133 



HAJRDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



the preceding. It has a very long and narrow neck, 

 which it moves now in one direction, now in another. 

 In the species figured the neck is leaf-like, and often 

 becomes folded on itself. This organism is clothed 

 with cilia. The length is from the one hundred and 

 sixtieth to the one hundred and twentieth of an inch. 



21. Spirostomum ambiguum (Fig. S4) suggests a 

 very strange animalcule. It is of large size, about 

 one twelfth of an inch in length, but very narrow, 

 more so than in the figure. It is obtuse or somewhat 

 rounded in front, and truncate behind. It is clothed 

 with cilia. The endosarc is granular, the ectosarc 

 shows a myophan striation. Posteriorly these striae 

 are strongly marked, and run parallel to the length. 

 The " tail," however, may be so twisted up that the 

 marking appears spiral (Fig. 84, 3). The mouth is 

 situated near the anterior end, it is lateral, and 

 surrounded with cilia. The oesophagus is said to be 

 spiral and the arms (or anal area) terminal. 



22. Enchelys nodulosa (Fig. 85 a) is a very small 

 infusorian. It is of oval shape, truncated in front and 

 rounded behind. The interior contains a nucleus 

 and a contractile space, and there are also food- 

 cavities and granules. The cilia are different from 

 those of other infusoria ; they are long and seta-like. 

 Locomotion is ! effected by jerks, now forwards and 

 now backwards, due to the sudden action of the 

 cilia. It is a very common species. 



23. Halteria grandinclla (Fig. 85 b) should perhaps 

 be classed with the Heterotricha, but the similarity of 

 its movements to the preceding is the excuse for here 

 introducing it. When it moves, it does so by sudden 

 leaps and bounds, at one jump vanishing out of the 

 microscopic field, and covering very much more 

 ground than Enchelys. This renders it difficult to 

 make a careful drawing of this species. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



We are much pleased to quote the following 

 paragraph from the " Stalybridge Reporter." — A 

 very pleasant afternoon may always be spent at the 

 exhibition of the Ashton field-naturalists. Here is 

 the substance of a little talk with one of them. On 

 a previous occasion he had exhibited a live nightin- 

 gale, and we asked if the sweet songster was still in 

 the flesh. The reply came in a resigned voice, that 

 the favourite bird had been taken out to a concert on 

 a foggy night and had died as the result. What is 

 the cost of one of these birds? we asked. The reply 

 was that when they were properly acclimatised they 

 cost as much as £$, but one might be had for less if 

 the purchaser would take all risks with a bird which 

 had not been kept long enough by the dealers to be 

 guaranteed against all reasonable casualties. Then 

 our informant observed that at the present time there 

 were people in London keenly scanning the morning 

 papers every day for one particular kind of announce- 



ment. If a gentleman in the country happens to 

 hear the nightingale on his grounds, he is irresistibly 

 tempted to write to the Times in order to make the 

 world aware of his own existence and the nightin- 

 gale's. Immediately such an intimation appears, a 

 lot of bird-catchers take train for the spot, and the 

 voice of melody is no more heard in that region. 

 The bird is easily captured, it|is carried to the bird- 

 dealers in London, and readily fetches 25^. So 

 much for nightingales. Our friend had only an old 

 robin to show, a patriarch of seven or eight years, 

 which he was keeping just to see how long a robin 

 would live. 



The geology and mineralogy of "other worlds 

 than ours " is becoming familiar to scientific research. 

 Real diamonds, black and white, have already been 

 found in meteorites — that is, those shooting stars 

 which have fallen to the earth. Now the news 

 comes that gold has been found in a meteorite picked 

 up at Cave City, Calaveras County, California. 

 This stony celestial visitor was about the size of a 

 man's fist, and, it is stated, was found more or less 

 coated or gilt with real gold. One space a square 

 inch in area was continuously gilded. 



A NEW photographic process has recently been 

 brought out, called papyrotint. It is specially 

 adapted for all sorts of drawings in single color, or 

 monochrome, and is said to be inexpensive. A 

 transfer can be taken in greasy ink for transfer to 

 stone or zinc, direct from any negative, however 

 large, without the aid of a medium, the grain being 

 obtained simply by a chemical change. The prints 

 are sharper than by the ordinary processes, while the 

 same negative answers either for a silver print, 

 platinotype, or stone or zinc transfer. 



An electrical organ-blower is in operation at Holy 

 Trinity Church, Upper Chelsea. It is worked from 

 the electrical mains of the Chelsea Electricity Supply 

 Company, and the current can be turned on at will 

 by the organist. 



The second edition of Dr. J. E. Taylor's 

 "Tourist's Guide to Suffolk" (London: Edward 

 Stanford, 2s.) has just been issued, brought up to 

 date : it contains a short but reliable sketch of the 

 geology, botany, entomology, archceology, etc., of 

 that very interesting county. 



Mr. Angus Rankin points out that a new factor 

 has been introduced into the study of meteorology — 

 that which treats of the dust-particles in the atmos- 

 phere, as well as the number of them present at any 

 time, and the effects of such dust-particles on climate 

 and weather changes. . Indeed, it would seem as if 

 the study of dust and its behaviour forms the stepping- 

 stone to the study of nearly all the meteorological 

 problems which deal with clouds and precipitation, 

 solar and terrestrial radiation, as well as the diurnal 



