HARDU'ICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



87 



under surface of the pads adapts them to any uneven 

 surface on which the fly may alight, thus, only a 

 portion of the sticky hairs would be brought into 

 contact with the support at one and the same time. 

 The structure of the upper wall is well suited to give 

 both strength and elasticity to the pads. Internally, 

 the posterior half of the pulvillus is nearly filled with 

 a homogenous substance that stains with carmine and 

 is partially separated into distinct portions by clear 

 spaces [c c). In the midst of these partially isolated 

 masses appear one or more glands, the nuclei of 

 which take a deep stain [g). The ducts are very 

 transparent, and not easily defined, except where 

 they happen to cross a clear space. The anterior 

 half of the pulvillus is broader and shallower than 

 the posterior half, and contains no visible substance ; 

 if it has contained fluid, the alcohol used in pre- 

 paration has possibly withdrawn it, or otherwise it 

 does not take carmine stain. In similar sections 

 from the pulvillus of the blow-fly, the fluid has 

 become consolidated, fills about two-thirds of the 

 depth of the pad, and takes a faint stain with 

 carmine. 



The hairs appended to the lower wall of the pul- 

 villus are devoid of pigment, and so transparent that I 

 have been unable to detect any lumen, though I have 

 tried to coax air into them, neither have transverse 

 sections revealed any opening. 



From the examination of the feet of many flies 

 with similar results, I am led to the conclusion that 

 the viscid fluid used by the fly for its support, either 

 in an inverted or vertical position, is elaborated in 

 the pulvilli, and in them alone. 



Wm. Jenkinson. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



We deeply regret to announce the death of Mr. 

 Henry Walter Bates, F.R.S., who died recently 

 from influenza and its complications, at the age of 

 sixty-six. He was distinguished as a traveller and 

 naturalist, and very well known for his twenty-seven 

 years' secretaryship of the Royal Geographical Society. 

 As a youth he was an enthusiastic botanist and ento- 

 mologist, and the country around Leicester — his 

 birthplace — was well known to him through his 

 frequent expeditions. At the age of twenty-three he 

 went off to the Amazon, and during eleven years 

 continued his study and collections among the natural 

 history riches of that region. In 1863 he published 

 " The Naturalist in the River Amazon," and for the 

 Linnsean Society's ''Transactions" he wrote "Con- 

 tributions to an Insect Fauna of the Amazon's 

 Valley." 



Another leading scientist has joined the majority 

 in Professor Thomas Sterry Hunt, who died in New 

 York on February I2th, after an attack of influenza. 



He was born in 1S26, and began his scientific career, 

 at the age of twenty, in the laboratory at Yale. As 

 chemist and mineralogist to the Geological Survey of 

 Canada he rendered valuable service. In 1S72 he 

 was appointed to a chair in the Massachusetts Institute 

 of Technology; in 1S59 he was elected F.R.S., and 

 in 1SS1 received the LL.D. of Cambridge. His best 

 known writings are " Chemical and Geological 

 Essays," "Mineral Physiology and Physiography," 

 and " Systematic Mineralogy. " 



At a meeting of the Edinburgh Royal Society, 

 held recently, Dr. Ralph Copeland, Astronomer 

 Royal for Scotland, read a communication on the 

 new star in the constellation "Auriga." Dr. Cope- 

 land said a feature of the new star was its rapid rise 

 to its maximum of brightness and its equally sudden 

 decline. Of two temporary stars discovered in recent 

 years one had broken out in "Nebula?," and was 

 comparatively little observed, but the second, which 

 appeared in 1885 in Andromeda, was thoroughly 

 examined. There was very little of any distinctive 

 features in it, and they might argue that these new 

 stars were spectra not unlike those represented in 

 "Nebula Andromeda." No full data had yet been 

 got as to the suddenness of the appearance of the 

 present new star. It was generally considered that 

 the telegram which had been received from America 

 on the subject did not mean that the star had 

 actually passed through a maximum of brightness 

 on 20th December last, but that on that date it was 

 brighter than on the 10th or 1st of the month. iThe 

 writer of the anonymous post-card on the subject 

 was Dr. Thomas D. Anderson, Edinburgh, who was 

 almost certain he had seen the star at 2 oclock a.m. 

 on 24th January last. At that date it did not occur 

 to him that it was a new star, but on February 1st it 

 flashed on him, and the discovery was made, and he 

 hoped Dr. Anderson's success would be the means of 

 making amateurs persevere in their endeavours. On 

 the 1st inst. a spectroscope had revealed bright lines 

 on the star. The tackle of the Observatory here had 

 been taken to Dunecht, and observations made there, 

 and he had also made observations. On the 9th inst. 

 he obtained the positions of the lines. They were 

 656-2; 595-0; 562-0; 533-6; 518-0; 502-3; and 

 500-5. 500*5 was the place where the great Nebulas 

 lay. 502-3 was one of the best measurements he 

 made. Other positions were 494-0, 486-1, 449-6, 

 and 447 ■ 6. Three of these lines pointed to nebulous 

 matter burning in the star, but as a matter of fact 

 that was not the case. He had that morning received 

 satisfactory results' from Dunecht. Observations had 

 been made there, and 30S measures of 71 lines in the 

 spectrum had been secured, and there was no doubt 

 of the positions of the lines. They saw at once from 

 his measurements that hydrogen was represented by 

 three lines, and they knew that nebulee lines were 

 wanting. The lines at 494 and 502 were not due to 



