SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



189 



CONTRIBUTED BY FLORA WINSTONE. 



Comptes Rendus (Paris, September 19th). MM. 

 A. Le Chatelier and P. Chapuy, contribute a 

 note on the enamelled colours of porcelain in great 

 heat. They give the chemical composition of 

 various colours. Blue of erbium is composed of 

 eight constituents ; erbium green and red, of seven 

 each. The authors are conducting further experi- 

 ments, the results of which will be published at a 

 future date. MM. Hermite and Besani;on give the 

 results of their observation during the ascents of the 

 balloons "Aerophile" and " Balaschoff " in June 

 last. They state that to their great surprise, they 

 have discovered that the balloon "Balaschoff" 

 described, a little after its departure, a complete 

 spiral upon a cylinder with an elliptical base, the 

 axis of which was 600 m. in diameter, and was 

 parallel to the average direction of the wind. 

 The spiral column was probably due to the 

 tempestuous state of the atmosphere. The descent 

 of the balloon was followed by a heavy shower of 

 rain preceded by several peals of thunder. (Septem- 

 ber 26th.) M. Edward Griffon supplies a note 

 upon the assimilation of chlorophyll by seashore 

 plants. He has been devoting his attention more 

 especially to the flora which is common alike to 

 the seashore and to soils less rich in chloride of 

 soda. The greater number of these plants have a 

 peculiar appearance. They have been described 

 by M. Constantin, in his work upon the "Flora 

 of the Seashore," as being thicker in the leaves, 

 stems and fruit, paler in the green tint, and in some 

 cases having an abundant production of hairs. 

 These conclusions have been verified by M. 

 Lesage, who has compared a number of plants 

 from the seashore and inland. He has also been 

 able to show that it is the action of the salt that 

 produces these changes. In his experiments on 

 the assimilation of chlorophyll by plants on the 

 seashore, M. Griffon took every care when compar- 

 ing leaves of maritime and inland species that they 

 should be picked on the same day and hour and 

 sent to him from equal distances. He found that 

 the leaves of seashore plants under the influence of 

 sea-salt have less chlorophyll than the same species 

 inland, but they acquire a greater thickness and a 

 more marked development of the assimilating tissue. 

 M. H. D. Maubeuge reports, by letter to the 

 President of the Academy of Sciences, the 

 observation of the green ray at the moment of the 

 sun rising. At six in the morning, he says, just as 

 the sun was rising behind Mount Sinai, at the first 

 second of his appearance a luminous emerald-green 

 ray was observed. The phenomenon was seen by 

 a dozen persons on the steamer " Ernest-Simon." 

 The atmosphere was in a state of great purity. 

 M. Maubeuge concludes from his observations that 

 (1) the phenomenon of the green ray is absolutely 

 objective; (2) that the horizon of the sea is not 

 necessary for this coloration ; (3) that there can 

 be no other suggestion to account for the observa- 

 tion, as it was seen simultaneously and instantane- 

 ously by several unbiassed people. 



Cosmos (Paris, September 17th). M. E. Prisse 

 d'Avennes continues his interesting and well- 

 illustrated article on " The History of Egyptian 

 Arms." In this number he describes various 

 forms of axes and clubs, tracing a decided simi- 

 larity between the latter in the time of the 

 Pharaohs and those used in the present day by 

 Ethiopians and Arabs. The one figured is made 

 from the wood of the acacia tree, and is orna- 

 mented with hieroglyphics denoting that it 

 belonged to the retinue of a Queen of Egypt, but 

 under which Pharaoh is uncertain. The axes of 

 Osiris I. closely resemble tomahawks, both in 

 structure and use. (24th September.) The ivory of 

 mammoths forms the subject of an article by 

 M. W. de Fonvielle. During the tertiary period 

 there were at least four different species of elephants 

 abundant in Europe, especially in France. Of 

 these the last to disappear was the mammoth, 

 Eiephas primigenius. The skeletons have been 

 found in various places in a more or less perfect 

 state of preservation, and in Siberia in particular 

 the ivory tusks of the mammoth preserved in the 

 natural glaciers are not in a fossil condition, but 

 perfectly fresh and suitable to be used. At 

 Gakoiitsk, a small town upon the borders of the 

 Lena, a regular trade is carried on in the tusks of 

 the mammoths, some being exported to China, and 

 a considerable quantity to Europe. (October 1st.) 

 M. G. Espitallier writes on an acetylene generator 

 recently designed by M. Roger de Montais, in 

 which crushed carbide is placed in spherical cases 

 pierced with holes, so that the water can penetrate 

 freely to the carbide. M. L'Abbe Nognier gives 

 an account of the exhibition of Turin, which is 

 universal for electrical exhibits, but exclusively 

 national in other departments. Photographs are 

 given of one or two of the buildings, also of a 

 double-expansion 500 h.p. steam motor, built by 

 Signor Tosi, of Leghorn, and another, vertical, of 

 250 h.p., giving 270 revolutions a minute. M. 

 A. Duponchel continues his series of papers on a 

 new theory in cosmogony. 



The Victorian Naturalist (Melbourne, 

 September, 1898). Mr. G. Shephard contributes 

 an interesting paper upon " Some Animals Reared 

 from Dried Mud." After the summer season, in 

 March last, he gathered some of the baked mud at 

 the bottom of a pond at Brighton near Melbourne, 

 and filled a two-ounce bottle from the deepest part 

 of the pond. Having previously failed to rear 

 animals from desiccated pond mud by adding water 

 to it, Mr. Shephard kept it until the rainy season 

 and let nature soak it in the natural manner. The 

 process was quite successful, and the author gives 

 a list of the microscopic animals he found to have 

 emerged. They include Protozoa, Entomostraca 

 and Rotifera ; the last in some numbers. The 

 author considers this method of working pond life 

 a very convenient one. By this system he was 

 enabled to study at least three species of rotifers 

 for a period of over one month, and the Entomos- 

 traca long enough to go through their development 

 to the adult form. The identification of a butterfly 

 new to the Australian fauna is recorded by Mr. 

 Geo. Lyell, Jun. It was taken near Palmerston, . 

 Northern Territory, where it was not rare in 

 January, 1877. The species is Atella phalanta 

 Drury, a well-known insect inhabiting Africa, 

 Southern Asia and the Malay Archipelago. There 

 is also an account of an eagle which attacked a dog 

 tending cattle. It lifted the dog, which weighed 

 twenty-five pounds, some height ; but the dog 

 seized a wing and held it until a boy killed the bird. 



