SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



191 



L'AERormLE (Paris, July, 1895) contains a 

 portrait of Herr Andree and a short account of the 

 life of this illustrious aeronaut. The preparations 

 which are being made at Stockholm for his attempt 

 to discover the North Pole by a balloon voyage 

 next year are fully described. 



Cosmos (Paris, August 24th, 1895). Mons. 

 Acloque commences a series of articles upon the 

 Homological Organization of Insects. There is 

 also an article by M. Maurice Farman on "The 

 Causes and Consequences of the Rain of July and 

 August." He considers it is due to the influence of 

 an exceptional cyclone. 



Bulletin de la Societe Industrielle de 

 Mulhouse (Mulhouse, June, 1895) has a long 

 report of meteorological observations for the year 

 1894, gi y i n g several tables of temperature taken at 

 the meteorological station at Mulhouse, also two 

 diagrams showing the temperature and barometer 

 pressure for the several months of the year 1894. 



L'Eclairage Electrique (Paris, August 3rd, 

 1895) announces the publication of a new electrical 

 journal to be called "l'Electrochimie," edited by M. 

 Adolphe Minet. There is also an account of an 

 accident which occurred to a workman employed 

 by an electrical company at Rochester, U.S.A., 

 He received a charge of between 2,000 and 3,000 

 volts, which is three times greater than that given 

 to criminals condemned to death by electricity. 

 The workman showed every sign of death, but by 

 the indefatigable exertions of his comrades to 

 restore respiration, after three quarters of an hour 

 be began to show signs of life and was finally 

 recovered. 



La Nature (Paris, August 24th, 1895) contains 

 an illustrated article by M. Planchon, giving an 

 account of the various methods which have been 

 used in China for measuring time. In the reign of 

 the Emperor Yao, in the year 2337 B.C., the 

 Chinese astronomers divided the year into four 

 seasons, and fixed the duration of the year at 365 

 days, 6 hours. They divided their day into 12 

 parts, more or less equal, which corresponded 

 to two of our hours. The hours were divided into 

 100 parts, called " kes." Each " ke " had 100 

 minutes, and each minute 100 seconds. The 

 Chinese employ 12 characters which are the signs 

 of the Zodiac for the months of the year. This 

 division of time was imported to Japan from China. 

 In the seventeenth century, however, the Jesuit 

 missionaries persuaded the Chinese to adopt the 

 European division of the day. Mons. G. Mingaud 

 has an article on " Prehistoric Remains," giving an 

 account and an illustration of the reconstruction of 

 a prehistoric dwelling, which was done by M. 

 Clement, and is to be seen at the Hotel de Nimes. 

 There is also an article by M. E. Hospitalier on 

 " The Electrical Engines used on the Baltimore and 

 Ohio railroad." It is illustrated by four figures and 

 some diagrams. 



Journal of the New York Microscopical 

 Society (New York; July, 1895) has an account of 

 " Some Interesting Features of well-known Plants 

 of New York Harbour," by Carlton E. Curtis, 

 Ph.D. He observes that a common member of 

 the summer flora of the harbour is found on the 

 larger alga;, or in patches on the rock. It is 

 Calothrix, and is easily to be recognised, as it 

 belongs to one of the simplest groups of plants. 

 In morphological characters and life processes it 

 often closely resembles the bacteria. Multiplication 

 of species is only accomplished by the escape of a 

 few cells of the filaments, which grow into new 

 plants. There are no sexual processes. 



Trinidad Field-Naturalists' Club Journal 

 (Trinidad, B.W.I. , June, 1895).— Mr. R. Mole has 

 an article " On the Formation and Disintegration 

 of Segments of Caudal Appendage in Crotalus 

 horridus" a rattlesnake. He refers to a paper in the 

 same journal for February, 1894, by himself and 

 Mr. Urich, giving their observations on a South 

 American rattlesnake. They have kept this snake 

 in captivity and under observation from before that 

 date to February 15th, 1895. Mr. Mole says that 

 as the period of sloughing the skin draws near, the 

 new segment, which is of a bluish-black colour, can 

 be seen growing out from underneath the scales, 

 and pushing the last-formed rattle out. As the 

 time approaches, when the snake becomes tem- 

 porarily blind, the new rattle is pushed right out, 

 the scales covering it presenting a withered yellow- 

 whitish colour, their free points being slightly 

 raised. These disappear, and after the skin is cast 

 the new segment becomes a pale yellow, subse- 

 quently changing into the usual colour. Mr. Mole 

 considers the material of the rattle to be thin horn, 

 something like one's finger-nails. In a further 

 article, entitled "The Dimensions of Animals," 

 Mr. Mole points out how very untrustworthy are 

 many of the statements made about the sizes of 

 animals, with which people are not familiar, or 

 have only seen when dead. He says that, as a 

 rule, no attempt is made to measure an animal 

 until it is skinned, and then it is the skin, not the 

 animal, which is measured. Mr. Mole refers to the 

 offer made by Jamrach, of London, in the Field 

 newspaper some months ago, to pay anyone who 

 will bring him a snake thirty feet long, £1,000, and 

 for one forty feet, £10,000, as being a very safe 

 one, although snakes of over thirty feet in length 

 have been reported by travellers. There are 

 two articles by Professor T. D. A. Cockerell, 

 Entomologist of the New Mexico (U.S.A.) Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station, one on "A New 

 Scale Insect from Grenada, giving an account of 

 some coccidas, collected by Mr. W. E. Broadway, 

 on Citrus medica, var. acida, in the Botanic Gardens 

 at Grenada, one of the species being an inte- 

 resting new Lecanium. The other article is on "A 

 New Mealy-Bug on Sugar-Cane. " It is named 

 Dactylopius sacchari, Ckl. Mr. C. A. Barber gives 

 an account of " The effects produced by Ticks upon 

 their Hosts," showing that in Texas at least one 

 species out of the five known is a very active agent 

 in dissemination of the dreaded Texan cattle fever. 

 The first part of an article by Mr. E. D. Ewen, 

 entitled " Notes on the Economic Uses of the 

 Compositae," commences in this number. It is a 

 statement of the uses of the various plants belong- 

 ing to this order, the manner in which their 

 properties can best be extracted, the form in which 

 they should be used, and the disorders for which 

 they may be beneficial. 



