 the anomalous state of matters to which the memorial draws 

 attention, where it indicates that the governing bodies of the 

 British Museum and National Galleiy are expressly desirous of 

 making arrangements whereby the priceless collections under 

 their charge may at last become in very truth, or without any re- 

 striction, the property of the British public ? When provincial in- 

 stitutions of incomparably less importance have already succeeded 

 in obtaining funds from the Treasury for this purpose, is it right 

 or fitting that the great Metropolitan institutions should be 



