2IO 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Revue Biologique du Nord de la France 

 (Lille, August and September, 1894). — Messrs. 

 Th. Barrois and Von Daday contribute a lengthy 

 paper on The Rotifers of Syria, which is illustrated 

 with numerous woodcuts in the text ; several new 

 species are described for the first time. A litho- 

 graphic plate with twenty-four figures accompanies 

 the text. Mr. A. Malaquin describes the poly- 

 chasta, collected during the voyage of the " Melita," 

 on the west coasts of the Atlantic ocean. A very 

 interesting and important paper is contributed by 

 Professor R.- Moniez on The Natural History of 

 Tydeus molestus, a mite which first appeared in 

 great abundance, in 1888, in the gardens of a large 

 farm in Belgium, near Ath. The proprietors had 

 observed the astonishing rapidity with which this 

 pest multiplied ; it had been noticed about twenty- 

 five years before, consequent on a direct importation 

 of guano from Peru ; the sacks containing the 

 manure had been placed on a lawn, and it is 

 believed the invasion was thereby caused. This 

 parasite appears not to develop at all in the fields 

 of the farm, neither is it found in the neighbouring 

 farms. This animal, unknown hitherto, began to 

 multiply prodigiously ; confined at first for some 

 time to the same corner, it at once commenced to 

 invade the whole garden, so as to make it almost 

 uninhabitable. It was impossible to walk over 

 the lawns or near the trees without bringing 

 a number of these disagreeable animals on 

 the body. It does not confine itself to man, but 

 attacks indiscriminately chickens, ducks, cats, 

 dogs, and it has been known to cause the death of 

 young ducklings. A full description of the animal, 

 with several analytical and other illustrations in 

 the text completes the paper. The same author 

 has also a contribution on Some Species of Tyrogly- 

 p hides, and another on The Caterpillar of Neivnia 

 popularis, which were observed in May, this year, in 

 immense quantities, devastating the pastures in the 

 department of l'Aisne. Various remedies for the 

 plague are suggested. 



Feuille des Jeunes Naturalistes (Paris, 

 October, 1894). M. G. Dollfus brings his memoir 

 on The Geology of Spitzbergen to a conclusion. 

 The author states that the new collections made by 

 the naturalists of " la Manche " (on which this 

 paper is based) confirm the oldest discoveries of 

 " la Recherche," which fifty years of conscientious 

 work have singularly perfected, and that this far, 

 ice-bound land is at the present day one of the best 

 known regions of the globe. That all these studies 

 have upset the theory of a permanent polar cold 

 period, and in addition prove that the seas of 

 former ages have occupied all points of the globe 

 at several successive periods with all imaginable 

 combinations of successive submergence and 

 emergence on the various regions of its surface. 

 The glacial epoch is an incident in the history of 

 the globe, the effects of which persist in the polar 

 region, but which appear to be gradually diminish- 

 ing. The field is open for astronomic theories to 



give a sound explanation of these facts now well 

 established. The Rev. J. J. Kiefer also concludes 

 his series of articles on The Larva of Cecidomya. 

 Mr. P. Langer, writing from London, records a 

 very interesting observation, illustrating the habits 

 of young cuckoos. While staying at Aurigny, a 

 small island on the Normandy coast, he observed a 

 bird which had just alighted on the branch of a 

 shrub near the ground, which proved to be a 

 cuckoo. Shortly after he saw a little bird, of the 

 size of a sparrow, and to his surprise, he observed 

 this bird alight quietly on the back of the cuckoo, 

 who, turning its head round, received its food from 

 what appeared to be its foster-parent, and during 

 three quarters of an hour he watched the frequent 

 repetition of this operation, which, he observes, 

 was very striking from the fact of the young bird 

 being ten times the size of its foster-parent. 



Maandblad voor Natuurwetenschappen. 

 (Amsterdam, October, 1894.) O n Saturated solu- 

 tions of Magnesium Chloride and Potassium Sulphate, or 

 Magnesium sulphate and Potassium chloride, by Herr 

 Richard Lowenherz. This paper being of too tech- 

 nical a character to be summarised here, we must 

 refer readers interested in the subject to the paper 

 itself, which remark applies equally to the next paper, 

 by Messrs. E. Cohen and G. Bredig, on The Transi- 

 tion Element, and a new method of its application. 

 Dr. Treub, the Director of the Botanic Garden at 

 Buitenzorg (Java), has published a second edition 

 of the " Catalogue du Jardin Botanique," and 

 requests the editors to inform the readers that any 

 naturalist desiring to obtain a copy can- address 

 himself to the director, when it will be sent gratis 

 to the address indicated. 



Nachrichtsblatt der Deutschen Malako- 

 zoologischen Gesellschaft. (Frankfort-on- 

 Main, September-October, 1894.) The Mollusca 

 Fauna of the Old Pleistocene Travertine of the Lime-tuff 

 Becken of Weimar -Taubach, by Dr. Arthur Weiss. 

 An exhaustive list of all the shells found in this 

 formation, the present first instalment numbering 109 

 species. Neiv Landshells from the Palearctic Regions, 

 by Dr. C. A. Westerlund. Thirty-three new 

 species and varieties are described, and English 

 conchologists will perhaps be somewhat surprised 

 to learn that even England has produced one of 

 these new species (?), a single specimen having 

 been found in a collection of Helix rufesceus, near 

 London. We must well question the likelihood of 

 new species being found in a country so diligently 

 searched as is England, and particularly the neigh- 

 bourhood of large towns ; still more must we 

 protest against the practice of establishing new 

 species upon single specimens, more especially in 

 so difficult a group as that to which H. rufescens 

 belongs. 



Erythea. (Berkeley, California, September, 

 1894). Chapters in the Early History of Hepaticology, 

 Part II,, by Marshall A. Howe. Transcripts of 

 some Descriptions of Californian Genera and Species, 

 Part II., by J. Burtt Davy. We learn from a note 

 in this publication that Professor Greene is on a 

 visit to Europe, his object being to examine and 

 critically study the types of Pacific coast-plants, 

 collected by early explorers, which are in the 

 various herbaria of Kew, the British Museum, 

 Paris, Berlin and Geneva, and duplicates of which 

 are nowhere else. Haanke, Menzies, Eschscholtz, 

 Nuttall, Douglas and Hartweg are some of the 

 explorers whose collections will be examined by 

 Professor Greene at the "Mecca of Systematic 

 Botanists," as Kew is significantly termed. 



