78 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



5CIENCE GOSSIP!^ 





Natural science not yet being one of the 

 subjects necessary for the qualification of a news- 

 paper editor, we were not surprised to see a true 

 " scientist '" stating in a recent issue of " The Irish 

 Times " that the Giant's Causeway consists of a 

 multitude of fossil palm-trees packed closely to- 

 gether. 



Dr. Bowdler Sharpe has undertaken to com- 

 plete the almost finished monograph, left bj' the 

 late Henrj- Seebohm, on the "Family of Thrushes." 

 The work will be issued as a limited edition of two 

 hundred and fifty copies, by Messrs. Henry 

 Sotheran and Co., of London, and contain about 

 one hundred and fifty coloured plates. 



We gather from the Report for 1895 of the 

 observatory at Bidston Hill, near Birkenhead, 

 some interesting statistics and conclusions about 

 storms and wind velocity at the mouth of the 

 Mersey. One fact v,-ill be a revelation to many 

 good Liverpudians, viz. : that the annual average 

 of stormy hours in the district reaches only about 

 sixty. 



Lovers of nature and scenery are just now 

 especially indignant at the proposal of a sradicate 

 of speculators to enclose and make a shov,- of the 

 Giant's Causeway, in North-eastern Ireland. It is 

 possible that public opinion, backed by certain 

 ancient manorial rights, has saved that grand 

 geological station from the desecration of swing- 

 boats and steam roundabouts, to say nothing of the 

 ' ' American switchback ' ' and attendant ' ' trippers . ' ' 



In consequence of his now working upon other 

 groups of Insecta, Mr. C. A. Briggs, of Leatherhead, 

 has decided to place his magnificent collection of 

 Lepidoptera in the hands of Mr. Stevens, of Covent 

 Garden, who will offer it for sale by auction during 

 the coming autumn. The sale will occupj' several 

 days ; and we hope, before it occurs, to give some 

 account of the rarer species and varieties contained 

 in the collection. 



We are glad to obser%-e from the blue book, just 

 published, containing an account of the British 

 Museum for the financial year ending March 31st, 

 1896, that the number of \isitors to the Natural 

 History Department in Cromwell Road, was the 

 highest for any year since 1890, the total being 

 446,737. The Natural History Department is 

 evidently becoming popular as the general public 

 grow more famUiar with the site of the Kensington 

 Museum. 



A Parliamentary paper has just been issued 

 upon signs and tests in the Mercantile Marine, 

 which announces some startling results in examina- 

 tion of ships' ofiicers for colour-blindness. The 

 new system of test which has been adopted, gives 

 2-8 per cent, of failures, as against -88 per cent, by 

 the old system. No less than fifty-three officers 

 who held certificates under the old system failed 

 to pass the new. We v.-onder v/hat is the percentage 

 of students of natural science who vrould fail to 

 pass this examination. 



The Astronomer Royal has been elected a 

 foreign correspondent of the French Academy of 

 Science. 



Professor Story-Mas.kelvne, of Oxford, is to 

 be honoured by the presentation of his portrait, 

 v.hich is being subscribed for by his admirers in 

 recognition of his labours in mineralogical science. 



The Local Committee for carrjing out the 

 arrangements of the British Association Meeting 

 to be held this year in Liverpool, have their affairs 

 v.ell forsvard, and it vill not be the fault of the 

 Committee if the meeting is not a great success. 



The cuckoo and its foster parents formed the 

 basis of an annual presidental address read before 

 the North Staffordshire Naturalists' Field Club, by 

 Mr. W. Wells Bladen, on March 19th. A reprint 

 of his paper has been sent to us. 



The American Association of Economic Entomo- 

 logists will hold its eighth meeting at Buffalo, 

 N.Y., on Friday and Saturday, 21st and 22nd of 

 August. The meeting of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science commences on 

 x\ugU5t 24th, in the same city. 



In the P.eport of the Guernsey Society of Natural 

 Science and Local Research for 1895, we find a 

 table of the sunshine for the year in the island. It 

 is easiest to understand what this means, bj' taking 

 the summary- of sunless days ; which are eight in 

 January, six in Februarj-, two in March, one in 

 April, none in ]May, June, July, August, or 

 September, five in October, nine in November, 

 nineteen in December, or 315 days in the j'ear on 

 which the sun shone. 



The Duke of Bedford has given to the Technical 

 Instruction Committee of the Bedfordshire County 

 Council, free of rent, the use of a farm of two 

 hundred and seventy-five acres, for experimental 

 purposes. In addition, he has provided lecture- 

 rooms and other buildings for the accommodation 

 of twenty resident students. By this munificence 

 twenty boys at a time, holding free scholarships 

 of the Council, v.ill each reside for two years, and 

 be instructed in the science of farming. 



Sir William H. Flower, the Director of the 

 Natural History Museum, recently communicated 

 a letter to the " Times " protesting against the 

 prevailing fashion adopted by cultured ladies of the 

 higher social classes of wearing in their millinery 

 egret plumes. 



Sir William Flower states that these people 

 are in some instances members of the Society for 

 the Protection of Birds, and in most cases are 

 ladies who w-ould shrink from any act of cruelty. 

 Thev are, however, states Sir Wilham, persuaded 

 by fashionable milliners that these egret plumes 

 are artificial, but all he has examined are the real 

 feathers. 



It is possible that in a very few instances the 

 powerful protest entered by a gentleman of Sir 

 William's position may stop the use of these 

 feathers in millinery, but no protest short of an 

 Act of Parliament making the wearin.g of wild- 

 birds' feathers penal will stay their extermination. 

 The fact is the milliners are helplessly in the 

 hands of the wholesale trade, who dictate in the 

 first instance what their customers shall wear. 

 Mankind has not yet overcome the imitative facultj' 

 which it chooses to call " fashion,'" nor the 

 barbarity of ornament, while people deck them- 

 selves with metal and animal products obtained at 

 the cost of enormous suffering. 



