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SCIENTIFIC NEAVS. 



[Jan. 27, IS 



menting ; but found the larvae increased and wandered 

 to such an extent that he had to give up acting as host, 

 and requisitioned the services of a number of hens, the 

 plump larvffi being evidently appreciated by them. Hens 

 were tried at the warehouses, but after ten minutes of 

 gorging they relaxed their labours, and although they 

 devoured enormous numbers, the larvae continued to 

 multiply. Several experts, entomologists, and specialists 

 were consulted, without remedy being found ; but when 

 Mr. Klein made his monthly inspection in September, 

 he found the tops of the sacks covered apparently with 

 soot, which on nearer examination turned out to be 

 enormous numbers of a small black fly belonging to the 

 Ichneumonidae. Nature had come to the rescue, and 

 provided the remedy herself Mr. Klein attributes the 

 present visitation and remarkable ravages to the hot and 

 dry season, for the larvae originated in some meal shipped 

 from Fiume over two years ago. The Ichneumon is 

 probably new to science, for it has been submitted to 

 several specialists — so far without recognition. Specimens 

 of images, pupae, and larvae of Ephestia Kiihnidla, 

 together with the Ichneumonidae are now on view in the 

 Natural History Department of the British Museum at 

 South Kensington. 



BRISTOL NATURALISTS' SOCIETY. 

 Dr. a. J. Harrison in a paper on "The Ballast-bag of 

 the Seal," said, " The seals are carnivorous mammals 

 divided into two classes — the Phocce, or common seals 

 with rudimentary ears, and the Otavice (sea-lions, bears, 

 elephants), which have the ears developed. The Phoca 

 viiulina is the common English seal, which is easily 

 tamed, becoming much attached to the keepers ; but the 

 Otarice, which inhabit the waters of the Southern hemi- 

 sphere and abound at the Cape, formed the principal 

 part of Dr. Harrison's subject. According to the fisher- 

 men, the Otarice have an internal pouch known as the 

 " ballast bag," because it is always found to contain a 

 number of rounded stones. The presence of these is 

 accounted for by saying that when the animals grow 

 very fat, they become so buoyant as to be unable to sink 

 below the surface of the water without the aid of some 

 ballast, which they secure by swallowing stones. This 

 theory implies the possession by the seals of considerable 

 reasoning power. Observations have shown that the 

 so-called ballast-bag is only the stomach ; and accordingly 

 some people have suggested that the stones are intended 

 to assist in the trituration of food, in somewhat the same 

 manner as in the gizzard of fowls. Other persons sup- 

 pose the stones subserve no useful purpose, and are acci- 

 dentally introduced with the food, or in play. In the 

 seals and sea-hons at the London .2oo similar rounded 

 stones have been found, large numbers of which are quite 

 foreign to the geological character of the district. A 

 Newfoundland seal which died at the Chfton Zoo in 

 1886 was examined by Dr. Harrison, who found in the 

 stomach, gravel, nuts, and pieces of stick. 



BIRMINGHAM AND MIDLAND INSTITUTE. 

 Sir Robert S. Ball, Astronomer Royal for Ireland, 

 gave a lecture on " The Visible Stars." Speaking of the 

 difficulty of obtaining. a full knowledge of the subject, Sir 

 Robert said that all that could be seen of the stars out- 

 side our own system — even with the telescope — was a 

 number of points of light. The only things the astro- 

 nomer could observe with regard even to the nearest 



of these stars were their position and their movements. 

 One of the earliest discoveries with regard to them was 

 the fact that many of the so-called stars really consisted 

 of two spots of light instead of one. To separate the two, 

 however, required a very good telescope. It was found 

 by repeated observations extending over long periods 

 that one of the bodies forming what was called a double 

 star revolved round the other, and this fact was instruc- 

 tive, inasmuch as it afforded the means of proving that 

 the same laws of gravitation that guided the planets 

 round our sun guided the movements of these distant 

 stars or suns. Of late years much attention had been 

 bestowed on these distant bodies, and some very beauti- 

 ful discoveries have rewarded the astronomer. For 

 instance, in many cases the two stars were found 

 to afford a most exquisite contrast of colours. The 

 periods of the revolution of the satellite round the 

 principal star varied considerably. One was fifty or 

 sixty years, while others were about goo years. One of 

 the chief interests of these observations was the power 

 it gave us to estimate the weight of the stars. For in- 

 stance, Sirius had a satellite which revolved in forty-nine 

 years. The period for an imaginary planet revolving 

 round our sun at the same distance would be 225 years, 

 and from this was deduced the fact that Sirius was thir- 

 teen times as big, and the satellite nine or ten times as 

 big as our sun. The solar system of which Sirius is the 

 centre contained about twenty times the amount of matter 

 contained in our solar system. Though Sirius and its 

 twin star were so nearly alike in size, the latter was 

 a very much less brilliant object. Sirius was far and 

 away the most brilliant object in the sky, but its com- 

 panion was excessively faint, and could only be seen in 

 the best telescopes under most favourable circumstances. 

 The explanation of this was that the satellite had cooled 

 down to a large extent. This discovery opened up a 

 most enlarged view of the universe, for in addition to 

 stars and vistas of stars we saw there roast be countless 

 millions of bodies in space devoid of luminosity, and 

 consequently invisible to us. 



INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS OF 

 IRELAND. 

 In his presidential address, Mr. John Purser Griffiths, at 

 the meeting on Dec. 7th, reviewed the progress made by 

 the institution during the past fifty-two years. He also 

 described the progress that had been made in the various 

 great hydraulic engineering works now being constructed. 



CARDIFF NATURALISTS' SOCIETY. 

 Mr. R. W. Atkinson, in an exhaustive paper on the 

 tobacco plant, pointed out as a result of his investigations 

 into the composition of the ash of this plant, that it can 

 only be cultivated successfully in soils containing potash 

 salts. When these are wanting kainit is recommended 

 as a manure. The ash of good Virginian tobacco has as 

 much as 20 per cent, of potash, whereas the ash of some 

 specimens recently grown at LlandafF was found to con- 

 tain only 2 -89 percent, of this important constituent. 



SOCIETY OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY. 

 A MEETING of the Glasgow and Scottish section of the 

 Society of Chemical Industry was held on the loth inst., 

 Mr. J. J, Coleman, presiding. A paper by Professor 



