SCIENCE- G OS SI P. 



2 43 



Mr. Arthur John Evans, Keeper of the Ash- 

 rnolean Museum at Oxford, has been elected 

 Corresponding Member of the Munich Academy of 

 Sciences. 



The business of Abraham Flatters, microscopy 

 Supply Agency, of Manchester, has latterly so 

 rapidly increased that he has had to make it into 

 a limited company. New premises have been 

 acquired at 48 Deansgate, where the concern -will 

 be carried on, in addition to the old address, as 

 Flatters and Garnett, Limited. 



In his address to the Eoyal Society, the pre- 

 sident, Sir William Huggins, referred to two events 

 of the past year as unusually important. The one 

 was the new star in the constellation of Perseus, 

 which flashed into brilliant light in February last. 

 The second was the rapprochement between scien- 

 tific societies and education, in which a new 

 departure was made when for the first time the 

 subject was discussed by a special section at the 

 British Association meeting. 



Professor Neumayer, head of the Hamburg- 

 Naval Observatory, has written a letter to Herr 

 Kirchoff on the prediction of fog. The letter is 

 interesting in view of the scientific inquiries under- 

 taken in London on this subject. Professor Neu- 

 mayer advocates the increased use of kites and 

 kite balloons, as well as the free balloon. He 

 points out that in order to advance the science of 

 meteorology, -and consequently that of weather 

 prediction, it is absolutely necessary to know 

 the condition of the higher layers of the atmo- 

 sphere. 



In the December number of " Pearson's Maga- 

 zine," Mr. W. D. Hulbert continues his interesting 

 series on the natural history of the Glimmerglass 

 Lake in Northern Michigan, U.S.A. That number 

 deals with the life history of the Great Northern 

 Diver, and, like the former articles, is written in 

 popular form, from the bird's point of view. Thereare 

 several beautiful illustrations by Mr. W. M. Hardy. 

 Former articles dealt with the arboreal porcupine 

 (Erethiyon dor sat us), the beaver ( Castor canadensis), 

 and the mule deer (Cariacns macrotis). 



Many people have written to the papers de- 

 scribing a brilliant meteor seem about six o'clock 

 on the evening of December 4th. It appears to 

 have been visible all over the South of England, 

 for accounts of its apjaearance come from Margate, 

 South Devon, Stroud, Henley, Portsmouth, Bir- 

 mingham, and Eaton Bray, Beds. Its duration 

 seems to have been about five seconds. This topic 

 naturally suggests the account given in "Nature" 

 of the experiments made at Juvisy Observatory in 

 August last to determine the height of meteors. 

 The lowest record of height was 15 kilometres and 

 the highest 119, or not quite 74 miles. 



A letter to the " Standard," signed " Ignotus," 

 on " Coxintry Parishes and Insanity," reveals a very 

 grave state of affairs. The writer says :- " I am in 

 charge of a small parish, under 300 inhabitants, 

 and have been for the last five years. During that 

 time one in every eight that have been buried was 

 insane. At the present time two are in the lunatic 

 asylum and two in the workhouse, perfect imbeciles. 

 In the parish itself are four who are harmless, but 

 of very weak intellect. Among the school children 

 there are some half-dozen with intellects much 

 below par, and I have grave doubts as to their 

 ability to earn their own living. . . . Everybody is 

 related to everybody else." 



Young Hedgehogs.— Mr. Robert Patterson, 

 writing to the " Irish Naturalist," describes some 

 young hedgehogs born in captivity in September 

 last. They were born blind and the teeth were 

 below the gums. Ears and snouts were unlike 

 adult form. They were each 2J inches long at 

 birth and weighed three quarters of an ounce, and 

 absence of hair on the body was a character at 

 their birth. 



Eresus Cinnabarinus.— I have received for 

 examination a fine specimen of -Eresus cinnabarinus, 

 a spider very rare in Britain and one whose syste- 

 matic position has for long been a bone of contention 

 amongst arachnologists. This species may be at 

 once recognised, at least in the male sex, by 



Ereuis cinnabarinus. 



reason of its brilliant markings of scarlet and 

 white upon a jet black ground-colouring. The 

 eyes, too, are placed in a very unusual position, 

 but they are somewhat difficult to detect. Four 

 eyes form a large quadrilateral figure upon the 

 upper surface of the caput, the remaining eyes 

 being arranged in a very small quadrilateral upon 

 the anterior side of the larger one. The specimen 

 was taken in Dorset, about five miles from Bourne- 

 mouth, on April 22nd, 1900, by Mr. Richard L. 

 Thompson, to whom I wish to accord my best 

 thanks for recording his capture and for forwarding 

 it to me for illustration. I have therefore made 

 the accompanying drawing for reproduction. — 

 Frank P. Smith, 1 5 Cloudedey Place, Islington. 



