2^6 



SCIEXCE-GOSSIP. 



j^^^-0 



m science gossip m 



An International Fisheries Exhibition is to be 

 held next year s.t Kiel, from May 13th to the end 



It is stated that in the new edition, shortly to be 



issued, ::' the British Pharmacopoeia, the metric 



The death is announced of Surgeon-Major G. E. 

 Dobson, F .?. 5 at the early age of forty-eight, a 

 writer on zoology and comparative anatomy. 



We understand that Professor F. Jeffrey Bell is 

 the eii:;r ;: a new edition of Gosse's "Evenings 

 with the Microscope," which will be shortly 



Wh are glad to hear of the opening of Manchester 

 Museum on Sunday afternoons. The free library 

 of that city was among the first to invite readers on 



Mr. Vernon Herbert Blackman has been 

 selected, by competitive examination, to fill the 

 plate :i Assistaat in the Department of Botany in 

 the llitnral History Museum, South Kensington. 



la:z iaraeale Zlaseam, An Gallery. Free 

 library ani Muni: Hall was taa.agar=.tei a: Pitts- 

 burg, a short time ago. Mr. Carnegie has added 

 to the gift an endowment fund of upwards of 

 - : : : : : : 



As an exhibition of Nature's m agnificence, the 



There are still surprises in store for the 

 :aa=iiaz -retgraaaers "Sir Biter: Bell ::' tie 



le:l:a.:al rrarvej las iisttverei a larre aev.- 

 river atwiag atrta in:: James Bar. v. ilea -.'.111 

 rial am rag :;e iaest rivers of the continent. It 

 is to be called Bell River in his honour. 



The " Monthly Weather Review " of the 

 Weather Bureau of the United States of America, 

 recently referred to a shower of dust which fell 

 with snow la la liana. It was found to consist of 

 all: aai trganic matter, probably swept up by the 

 wind previously to the fall of snow. 



Fsoat the Report ::' B: rest Administration for 

 Xravancore, for 1893-94, we find it estimated that 

 a:: less t'aaa nearly six hundred species of forest 

 trees sttar within the Maharaja's dominion. A 

 public herbarium is established in connection with 

 tie Brevandrum Museum and the Quilon Office. 



7,'ha: becomes of them all? is a natural 

 question when we read that the United States 

 Pish Hatchery s.t Wood's Hall, has this season 

 hatched rat seventy-five millions of lobster ea~:s 

 forty-five mill: as of codfish, and six millions of 



id a: Bendigo, Australia, on July 9th 

 ly surviving son of Dr. Wm. Mac- 

 :e eraiaea: Scottish naturalist and 

 spell-known book on birds. Dr. P. H. 



was saly sixty- :ae w'aer ae ilea aai 

 a botanist and student of the polvzoa. 



£.ata: 



:, 1 



a 1 I 



The Corinth Canal is being described in 



Baaiaeeriag " by Mr. E. P. Cotterell. This canal 

 cutting should be most interesting to geologists, 

 judged from the views given of deeply-cut sections 

 jn some parts of the canal. 



M. Witckens, of Vienna, has found that two 

 pure-blooded English horses transmitted the colour 

 of their coats to their offspring in 586 cases out 

 of 1,000. Where the parents were of different 

 colours, he found the children, in most cases, took 

 the colour of the mother. 



In consequence of the death of Professor Charles 

 V. Riley, Mr. L. O. Howard, Entomologist to the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, becomes 

 Honorary Curator of the Department of Insects. 

 Mr. W. H. Ashmead is to be Honorary Custodian 

 of Hymenoptera, Mr. D. W. Coquillett taking the 

 same position with the Diptera. 



The general movement towards the adoption of 

 mechanically-driven road-carriages is progressing. 

 Prizes have been offered by the "Times-Herald" 

 of Chicago, for trials this autumn, and the pro- 

 prietors of the "Engineer" now offer a thousand 

 guinea prize for a 200-mile competition next 

 autumn, in England. 



Messrs. G. Adolphe Chatin and Achille 

 Muntz have been examining the relative quantities 

 of phosphorus in the common oyster (Ostera eiulis) 

 and the Portuguese oyster (0. angulata). The 

 results are largely in favour of 0. angulata, = 0032 

 gram, for 0020 gram, in 0. edulis of phosphoric 

 anhydride, in which form it occurs both in the 

 animals and their shells. 



An important Paper by Messrs. J. Cosmo 

 Melville, M.A.-, F.L.S., and Robert Standen, of 

 Manchester, upon a large collection of shells from 

 the Loyalty Islands, is appearing in the later 

 numbers of " The Journal of Conchology," and has 

 been issued as a handbook to Manchester Museum. 

 This fine collection was made by the Rev. James 

 and Mrs. Hadfield, chiefly in the islands of Lifu 

 and Uvea. It contains much novel material. 



Dr. Albert Gunther, F.R.S., draws attention, 

 by a letter to " Nature," of the colonization in Kew 

 Gardens of a small arboreal frog, native of the West 

 Indies. It is Hylodes martinicensis , a shy animal 

 of nocturnal habits. Although observed in the 

 gardens ten years ago, it has been rarely seen 

 among the flowerpots and orchid baskets, though 

 its whistling notes have often been heard on still 

 evenings. 



Dr. Gunther's retirement from the post of 

 Keeper of Zoology at the British Museum has 

 caused certain changes in Cromwell Road. In 

 future, the director, Sir William H. Flower, 

 K.C.B., will be responsible as Keeper of the 

 Department, there being three Assistant Keepers. 

 Dr. A. G. Butler is to have charge of the section 

 of insects, Mr. Edgar A. Smith will have all other 

 invertebrates, and Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe the 

 vertebrates. The arrangement appears to be a 

 good one. 



The matrix in which diamonds are found at 

 Kimberley in South Africa, forms the material for 

 a joint paper bv Sir J. B. Stone, MP., F.G.S., 

 Professor T. G. Bonney, Dr. Sc., F.R.S., and Miss 

 C. A. Raisin, B.Sc, in the November " Geological 

 Magazine." It is a valuable contribution to ihe 

 littie understood subject of the origin of diamonds. 

 Diamonds found at Kimberley van 7 in colour from 

 deep yellow to blue-white, from deep brown to 

 light biown, green, blue, pink, orange, pure white, 

 and at times opaque, 



