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SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



SCIENCE IN SOME MAGAZINES. 

 Notices by John T. Carrington. 



Harper's Monthly Magazine (New York : 

 August, 1S97. is). There are two articles in this 

 number devoted to science. " The Century's 

 Progress in Physics," by Henry Smith Williams, 

 M.D., is a second part, and deals with " Ether and 

 Ponderable Matter." Dr. Williams discusses the 

 " ether " filling the inter-planetary and inter- 

 stellar spaces, commencing with Thomas Young's 

 discovery of the " something " which pervades the 

 whole " space " of the Cosmos. It was Young who 

 gave it the name of " luminiferous ether." The 

 author carries his readers through experiments 

 of Fresnel and Arago with polarization of light, 

 Michael Faraday's investigating, the theories of 

 J. Oliver Lodge, Lord Kelvin, Professor Crookes 

 and others. It is an interesting article on a 

 difficult subject. Mr. Fletcher Osgood's con- 

 tribution is of more popular character, and is 

 prettily illustrated with five reproduced photo- 

 graphs. It is entitled, " A State in Arms against a 

 Caterpillar," and describes the costly war of the 

 authorities of the State of Massachusetts against 

 the larvae of the "gipsy-moth," which defoliates 

 the ornamental and other trees of that part of 

 North America. It is stated to have been 

 introduced, about quarter of a century since, by a 

 French savant to a suburb of Boston, Mass., since 

 which it has spread to such alarming proportions 

 that its destruction has become a serious annual 

 expense. Indeed, the fear exists that the nation 

 will have to combat the spreading evil, as it is 

 too large for the resources of a single State. 



The English Illustrated Magazine (London : 

 August, 1897. 6d.) Mr. Edward Clodd contributes 

 a short article on the " Scientific History and 

 Progress in Great Britain during the Queen's 

 Reign " ; which is illustrated with a dozen small 

 medallion portraits of its leaders, past and present. 

 The story is sketchily told in five pages, which space 

 is impossible for anything like details of those many 

 events, great in science, which will make the 

 Victorian era known to inestimable generations of 

 people unborn. 



The Century Magazine (New York and 

 London, August, 1S97, is. 4d.) contains a most 

 interesting article, illustrated by fine portraits, 

 upon John Borroughs, the inimitable American 

 writer on country lore. As a prose poet and 

 writer about wild things, few have excelled. To 

 those who are not familiar with his works, we 

 would advise his books for a course of reading. It 

 will cultivate elegance of expression and delicacy 

 of thought. The article is by Hamilton Wright 

 Mabie, and is well worth reading. There are two 

 portraits accompanying the letterpress, both of 

 which represent Borroughs as an elderly man. 



The Westminster Review (London : August, 

 1897. 2S - 6d.). The place of honour is given to a 

 thoughtful article by Mr. W. J. Corbet, M.P., on 

 the influence of heredity as propagated by the 

 15,000 persons who " are annually discharged from 

 asylums in England and Wales, some cured, others 

 uncured, but all with the insane taint in their 

 blood." The enormous increase in lunacy among 

 highly civilized races during the last three decades 

 is a fact which is beginning to attract serious 

 attention, and we are glad to see Mr. Corbet 

 return to it in this article, which, from many points 

 of view, is highly suggestive. 



Harper's Magazine (New York and London : 

 September, 1897. is.). The only " nature " article 

 in this month's "Harper" is, in four pages, on 

 "The Milk Weed" (Asdepias comutata), which is 

 as prettily written as illustrated. This is one of 

 the plants which captures insects in the flowers, 

 though they are not insectivorous in the sense of 

 the sundews or pitcher-plants. It is written by 

 William Hamilton Gibson. 



Leisure Hour (London : September, 1897. 6d.). 

 Mr. Henry Walker, F.G.S., introduces to the 

 readers of that magazine, in an appreciative 

 article, the Rev. Dr. Dallinger, D.Sc, LL.D., 

 F.R.S., F.L.S., the eminent micro; copist. William 

 Henry Dallinger is a Plymouth man, born in 

 1841. His parents were members of the 

 Church of England, though the subject of this 

 notice is as eminent a divine of the Wesleyan 

 Church as a man of science. Attached to the 

 pursuit of natural history from early boyhood, he 

 has, notwithstanding his theological studies and 

 ministry, found time to place himself in the first 

 rank of microscopists. His scientific investiga- 

 tions have been in the neighbourhoods of 

 Faversham and Ashford (in Kent), Cardiff, Clifton 

 (near Bristol), Liverpool, Sheffield (where he was 

 Principal of Wesley College), and at Lea, in North 

 Kent, where he has resided for some time without 

 pastoral charge, following the bent of his highly- 

 scientific mind. He has held the office of Rede 

 Lecturer at Cambridge. 



The Daily Mail. — This young London news- 

 paper which has so successfully bidden for 

 popularity, has what its editor chooses to call a 

 '• Daily Magazine." It frequently contains matters 

 of interest to " the man in the street." There is, 

 however, a responsibility as a teacher of the 

 crowd attached to the editing of such a paper, 

 which in this instance does not seem to be 

 fully appreciated. We may refer, as an instance, 

 to the issue of August 16th last, where appears 

 one of the most silly articles we have read for 

 some time, entitled " Butterfly - hunting." We 

 would recommend the writer to get his facts before 

 committing his teachings to the wide world. When 

 will there be a science censor for news-papers ? 



