Sept. 28, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



35i 



tical subjects as musical drill, wood-carving, modelling, etc. 

 The work of the classes is made as interesting and attractive 

 as possible, so that the pupils may spend pleasant as well as 

 profitable evenings. The fee is, as a rule, 3d. per week or 2s. 

 a quarter, or 3s. 6d. for the two quarters ; and the payment 

 of this fee entitles a pupil to attend the classes on the three 

 evenings a week and receive instruction in any of the sub- 

 jects, except those taught in special classes, where small 

 extra fees are charged. Well-qualified teachers are engaged. 

 Prizes and certificates are awarded by the Board. 



&fc£tract0 

 of papers, Hectare*, etc* 



Liverpool Science Club. — On the 14th inst. the 

 members of this club visited the Ship Canal Works at 

 Eastham, and through the courtesy of the contractors 

 were taken over the ground in an open waggon drawn 

 by a locomotive. The work of the steam navvies in the 

 soft clay and sand, near Eastham, was very interesting, 

 but before reaching Ellesmere Port the entire character 

 of the work was changed by the appearance of the soft 

 red Trias sandstone of the district. Gunpowder and 

 other explosives took the place of the steam diggers, and 

 the vast piles of rock on the banks showed the source of 

 the stone for building the walls of the canal. The 

 recently uncovered " Roman Road " was pointed out, 

 and many other interesting sights, and the expedition 

 was one of the most enjoyable of the season. 



Andersonian Naturalists' Society. — The usual 

 monthly meeting of this society was held on the 13th 

 inst. in Anderson's College — Mr. J. Donochy, one of the 

 vice-presidents, in the chair. The secretary read the 

 reports of the society's excursions to the Whangie and 

 the Falls of Clyde. At the former specimens of the 

 bladder fern (Cystopteris fragilis) were found on the sides 

 of the celebrated fissure, to view which the excursion had 

 been undertaken. From the excursion to the Falls of 

 Clyde fresh specimens of all the notable plants en- 

 countered were exhibited. Mr. W. A. Stevenson, junior, 

 exhibited a collection of mosses from the Greater Cum- 

 brae, arranged and named by the late Roger Hennedy, 

 formerly lecturer in Botany in Anderson's College. Mr. 

 R. Turner, vice-president, then read a paper on the 

 H Cadzow Herd of White Cattle." 



The Leeds Naturalists' Club and Scientific Asso- 

 ciation. — At the meeting on the 3rd inst., when Mr. G. 

 Hainsworth presided, Mr. W. Clapham exhibited and 

 explained the construction and mode of using several 

 ingenious microscopical appliances he had made. He 

 showed that in place of the more costly " spot lens " 

 a very efficient substitute may be made from an artificial 

 fish eye, which may be mounted in a tube to fit under 

 the stage of the microscope. A very handy section- 

 cutter or microtome was shown and explained. This 

 consisted of the usual brass disc with a hole in the centre 

 communicating with a short tube beneath, in which the 

 object to be sectionised is placed, and up which it is 

 pushed by a screw arrangement. Mr. Clapham showed 

 that by means of a very simple yet perfectly efficient 

 indicator, it was possible to produce sections of any 

 required degree of tenuity down to the five-hundredth of 



an inch. Another section-cutter, made on the principle 

 of the Cambridge rocking microtome, awakened consider- 

 able interest in the members, not only beause of its very 

 evident " home-made " construction, but also, and chiefly, 

 that by such rough means it is possible to cut sections of 

 properly prepared substances so thin as less than the 

 three-thousandth of an inch. Altogether a very pleasant 

 and profitable hour was spent in the examination and 

 discussion of Mr. Clapham's ingenious contrivances. 

 The remainder of the evening was devoted to a number 

 of interesting plants recently collected at and near Seas- 

 cale, Cumberland, by Mrs. Stringer. Mr. W. Kirkby 

 called attention to some special features of some of the 

 plants, noticing particularly the sawwort (Scrrafitla tinc- 

 toria), of which he gave the following note from Smith's 

 "British Flora " : — "This plant gives a yellow colour to 

 wool, for which purpose Linnajussays it is much used in 

 Sweden. Haller records, on the authority of some 

 foreign writers, that the above colour, fixed by means of 

 alum, is both beautiful and permanent, and with the 

 addition of blue, makes a better green than either Reseda 

 lutcola or Genista tinctoria for dyeing wool or silk." 



Physical Society of Glasgow University. — The 

 opening meeting for this session of the above society was 

 held last Friday in the Natural Philosophy Class-room, 

 when Mr. Maclean, M.A., president, delivered an address 

 on " Electric Hypotheses." The lecturer discussed at 

 some length the two-fluid theory, first propounded in 

 1 733 by Du Faye, but improved and extended by 

 Symmer in 1759; the one-fluid theory, first put forward 

 by Dr., afterwards Sir William Watson, of England, and 

 Dr. Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia ; also the 

 ingenious theory of jEpinus, of Germany, and Cavendish, 

 of England. A summary of Faraday's views concerning 

 the distribution of electric forces, as well as a brief 

 resume of the modern views of electricity, concluded the 

 address. 



Ramie. — The subject of the utilisation of the China 

 grass plant, also known under the names of rhea or 

 ramie, has occupied attention for the last 50 years. It is 

 a valuable textile plant, easy of cultivation, and present- 

 ing a vast and appropriate field for enterprise for planters 

 in most tropical countries. The only obstacle to the de- 

 velopment of an extensive trade in this product has been 

 the want of suitable means for decorticating the plant. 

 The Indian Government in 1869 offered the large sum of 

 ,£5,000 for the best machine for extracting the fibre of 

 ramie in a green state. No machine has fully answered 

 the purpose, and hence at the present time, in view of the 

 wonderful properties of ramie fibre, the subject is re- 

 garded as of the highest importance. It is followed both in 

 this country and in the colonies with the keenest interest. 

 As affecting India the question is of national significance, 

 for the plant could be cultivated over vast areas and, 

 with suitable machinery, be made to yield enormous 

 profits. The French Ministry of Agriculture has 

 taken up the subject, and at trials to be held at Paris on 

 the 25th inst. it offered prizes of the value of 6,000 f. 

 for any process or machine that would extract ramie fibre 

 in commercial quantities. Mr. D. Morris, F.L.S., 

 Assistant Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, was 

 appointed to represent this country at the trials, and to 

 prepare a summary of the results for the information of 

 persons interested in the subject in India and the colonies. 



