40 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[FiiB. 1, 1SG5. 



in tlie aquarium ; tliey always crawl out if they have 

 the opportunity, seeming to eschew the very element 

 tliey are generally found in ■when caught. _ These 

 effel s readily took food from the hand, particularly 

 if it was rubbed against their noses ; they seemed 

 almost too sluggish to take much trouble in the 

 matter else. I gave them small worms, gentles, and 

 ants' eggs ; they seized them with a bite, and got 

 them down with a series of gulps. But I hardly 

 ever fed them, perhaps not more than a dozen times 

 altogether, as my object was to combine business 

 with pleasure; tiie fern-case, in common with most 

 others, I expect, being at times much blighted with 

 green fly. I first put in lizards, to try and keep 

 tlicm down, but could not keep the lizards alive for 

 any length of time, owing, I think, to the dampness 

 of the case not being suitable to their constitutions, 

 and their active habits making tliem reqiure more 

 food than they could obtain. _ I then tried small 

 toads, and had the same luck with them as with the 

 lizards. My third venture, the nev/ts, were a great 

 success ; they soon cleared oft" all the green fly within 

 reach, crawling to nearly the top of the ponds for 

 that purpose. I have never had any trouble with 

 the green fly since their introduction to the case, 

 which has recently been removed into the country, 

 and advise all fern-growers to try this simple remedy. 

 — //. F., Jim. 



Voracity of Sea Anemones. — llavjng kept a 

 marine aquarium for a considerable period, on one 

 occasion I noticed that a specimen of the common 

 smooth anemone {Actinia me&eriihnjanthemuni) which 

 for some time previous had been adhering to the 

 side 01 the tank, had become detached, and was then 

 floating, base upwards, on the surface of the water, 

 and directly over a jutting piec-3 of rock, about two 

 inches below, on which was adhering a tine specimen 

 of the daisy anemone {Sagarlia belliti). Having 

 occasion to look into the tank a few hours after- 

 wards, my attention was arrested by the peculiar 

 apiiearance of the daisy, the top of which then 

 apjjeared of a bright red colour. A closer inspec- 

 tion, however, sliowed this red to be a portion of 

 the red mesembryanthemum, which had been seized 

 by tlie tentacles of the daisy, and was being drawn 

 slowly and surely into its stouuich. A few minutes 

 afterwards it disappeared, while the daisy beautifully 

 expanded, as if enjoying the meal. Here, then, was 

 an illustration of a fact in naluial history of which 

 I had been ignorant, and which I have not seen 

 noticed in any work on the subject, namely, that 

 sea anemones will feed on their own species. And 

 here also is a possible solution of the mystery 

 attending the occasional disappearance of a speci- 

 men on which some store has been set. — IF. //, C. 



A Squirrel fond of Toadstools.— Walking in 

 the pleasure grounds of my home in Warwickshire 

 one morning in September, some years ago, I 

 noticed a tall, well-grown toadstool springing up 

 from the grass in a grove of t rces. Being perfectly 

 ignorant of " fungi " I can only say that this one 

 was quite white throughout, and in shape like a well- 

 expanded mushroom on a taller stem. A little 

 squirrel descended from one of the trees, and made 

 straight for the toadstool without noticing me, 

 felled it in the neatest and most workman-like man- 

 ner, by biting through its stem close to the ground ; 

 then, taking it in iis mouth by the stem, he ran up 

 the tree from which he hatl descended, and, having 

 found a convenient seat, proceeded to cat the toad- 

 stool with much apparent satisfaction. A friend of 

 Uiine has since told me that he had witnessed a 



similar incident in his own garden in Staffordshire, 

 but I do not know whether the toadstool chosen by 

 Ids squirrel was of a similar kind. Perhaps some 

 of your readers may be able to inform me whether 

 fungi are known to constitute a portion of the 

 staple diet of squirrels, or are only reverted to in 

 the dearth of other food ; also whether they will eat 

 all kinds indiscriminately. — J. 



A Martin in Difficulty.— A young martin (at 

 Bochester, in Kent) had the misfortune to become 

 entangled in what appeared to me, at a short dis- 

 tance, to be a piece of thread. Having no means of 

 extricating it, I was obliged to content myself witli 

 watching the cilbrts it made to eft'ect its liberty, and 

 the manoeuvres of its parents for that same object 

 Occasionally it struggled violently until exhausted, 

 and then would remain quiet until it had recovered 

 a little strength, when it renewed its struggles. In 

 the meantime, the old birds showed their distress iii 

 loud twitterings, and by circling romid their hapless 

 oifspring, frequently flying full tilt against it, pro- 

 bably trusting _ that the impetus they thus gave 

 viould be sufficient to release the captive. At last 

 one of the parents managed to alight upon its young 

 one, but the additional weight was insufficient to 

 break the thread ; the other parent then clung on 

 also, but still without success, and after trying this 

 several times, they seemed to become disheartened, 

 and relinquished their efforts, leaving; the young bird 

 to its fate ; but this was more propitious than might 

 liave been expected, and I had the pleasure of at 

 last seeing the persevering efforts crowned with suc- 

 cess, its repeated endeavours (like water which by 

 constant dropping wears away stone) in time wore 

 awav the thread, and its release was attained. — 



A. n. F. 



Elesii-worm Disease. — Trichinosis is a malady 

 of the human frame v.-Jiich has probably raged witli_ 

 unremitting virulence for six thousand years, but of 

 which man has unfortunately lived in profound igno- 

 rance ; it has been working insidiously, concealed, 

 underground I was about to say, but I only mean 

 nnder-skin. How great has been our loss I need 

 scarcely say; let us at once seek to repair it: six 

 thousand years have been lost to ns for ever. Igno- 

 rant of the existence of the disease, we have souLiht 

 no cure ; like the inhabitants of the Happy Valley, 

 we have not knov/n of our misery; at last Dr. 

 Alt bans, to whose name be every honour, lias not 

 only delected the evil, but has provided a cure. A 

 worm, a little insignificant worm, a microscopic 

 worm, inhabits the bodies of swine, pussy-cats, jack- 

 daws and badgers, frogs and moles, crows, hedge- 

 hogs and hawks, and when man consumes the flesh 

 of them he takes the living worms into his stomach, 

 and thus oilers his own body to them as a domicile. 

 jMieroscopibts have been for years acquainted with 

 the existence of a minute vermiform entozoon inha- 

 biting the human body, and until lately it was 

 regarded as a harmless animal, and rather a micro- 

 scopic curiosity 1 han a source of danger. Its origin, 

 as well as its life-history, long remained a problem, 

 for which neither medical practitioners nor zoologists 

 could ofter a satisfactory solution ; and the untenable 

 hypothesis of spontaneous generation — that ever- 

 present refuge of the ignorant — was freely resorted 

 to by way of explanation. From experiments made 

 by Vircliow, Leuckart and Claus, it has, however, 

 been clearly establislied that if animals, as dogs and 

 cats, be fed with flesh containing Tricliina;, that 

 other Trichina; are produced in the intestines, and 

 that these produce eggs and living progeny, which 



