'44 



SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



The exhibits of the German chemical industry 

 at the Paris Exposition, valued at £30.000, have 

 been presented to the Technological Institute of 

 the University of Berlin. 



The Fifth International Zoological Congress' 

 recently held in Berlin, has been most successful - 

 At no previous Congress have so many papers of 

 importance been read, nor have there attended 

 persons of greater fame in the world of science. 



Between two and three hundred implements of 

 palaeolithic date have recently been found at 

 Knowle Farm, on the borders of Savernake 

 Forest. They were chiefly of flint, well finished, 

 and were obtained from a pit which was opened in 

 a high-level valley gravel. 



The sessions of the Birkbeck Institution and 

 City of London College for 1901-2 commence on 

 September 30th. We would remind our readers 

 that each of these institutions devotes especial 

 attention to tuition in various branches of science 

 at practically nominal fees. 



In the September number of the '-Journal of 

 the Board of Agriculture " are several popular 

 articles upon scientific subjects appertaining to 

 agriculture and horticulture. One is upon "the 

 Colorado beetle, Boryphora decemlineata, by Mr. 

 F. V. Theobald, which is illustrated by a coloured 

 plate by Mr. F. W. Frohawk, showing the trans- 

 formations of this noxious beetle. 



Some time ago ~we received a copy of the first 

 number of the journal " Climat," which is pub- 

 lished in four languages— namely, Eussian, French, 

 English, and German — in parallel columns. This 

 journal is devoted to inquiry into weather fore- 

 casts. The English agents are Hugh Rees, Limited, 

 124 Pall Mall, S.W. It is issued monthly, the sub- 

 scription being 16s. per annum. 



The Report and Transactions of the Guernsey 

 Society for Natural Science is to hand. It con- 

 tains a considerable amount of information of 

 more than local interest. The Society appears to 

 be prosperous, and there is reference to most of the 

 different orders of animals occurring in the island ; 

 but curiously the marine fauna, which is among 

 the richest in Western Europe, appears to be almost 

 entirely neglected. 



The Twenty-first Annual Report of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of Ontario, being for the year 1900, 

 is, as usual, full of useful insect lore. An important 

 paper by Mr. W. E. Saunders is included, upon the 

 planting, care and pruning of trees in parks and 

 streets in cities. The writer refers to the "glaring- 

 examples of distrust in the Creator's good taste 

 and ability to grow a tree properly."" We can 

 assure him that the same distrust exists among our 

 English municipal authorities, who delight to copy 

 the arboreal outlines as impressed upon their 

 memories when, as children, they studied arbori- 

 culture in the toy Noah's Ark. 



A NEW journal devoted to optics made its 

 appearance last month. It is an imposing produc- 

 tion, well printed on fine paper. It appears to be 

 largely a trade journal, though the first number con- 

 tains several articles interesting to the lay reader. 

 It is published by Marshall & Brooks, of London. 



The Governors of Cheltenham College have been 

 left a valuable collection of birds, consisting of 

 between 6,000 and 7,000 specimens, by the late 

 Mr. H. M. Courage, of Snowdenham Hall, Bramley. 

 He presented a few years before his death a 

 representative collection of British birds to the 

 Hobart Museum, Tasmania. 



We have received a reprint from the " Proceed- 

 ings of the South London Entomological Society " 

 which deals with the ova of lepidoptera, by Mr. 

 F. Noad Clark, who has had great success in photo- 

 graphing these eggs, especially when taking into 

 account the difficulty of obtaining good photographs 

 of opaque microscopic objects. 



Among the recently published handbooks issued 

 from the Manchester Museum is a useful index, 

 compiled by Mr. Charles Davis Sherborn, of the 

 generic and specific names of animals described by 

 Linnaeus in the tenth and twelfth editions of his 

 " Systema Naturae." This work, which is published 

 at 3s. 6d., will save much trouble to those interested 

 in priority of nomenclature. 



The Kensington Popular Science Lectures for 

 Young People will be continued this autumn. The 

 first course, entitled " Peeps into Nature's Secrets," 

 will be delivered at 5 p.m. on Thursdays from 

 October 17th to December 5th inclusive. The 

 lecturers will be Cecil Carus- Wilson, F.G.S. ; the 

 Rev. J. O. Bevan, M.A., F.G.S. ; Alfred H. Fison, 

 D.Sc. ; and Professor J. B. Farmer, F.R.S. 



Operations for sinking the main shaft at the 

 Dover Colliery have been lately resumed, and 

 before our next issue appears it is expected that 

 the first seam of coal will be reached. Our 

 readers will remember that an illustrated article 

 appeared in Science-Gossip, in the November and 

 , December numbers 1897, giving sections of the 

 trial boring. The seam now nearly reached is 

 that shown on page 159, at 1,136 feet depth. 



The earthquake which occurred in Scotland 

 during September was rather more energetic than 

 often occurs in the British islands. Fortunately 

 earthquakes in Britain are rarely of sufficient 

 consequence to create more damage than passing 

 alarm. We can readily imagine the result of a 

 few inches' earth strain in any of our large cities, 

 from the uncoupling of the joints of water and 

 gas-piping. In London, for instance, such an 

 event might cost millions of pounds to rectify ; 

 besides the attendant inconvenience and danger. 



It is now well known that there was a sporadic 

 occurrence of the Colorado beetle, in various 

 stages, during the past summer in some potato 

 allotments at Tilbury, in Essex. Every precaution 

 was taken to destroy the pest. The field, having 

 been covered with straw sprinkled with petroleum, 

 was fired and then treated to a thick dressing of 

 gas-lime. We had an account of this event set up 

 in type for insertion in Science-Gossip on its 

 occurrence ; but at the request of the authorities 

 we abstained from publishing it. As, however, the 

 fact has appeared in newspapers and elsewhere, 

 there seems to b3 no further reason for withholding 

 our note. 



