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SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



SCIENCE GOSSIP 



Sir William H. Flower, K.C.B., F.R.S., has 

 been re-elected president of the Zoological Society. 



The fifteenth Annual Congress of the French 

 Geographical Societies will be held at Lyons next 

 August. 



Among the arrangements of the South London 

 Entomological and Natural History Society, we 

 note excursions to Reigate Hill, Surrey, on June 

 gth, and to Wisley, Surrey, on July 7th. 



The well-known experimental chemists, Wanklyn 

 and Cooper, have been investigating Russian kero- 

 sene, which is distilled from crude petroleum in 

 Baku, with some remarkable results. 



The recent Ordnance Survey of Kew Gardens 

 shows that the area of cultivation under glass is no 

 less than 2604 acres. The linear extent of foot- 

 paths is 14 miles 48 chains. 



An elaborate remeasurement of the superficial 

 area of France has been completed by the depart- 

 ment of the Army which corresponds with the 

 Ordnance Survey of this country. The remarkable 

 result is that France is found to be 3,000 square 

 miles larger than was supposed. 



Professor S. P. Langley contributes to the 

 May " Philosophical Magazine " an important 

 paper upon "The Internal Work of the Wind," 

 in which he shows that there is no such thing as 

 a "steady wind," for it always, whatever the 

 strength, consists of a succession of very brief 

 pulsations of varying amplitude. 



Alexander Theodor von Middendorff, the 

 explorer of Siberia, and zoologist, died recently at his 

 house in Livonia. He was seventy-nine years old. 

 For twelve years he was Secretary of the Russian 

 Academy of Science. He published many zoo- 

 logical works, which, with physical studies, com- 

 manded for him a European reputation. 



The Selborne Field Club has arranged for the 

 following Saturday rambles : — May 26th, Feltham, 

 Middlesex, to Hanworth; June 2nd, Pinner, Oxhey 

 Woods and Watford ; June gth, The Brent, 

 Perivale and Horsenton Hill, Middlesex ; June 

 16th, Theydon Bois to Epping, Essex ; June 23rd, 

 Shepperton, Middlesex ; June 30th, Rye House to 

 Ware. 



The residue of the legacy of the late Richard 

 Berridge, amounting to ^25,000, has been placed 

 in trust for the endowment of a laboratory for 

 bacteriological and chemical examination of public 

 water supply. The large laboratory in course of 

 erection at Chelsea is progressing rapidly, under 

 the direction of the British Institute of Preventive 

 Medicine. 



The past winter was exceptionally wet and 

 sunless over the northern portion of the British 

 Isles. During the ug days previous to March 14th 

 last, the rainfall (including melted snow) at the 

 Observatory on Ben Nevis, reached 104.30 inches, 

 and there was only a total of 23.7 hours of bright 

 sunshine. There was but one hour of sunshine 

 in the month of December. 



In a paper read before the Society of Arts, 

 Mr. Chapman Jones points out what a very small 

 proportion of the 4,000 professional and many 

 thousands of amateur photographers of this country 

 know anything of the chemistry or science of 

 photography. 



The naturalist to the Fishery Board for Scotland 

 contributes to the May number of " Annals and 

 Mag. of Nat. Hist." an interesting paper on the 

 rarer Crustacea of the Dogger-Bank. Some of the 

 species found have not before been recorded from 

 the British seas. 



A course of five Saturday afternoon lectures, 

 by Mr. F. E. Beddard, F.R.S., Prosector to the 

 Zoological Society, commencing May igth, are to be 

 given in the lecture room of the Society's Gardens, 

 Regent's Park. The subject is "Sketches in 

 Geographical Distribution." The fee for the 

 course is five shillings, including admission to the 

 gardens. 



The rare phenomenon of an iridescent band has 

 again been observed on one of our English lakes — 

 this time Windermere. It takes the form of a long 

 line of intense prismatic colours on the surface of 

 the water. Among the few previous records of its 

 appearance is one in 1851, and another about 

 twenty years ago, on Windermere and Derwent- 

 water respectively. 



" The International Journal of Microscopy and 

 Natural Science" for the quarter ending April is 

 excellent (if we except its many-worded title). 

 The leading feature is the commencement of a 

 series of articles by Dr. F. Vincentini, of Chieti, 

 in Italy, upon the " Cryptogamic Flora of the 

 Mouth." This first memoir deals with the bacteria 

 found in the sputa of whooping-cough. The sub- 

 ject is illustrated by a successfully produced coloured 

 plate. Among other good papers, there is a smart 

 article by Mrs. Alice Bodington, scientifically com- 

 bating the vegetarian theory of human diet. 



We have received an attractive prospectus of 

 Mr. Fred Enock's popular lectures on insect and 

 spider life, and having had the pleasure of listening 

 to several of those mentioned, we gladly call the 

 attention of natural history societies to them. 

 Mr. Enock's lantern slides are very beautiful and 

 all from his original drawings of nature, whilst his 

 explanatory matter is likewise original, bright and 

 witty, entirely devoid of technicalities yet wonder- 

 fully exact ; a very refreshing contrast to the cold 

 hash of scraps and fragments of books, that too 

 often do duty as the " popular science lecture." 

 The prospectus may be obtained on application to 

 Mr. F. Enock, F.L.S., F.E.S., 11, Parolles Road, 

 Upper Holloway, London, N. 



East Sheen Common.- — Nature lovers will be 

 sorry to learn that a large part of the surface of 

 this secluded Surrey Common has been denuded of 

 furze, bracken, and other wild growths, to make* 

 way for golfers, much to the indignation and dis- 

 tress of the inhabitants of Richmond and Sheen. 

 This has been done by the consent of a body of 

 gentlemen calling themselves the East Sheen 

 Common Preservation (!) Society, who have secured 

 the manorial rights from Earl Spencer by purchase. 

 A vigorous agitation, headed and directed by the 

 local branch of the Selborne Society, is urging 

 upon the Barnes Local Board the propriety of 

 securing this open space, and thus wresting it from 

 further destruction. When the furze is in flower 

 and the surrounding orchards are in bloom the spot 

 is well worth a visit. 



