216 = Jottings from South Eastern Union's Congress, etc. 
Dr. Woodward tells a story of the late Dr. Gray who was interested 
in crustacea. One day he was discovered carefully boiling something in a 
test-tube. ‘Damn it,’ he said, ‘it won’t go red!’ It turned out to be 
a domestic flea. 
The late Dr. Buckland was fond of experimenting in a variety of ways. 
He once secured a black patch of fleas from a heron and carefully placed 
them in his hat. They all died. A lady to whom he told the circum- 
stances replied, ‘ Killed by the natives, I suppose ? ’ 
The secretary and editor, Dr. W. Martin, resigned his positions after 
Six years’ service, which was regretted. He stated, with some truth, that 
it was better to feel that there was regret at a resignation, than to hold 
office so long that a resignation came as a relief to the members. 
A scientist called Knipe 
Lectured to the members 
On animals one night ; 
Quaint things that one remembers, 
Such as Iguanodon mantelli, 
Which had a long thumb nail 
And a fearful big round—stomach, 
And a monster of a tail. 
A Canadian visitor to the Zoo asked an attendant what the Kangaroos 
were. On being told they were ‘natives of Australia,’ he said, ‘ Well, 
I’m blowed (or words to that effect), my daughter’s marrying one of they.’ 
As illustrating the advantage of German scientific methods over 
English, Sir Henry Howorth pointed out that every German doctor 
tests his diagnosis by post-mortem. That is pure science. 
The same gentleman at the ‘bread and butter meeting’ stated that 
doubtless the hosts and hostesses would be busy counting their silver. At 
any rate he did not give his hostess (the President’s wife) an opportunity 
of counting her fountain pen. She told us herself that he took it to 
London with him. Inadvertently, of course. We are glad to take this 
revenge in view of Sir Henry’s somewhat pointed remarks about thieves. 
A lady, Mrs. Dickinson, 
Invented Radioleum. 
Its penetrating properties 
Exceeded best petroleum. 
It pulped the evening paper ; 
In glass made little stars; 
It scorched the skin of Venus, 
And made men laugh in Mars. 
Radioleum originated 
In the fair far East, 
And many ruminated 
At a scientific feast: 
‘It worked entirely by nature,’ 
And its action never ceased ; 
Its origin being vegetal, 
It takes the place of yeast ! 
—— 0 
A Cuckoo Note.—We learn from the press that at Howden recently 
a labourer, Patrick Larkin, who is known locally as ‘the human cuckoo,’ 
has a wonderful gift of imitating the call of the cuckoo and has on occasions 
mystified many people in the district. A week ago, in Howden Street, he 
was exercising his peculiar powers, but he also attracted the attention of 
the police by drinking beer from a bottle, and creating a disturbance. He 
was fined £2, 
Naturalist, 
