150 



NATURE 



IDcr. 1 6, 1880 



by experience that other things may buzz besides its 

 natural food. 



If the spider is not at the centre of the web at the time 

 that the fork is apphed, it cannot tell which way to go 

 until it has been to the centre to ascertain which radial 

 thread is vibrating, unless of course it should happen to 

 be on that particular thread or on a stretched supporting 

 thread in contact with the fork. 



If when a spider has been enticed to the edge of the 

 web the fork is withdrawn and then gradually brought 

 near, the spider is aware of its presence and of its direc- 

 tion, and reaches out as far as possible in the direction of 

 the fork ; but if a sounding fork is gradually brought near 

 a spider that has not been disturbed, but which is waiting 

 as usual in the middle of the web, then instead of reaching 

 out towards the fork the spider instantly drops— at the 

 end of a thread of course. If under these conditions the 

 fork is made to touch any part of the web, the spider is 

 aware of the fact and climbs the thread and reaches the 

 fork with marvellous rapiditj'. The spider never leaves 

 the centre of the web without a thread along which to 

 travel back. If after enticing a spider out we cut this 

 thread with a pair of scissors, the spider seems to be 

 unable to get back without doing considerable damage to 

 the web, generally gumming together the sticky parallel 

 threads in groups of three and four. 



By means of a tuning-fork a spider may be made to eat 

 what it would otherwise avoid. I took a fly that had 

 been drow^ned in paraffin and put it into a spider's web 

 and then attracted the spider by touching the fly with a 

 fork. When the spider had come to the conclusion that 

 it was not suitable food and was leaving it, I touched the 

 fly again. This had the same effect as before, and as 

 often as the spider began to leave the fly I again touched 

 it, and by this means compelled the spider to eat a large 

 portion of the fly. 



The few house-spiders that I have found do not seem 

 to appreciate the tuning-fork, but retreat into their hiding- 

 places as when frightened ; yet the supposed fondness of 

 spiders for music must surely have some connection with 

 these observations, and when they come out to listen is it 

 not that they cannot tell which way to proceed ? 



The few observations that I have made are necessarily 

 imperfect, but I send them, as they afford a method which 

 might lead a naturalist to notice habits otherwise difficult 

 to observe, and so to arrive at conclusions which I in my 

 ignorance of natural history must leave to others. 



C. V. Boys 



Physical Laboratory, South Kensington 



THE MI?iERALOGICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT 



BRITAIN AND IRELAND 

 'T'HERE was a time, now almost beyond the memory 

 ■•• even of the oldest inhabitant, when the stillness of 

 oar learned halls was unbroken by the wrangle of con- 

 tending geologists, when the science of geology could not 

 be said yet to e.xist, when those who occupied themselves 

 with stones found a congenial atmosphere of solemnity in 

 the quiet domain of crystallography, whence with the 

 boldness of adventurers they made little excursions into 

 the more open and dangerous waters of chemistry. Days 

 of slumberous peace as they now seem to one who turns 

 over the ponderous dusty pages in which their records 

 are duly chronicled ! To the mineralogist of those days 

 the interest and importance of rock-masses was measured 

 by their richness or poorness in mineral specimens. 

 Surrounded by his cases of minerals— the reward of years 

 of patient toil and judicious expenditure, with what tender 

 interest would he survey his treasures ! We knew him in 

 old times, yea and loved him. Enthusiastically would he 

 describe how he had contrived to secure that priceless 

 unique crystal ; hov/ day after day he had searched the 

 rocks in vain, till at last one lucky stroke of the hammer 



laid open that magnificent druse ; how he had bought 

 that matchless group from a sailor who used it to keep 

 down the lid of his tobacco box. Kindly too he was, 

 and all the more if you took interest in his favourite 

 pursuit. Ask him to tell you the difference between two 

 resembling minerals, and he would launch out with evident 

 relish into his " external characters." Lovingly would he 

 handle the specimens, as if they were the children of his 

 old age. Eagerly would he descant upon the difference 

 between "lamellar distinct concretions"; how some were 

 "indeterminate curved lamellar," others were " fortift- 

 cations-wise bent." And then would follow the whole 

 string of characters — " semi-hard," " not particularly diffi- 

 cultly frangible," "supernatant," "pretty cold," "not par- 

 ticularly heavy," between "aurora-red" and "hyacinth- 

 red," or between "mountain-green" and "celandine- 

 green." Such jargon it seemed to youthful ears ! One 

 could not but admire indeed its methodical precision, but 

 the questions ever forced themselves on one's mind — What 

 is the living truth underlying it all? Were minerals 

 really created merely as a basis for our old friend's 

 systems of classification ? Or can they not be made to 

 yield up some intelligible record of their own history and 

 of the planet of which they form a part .' 



When the discoveries of William Smith drew off the 

 attention of students to the marvels revealed by strati- 

 graphical geology, mineralogy rapidly sank into neglect 

 in this country. By a curious revulsion of opinion rocks 

 were now appraised as of importance in proportion as 

 mere mineral specimens were absent from them, for where 

 these occurred organic remains were usually not to be 

 looked for ; and organic remains now took the place of 

 minerals. I\Ien who would formerly have trudged cheer- 

 fully a whole day with a 14-lb. hammer on their shoulders 

 to secure a few minerals were now to be seen as enthu- 

 siastically hunting for ammonites, gryphaeas, belemnites, 

 echini, fossil fishes, and other buried treasures of the 

 stratified formations. LTnmeasured was the scorn of the 

 veteran mineralogist for this new-fangled pursuit. To 

 neglect such attractive objects as minerals, with their 

 exquisite forms and colours, for the dingy and fragmentary 

 relics of extinct whelks, lobsters, and other pre-adamite 

 vermin seemed to him an utterly unaccountable form of 

 madness. And so his beloved cabinet became dearer to 

 him than ever. In its quiet retreat he lived with his 

 specimens in the past, and allowed the strong rising tide 

 of palaeontology to rush and roar past him unheeded. 



But cycles appear in scientific as in political opinion. 

 For some years past there has been a growing conviction 

 that palaeontology has had a long enough monopoly of 

 power in the geological commonwealth, and that the mineral- 

 ogical side of the science has in this country been unduly 

 neglected and discouraged. The attention now bestowed 

 among us upon petrographical research is a pleasing proof 

 of the reality and steady progress of this reaction. Another 

 token of the same change is supplied by the foundation 

 and encouraging growth of the Mineralogical Society of 

 Great Britain and Ireland. This society was instituted 

 in the early part of the year 1876. It counts among its 

 members a large and increasing number of the best 

 geologists in the three kingdoms. But its operations are 

 carried on so quietly and unostentatiously that its work 

 and aims are probably not yet so widely known as they 

 deserve to be. A body gathered under the leadership of 

 Sorby and Heddle is one which may count on support 

 from all to whom the advancement of mineralogy 

 and mineralogical geology among us is an object of 

 interest. As a rule our scientific societies are bodies 

 with a local habitation, gathering most of their effective 

 members from the district in which their rooms are placed. 

 But the Mineralogical Society, as its name denotes, 

 embraces the whole United Kingdom. It has no build- 

 ings of its own nor any one special home. Its meetings, 

 like those of the British Association on a large scale, are 



