*34 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



It was stated that at Aldershot, during the 

 second week in June, water was found frozen in the 

 open air one morning. 



The American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, will meet this year at Springfield, Mass., 

 from August 26th to September 6th. 



Our correspondent, Mr. Edward Martin, has 

 compiled a list of the various editions of Gilbert 

 \Yhite"s Natural History and Antiquities of 

 Selborne. He gives no less than two dozen 

 different forms of this work, by different editors. 



The Vienna Botanical Exchange Society is 

 desirous of exchanging or purchasing rare 

 herbarium plants from all parts of the world. 

 Particulars may be obtained from Herr. J. Dorfler, 

 7, Burgling, Vienna. The annual catalogue of the 

 Society was recently issued. 



Lord Kelvin, it is understood, will resign the 

 presidency of the Royal Society shortly. Rumour 

 points to Lord Rayleigh as the new president, but 

 whether the choice will fall on the discoverer of 

 Argon remains to be seen. An interesting sketch of 

 Lord Kelvin appears in the " Pall Mall Magazine " 

 for July. 



Prof. A. Cornu, of Paris, delivered a lecture 

 on " The Physical Phenomena of the Atmosphere,'" 

 at the Royal Institution, on June 7th. He showed 

 some interesting experiments, giving an ingenious 

 reproduction of the "Alpine glow,'* sometimes seen 

 in the Bernese Oberland and elsewhere, and also, 

 with the help of M. YYeyher, an exhibition of an 

 artificial waterspout. 



Mr. R. Lloyd Praeger, the Hon. Sec. of the 

 Irish Field Club Union, sends a really nicely 

 prepared and illustrated synopsis of the Galwav 

 Conference and eight days' visit to Connemara, 

 including a general description of the district. 

 The party will be limited to 100, and the cost from 

 Dublin for the round trip appears to be £4 17s. 6d. 

 We wish the party fine weather and a successful 

 visit. 



The naturalists of Ireland are evidently making 

 themselves a power in the land, as there are 

 frequent indications of their activity. The Belfast 

 and Northern Counties Railway now issues, 

 apparently gratis, a small handbook, written by 

 Professor Grenville A. J. Cole, on the scenery and 

 geology of co. Antrim. The subject is entirely 

 treated from the geological point of view, and is 

 well, if popularly, written. 



Among the unexpected static phenomena dis- 

 covered by ballooning and in mountain observa- 

 tories, M. Cornu instanced three, namely, the 

 facts that many clouds which had generally been 

 regarded as consisting of vapour were composed 

 of minute crystals of ice ; that at different heights 

 the direction of the wind was different ; and that 

 the temperature did not get steadily lower as the 

 earth became more distant, but that alternate 

 layers of hot and cold air were encountered. 



In the "Irish Naturalist,"' of June, Miss 

 R. Hensman draws attention to the recent 

 discovery of the disintegration of shells caused by 

 certain marine algae. 



Death is making sad blanks in the list of our 

 elder scientific men. We now hear that Dr. W. C. 

 Williamson, F.R.S., the Emeritus Professor of 

 Botany at Owen's College, Manchester, has passed 



away. 



We may mention the discovery of a new 

 substance in the alcoholic extract of orris root. 

 It has been named Irone. It is a retone having 

 the formula C^H.^O, and will be of great value 

 to perfumers and others. 



Dr. T. A. Chapman, of Hereford, has completed 

 in the " Entomologists' Record " an important 

 paper on " The Classification of Butterflies," based 

 on the structure of the pupae. It is a distinct step 

 in the direction of scientific entomology. 



A system of testing gems has been discovered 

 by flotation on certain dense liquids such as 

 methylene, iodide, which are far denser than 

 water. This density is reduced by benzine to the 

 right flotation point for each species of gem. 



The recent publications of the Division of 

 Ornithology and Mammalogy of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture include a monographic 

 revision of the Pocket Gophers, family Geomjidae, 

 known as the pouched rats and mice of North 

 America. 



Principal Peterson, who succeeds Sir William 

 Dawson at the head of the McGill University, 

 Montreal, graduated at Edinburgh in 1S75, an( i 

 afterwards gained an open scholarship at Corpus 

 Christi, Oxford. He was appointed first Principal 

 of University College, Dundee, in 1882. 



M. Berthocmieu is publishing in the " Annales 

 de la Societe Entomologique de France" a very 

 complete monograph of the family Ichneumonidae, 

 of the tribe Entomophaga or "insect-eaters," of 

 Europe. It has been calculated that there are not 

 less thau4,oooto 5,000 known species of ichneumons, 

 the females of which deposit their eggs in or upon 

 the bodies of larvae of other insects, in which the 

 ichneumon larvae feed, avoiding the vital parts 

 until they have reached maturity. 



Henry Moore, R.A., who died on June 22nd, 

 was an ardent entomologist for many years, often 

 collecting in company with the editor of this 

 journal. The conceptions of several of his greatest 

 pictures were formed during his collecting expedi- 

 tions. As a painter of landscapes and seapieces, 

 Henry Moore had few equals. He was born at 

 York," in 1831, his father being a drawing master. 

 There were four brothers, who were trained to art 

 by the father, Henry becoming a Royal Academi- 

 cian. We think Albert should have been elected 

 one also. 



The Natural History Society of Birmingham 

 was founded in 1S58, and the Philosophical Society 

 in 1876. These two societies have now been 

 amalgamated under the title of Birmingham 

 Natural History and Philosophical Society. The 

 "Proceedings" (vol. lx., parti) have just been 

 issued and contain interesting papers on " History 

 of the Method of Weighing the Earth," by 

 Professor Povnting, " Early Iron Working in 

 the Highlands of Scotland," by Dr. Tilden, and 

 " Morphology of the Sensory Canal System in 

 some Fossil Fishes," by W. E. Collinge. 



