Teb. 1, 1SG5.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



suitable for the gape of his royal mouth ? All 

 this with eye and lens I carefully noted, also the 

 gradual diminution of tlie mass and its total dis- 

 appearance down the gullet of the animal. All was 

 eugulphed, not a particle or vestige remained. Erora 

 first to last the performance occupied just twenty 

 minutes, and 1 would that every twenty minutes in 

 a man's existence were as pleasantly and as profit- 

 ably spent. During this time I never once removed 

 my eyes from my little friend. Had he been disposed 

 to play me a scurvy trick by tossing tlie pelletover- 

 board, or otherwise attempting to conceal it, he 

 could not have done so. Such an act \vould not 

 have escaped my vigilant eye. The various processes 

 through which the pellet passed, and its gradual 

 consumption, all tending to one en.d, preclude tlie 

 possibility of my arriving at any other conclusion 

 that that which the poet affirmed when he said that 

 spiders eat their own icehs. Mter the conclusion of 

 the experiment, I took the animal into my hand and 

 overhauled every part of his body most carefully 

 w ith my Coddington lens, but failed to discover any 

 trace of the missing web. I might have killed and 

 dissected the object of my study and should probably 

 have exhumed some portion of the web from his 

 stomach, but had I done so, it would not have strength- 

 ened ray faith in the poet's statement which from 

 henceforth I think should be received by a prosy 

 pubbc not as a fiction of the poet's brain, but as 

 a well-authenticated fact. T. K. 



THE PRESERVATIVE POWER OE FERNS. 



Doubtless many of the readers of this journal 

 wiien passing the shops of large fruiterers in London 

 and elsewhere Jiave observed apples, pears, and otiier 

 fruit packed in hampers containing fern-leaves, and 

 had they but inquired why these leaves in particular 

 vrere used, the more intelligent of tlie vendors would 

 probably have told them they assisted in preserving 

 the fruit from mildew and decay. Some years ago, 

 when residing in the Isle of Man, I noticed that the 

 bracken [Fteris aquilina) was in large demand for 

 packing the fresh-caught herring forv/ardcd daily 

 by steamboats to the Liverpool markets; and more 

 recently, during a brief sojourn at Erodsliam, in 

 Cheshire, brackens were collected on the Overton 

 hill to line the hampers of new potatoes transmitted 

 to the ilanchester markets. Upon my return to the 

 north of England, in a year when the potatoe disease 

 was threatening the destruction of that valuable 

 esculent, the rector of a parish in my neighbourhood 

 \\l my suggestion induced one of his farmers to 

 "hog" his winter potatoes on the "-round where they 

 grew, and to cover them withbradcen instead of I he 

 customary straw. The farmer, sceptical about the 

 result, only covered half the "hog" with ferns, 

 leaving the other half protected by straw ; earlh- 

 ing and sodding up the mound to exclude rain 

 and frost. Winter arrived, and the " hog '_' was 

 opened for a fresh supply of tubers, when it was 

 discovered that those potatoes which had been 

 stored in brackens were sound and good, whilst 

 those protected by stravf were so much decayetl as 

 to be scarcely worth the labour of removing. To 

 rne this experiment was very satisfactory and sug- 

 gestive. 



That ferns contain- some peculiar preservative 

 property there can be little doubt. Both the brac- 

 ken and male fern abound in alkaline matterj which 



was once used by the manufacturers of soap and 

 glass, and their astringent properties are well known 

 to country people, and the dressers of leather. I 

 believe the aroma from this fanjily of plants to be 

 repugnant to most insects and inimical to tlie growth 

 of that species of fungi known as mould. I cannot 

 now recall to my recollection ever having seen the 

 larvffi of any lepidopterous insect feeding upon tlie 

 fronds of oui- common ferns, nor do 1 remember 

 having noticed insects of any orders resting upon 

 thpm unless it were for shelter during a shower of 

 rain. The peculiar odour thrown off by ferns must 

 be familiar to all who liave wandered near their place 

 of growth. Is it due to an essential oil ? The 

 Russian leather so much prized in this country for 

 its enduring properties and grateful smell is said to 

 be prepared with oil distilled from the bircli tree, 

 and it lias been stated that bales of this valuable 

 leather frequently lie for months in damp ware- 

 houses at the London Docks without spotting or 

 being otherwise injured by mildew. That essential 

 oils of all kinds will prevent to a great extent the 

 growth of fungi, we have but to mix a few drops in. 

 our flour-paste and see how long a time we may keep 

 it unattacked by their sporules. Eerns boiled up 

 with our paste Avould probably answer the same 

 purpose. Hops, also, possess antiseptic properties, 

 and dead game has been preserved in them for a 

 lengthened period without showing any signs of de- 

 composition. The root of the male shield-fern 

 [Lastrea filix mas\ when administered in the form of 

 powder or decoction, is a powerful antlielmintic, and 

 is frequently made use of for the expulsion of that 

 pest of our race— the tape-worm. The young nnex- 

 panded fronds of this fern when cooked are said to 

 be equal to asparagus. Dried ferns make a most 

 enduring thatch for outbuildings on the farm, and 

 should be largely used for the bedding of all animals 

 affected with entozoaic diseases — the pig in particu- 

 lar. If in some parts of Germany and Denmark 

 beech leaves are used to stuff mattresses in which 

 fleas and bugs cannot exist, I think the poor 

 of our own land might profitably collect the dead 

 fronds of our ferns for the same purpose and ensure 

 the same immunity from these midnight tormentors. 

 Heading. H. M. 



SNAKE STONES. 



Allow me to call attention to the following state- 

 ment, copied from No. 139 of All the Year Round— ^ 

 "Description of a Snake-stone on the Island of 

 Corfu, Ionian Isles. — Description of the Blue Stone. 

 — This stone is of an oval shape, \^ long, ^ broad, 

 ■^ thick, and having been broken formerly, is now 

 set in gold. 



"When a person is bitten by a poisonous snake, 

 the bite must be opened by a cut of a lancet or razor 

 longways, and the stone applied within twenty-four 

 hours. " The stone then attaches itself iirmly on the 

 wound, and when it has done its oflicc falls off; the 

 cure is then complete. The stone must then be 

 thrown into milk, whereupon it vomits the poison it 

 has absorbed, which remains green upon the top of 

 the milk, and the stone is then again lit for use. 



" This stone has been from time immemoriann 

 the family of Ventura, of Corfu, a house of Italian 

 origin, and is notorious, so that peasants imme- 

 diately apply for its aid. Its virtue has not been 

 impaired by the fracture ; its nature or composition 

 , is unknown. 



