176 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 24, 1885 



Beads were a phenomenon of totality, and coloured ; a refer- 

 ence to an elementary work showed me my error. What I saw 

 was a row of small similar-looking and about equidistant pro- 

 minences of a faint pink colour. A. S. ATKINSON 

 Nelson, N.Z., November 13 



Brilliant Meteor 



I CAN confirm Mr. M'Keague's statement regarding an 

 extremely brilliant meteor observed by him on November 27, 

 the train of which remained visible for fifteen minutes, for about 

 6 o'clock the same evening I saw, when near Edinburgh, the 

 train of one very bright meteor (brighter than Venus) last for at 

 least ten minutes. I did not time it exactly, but it could not 

 have been less than that, and while it remained visible it kept 

 curving round, and dilTusing itself out into a thin cloud. About 

 half an hour later I saw the train of another very bright one 

 remaining and behaving similarly for about five minutes. 



Broxburn, December iS John Stevenson 



Models Illustrative ot Phyllotaxis 

 Prof. Parker's note upon this subject induces me to irien- 

 tion a rough-and-ready contrivance, which I found serviceable 

 when lecturing on this subject- This consisted merely of the 

 framework of a collapsible opera-hat, or of two or three super- 

 posed. It is easy to attach stift" labels to these in any desired 

 order, and easy to illustrate undeveloped or developed inter- 

 nodes, as the case may be. I have used the joints of an old 

 telescope for similar purposes. Of course these are ''make- 

 shifts " only. Ijut they are available when better things are not 

 at hand. MAXWELL T. Masters 



The Viper (Vifcni berus, L.) 

 The following letter, addressed to me by a most intelligent 

 farmer, may be thought worthy of publication, as furnishing an 

 additional item of evidence on a much-debated question. 



" Church Dale HousCi Egto}ij Grosmo7it, Yorkshire^ 



November 10, 1885 



"Dear Sir, — In the beginning of the harvest of 187S or 1S79 

 I was with my late father, Mr. Thomas Stanforth, of Howlsikc, 

 near Lealholm, North Yorkshire, in a corn-field on the Howl- 

 sike Farm, when we noticed a large viper in a rough part of tlie 

 field. My father exclaimed, ' Hold on, there's a hagg-worm,' 

 and just at that moment the viper moved its head and hissed, 

 when we both saw some ten or twelve young vipers glide into 

 the mother's mouth. My father immediately crushed the heafl 

 of the animal with his heel, and we laid it on a stone wall, in- 

 tending to open it at our leisure. Proceeding to our work, this 

 was forgotten, and I did not again see the viper until the follow- 

 ing winter, when I found it still lying on the wall, but reduced 

 to a skeleton. I examined it closely, and found many small 

 perfect skeletons inside the larger one. 



" In the summer of 1865 I saw a large viper opened, and a 

 full-grown skylark taken out of its stomach. 

 " Yours truly, 

 (Signed) "Robert Stanforth" 



Much circumstantial evidence has already been printed on 

 this alleged habit, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that the 

 young reptiles, when disturbed, will rush into the nearest open- 

 ing that presents the appearance of a place of refuge ; but I do 

 not remember to have seen any proof of the viper returning her 

 young to liberty when the supposed danger was past. If they 

 merely lodge in the gullet they can doubtless be ejected at will ; 

 if they pass into the stomach, their uneasy motions may act the 

 part of an emetic, and produce nausea and vomiting before 

 asphyxia sets in or digestion begins ; and in either of these 

 cases the action of the mother in permitting her brood to enter 

 her mouth may be regarded as voluntary and instinctive. It is, 

 however, possible that the young vipers may dart, uninvited, 

 into the parent's mouth when it is opened in the act of hissing, 

 and that they may quickly perish and be converted into food. 

 We can only repeat the words of the late Prof. Bell, F.R. S., 

 written thirty-six years ago : — " In this state of doubt upon so 

 ititeresting a subject, it is perhaps better to await the results of 

 direct experiment, which might be readily made in any locality 

 where these reptiles abound" (" British Reptiles," 2nd edition, 

 p. 69). R. Morton Middleton, Jun. 



Castle Eden, December 10 



Ventilation 



Mr. Fletcher, of Warrington, ought to be an authority on 

 such a matter as ventilation, and probably he has omitted in his 

 letter to you some material points. I should like to know some- 

 thing of the supply of fresh air to the rooms where the ventila- 

 tion failed. If that was abundant, then, it seems, there should 

 have been an up-draught in each flue, though, as the current in 

 the ventilating flues would have been less than in those of the 

 chimneys, it would have been better if possible to have their 

 outlets a little separate. If, however, the supply of air to the 

 rooms were insufficient for the joint draught, then the ventilating 

 flue (so called) \\ ould have become a down-cast shaft, and (owing 

 to its situation) would have brought down smoke, &c. , as de- 

 scribed ; and this insufficient supply, when the fires were lit and 

 the ventilation shaft heated, might have been quite enough when 

 there was no fire, or the chimney might have been the down- 

 cast. 



It has always seemed to me that this matter of air-supply is 

 at the bottom of ventilation failures. The amount required is 

 so large, that it must be warmed before entering a room in 

 winter, but there are few houses where any provision is made 

 for this. In fact, as matters stand, it seems to me that it 

 would be nearly impossible to make satisfactory arrangements 

 in most cases without great expense. No doubt the best arrange- 

 ment would be to warm all the air, in one place, before entering 

 the house, and to employ the fires or stoves in the rooms only 

 to give locally greater warmth or brightness ; but such an 

 arrangement is so un-English that I suppose it must be rejected. 

 Because our forefathers, when they first roofed themselves in, 

 transferred their tire from the forest or cave to the middle of 

 the hall, and then to the side with a chimney, we must follow 

 the same practice ; meanwhile closing up the inlets, which were 

 plentiful enough in the early arrangement. We may be Radi- 

 cals, but, like our ancestors, in most things, we do not wish to 

 change the laws of England. J. F. Tennant 



37, Hamilton Road, Ealing, W. , December 18 



Snails Eating Whitening 



I DO not know if the observation which is recorded below is 

 new, but it is certainly new to me, and seems to be sufficiently 

 interesting for publication. In the autumn of 1884 I noticed 

 that the whitening which had been painted on some greenhouse 

 glass in a garden at Reading, had evidently been eaten off by a 

 large Gasteropod. The whitening was almost entirely removed 

 from one pane, and partially from many others. The outlines 

 of the parts which had been eaten were quite unmistakable, 

 exactly resembling on a large scale the well-known traces left by 

 freshwater snails on the conferva-covered glass of an aquarium. 

 I did not find the snails at work, but the gardener assured me 

 that he had seen them upon the glass, and that they were the 

 common garden snails {Helix aspirsa). Considering the entirely 

 characteristic appearance of the marks, I think it may be taken 

 as proved that the h hitening was eaten by some large Gasteropod, 

 and almost certainly by Helix aspersa. It is exceedingly probable 

 that other forms of calcium carbonate (especially limestone rocks) 

 are eaten in the same way, but the conditions of this particular 

 form of the substance — spread out as it was in a thin film on a 

 transparent layer — rendered the fact that it had been eaten 

 especially conspicuous. As to the importance of calcium car- 

 bonate to the snail, it must be remembered that there is not only 

 the necessity for growth of the shell in the young animal, and its 

 repair in the adult ; but there is also a regular periodical need in 

 the latter for material to supply the place of the calcareous dart 

 {spicula amoris], which is discharged before coitus, and is 

 believed to act as an excitant in the sexual relations of these 

 animals. The membrane (hibeinaculum) which closes the 

 nijuth of the shell in winter is also to some extent calcareous. 



December 14 Edward B. Poulton 



Blackbird with White Feather 



There is about my garden a hen blackbird with a white 

 feather in the tail. I do not know w hether this variation has 

 been noticed before. 



Joseph John Murphy 



2, Osborne Park, Belfast, December 2: 



