HARDIVICKE'S SC1ENCE-G0SSJP. 



235 



works up her waste organic materials. The apple- 

 rot is produced by a parasitic fungus, which, singu- 

 larly enough, is the same as that which causes the 

 ripe-rot in grapes. It is an infectious fungus, and 

 can be passed on from one fruit to another. The 

 grapes affected by it become transparent and wither 

 up, whereas in the apple it causes the surface to be 

 covered with brown spots, which spread very rapidly. 



Time flies, but scientific discovery travels faster. 

 Twenty years ago the civilised world stood aghast at 

 the thought that every country was exhausting its 

 limited coalfields. John Stuart Mill, John Bright, 

 Professor Jevons, and others took up the subject. 

 Professor Hull had calculated how long our British 

 coalfields would last at the then rate of consumption 

 (we have nearly doubled the rate since then). It 

 was a gloomy outlook. A period in the future, 

 perhaps not farther distant than that which separates 

 us from Queen Elizabeth's time, would find us with- 

 out a shovel of coal. England is, above all things, a 

 manufacturing nation. "Without coal how can we 

 manufacture ? To say nothing of cheerless and 

 tireless homes, unlighted by gas, our very livelihood 

 as a producing country, our country's future, de- 

 pended upon it. No wonder that men's faces settled 

 into sadness as they thought of the time when the 

 coalfields of the world would be exhausted. 



It is with a sense of relief we now feel that we 

 shall be locomotived, warmed, lighted, and furnished 

 with even more motive power than we can use when 

 there is not a single ton of coal left in the world. 

 Nature superabounds in energy. Here is the cata- 

 ract of Niagara giving up only 3J per cent, of its 

 mighty force, and yet that will be sufficient to furnish 

 the city of Buffalo, eighteen miles way, with all the 

 illumination and motive power it requires. As long 

 as the winds blow, waters flow, and tides rise and 

 fall, we shall be possessed of more energy than we 

 can consume. It can he transferred into electricity, 

 and the latter can re-transform it into light, heat, and 

 motion. With the exception of the tides, all terres- 

 trial energy comes to us from the nun, and coal only 

 represents the stored-up excess of solar energy of an 

 ancient geological period as distinguished from that 

 of to-day, which lifts the watery vapours from the 

 surface of the ocean, distils them into rain, allows 

 them to gather into livers, descend as cataracts, and 

 in the latter form to liberate the solar energy which 

 has been expended. Coals and cataracts are very 

 nearly related. 



The importance of insects to flowers has been 

 fully substantiated within the last few years. Indeed it 

 is highly probable there would never have been any 

 flowers at all if there had never been any insects. 

 Professor Riley, a celebrated American entomologist, 

 has gone a step further and shown how important are 

 the services of certain insects in the formation of such 



fruits as the fig. In the production of the best 

 Smyrna figs certain minute insects are necessary to 

 the fruitification. The tree which produces the 

 edible fig, does not yield fruit of fine flavour unless 

 the latter are fertilised by the aid of these insects. 

 Figs are raised in California, but the fruit is very 

 insipid. Professor Riley says this is due to the fact 

 of the absence of the insects which in Smyrna 

 produce such fine fruit. He recommends the Califor- 

 nian Government to take up the subject, and intro- 

 duce the insects from Smyrna into California. 



One of the worst things which can happen to an 

 Englishman living in hot countries is an attack of 

 bilious fever. A French physician has just proved 

 that this is due to a special kind of bacteria, which 

 he has successfully cultivated. The bacteria is 

 motionless, but is accompanied with numberless 

 moving spores. An unfortunate pig was inoculated 

 with the cultivation, and it had the bilious fever 

 directly. 



"A hair of the dog that bit you" is an old 

 remedy. It has been found that people afflicted with 

 shaking palsy are greatly relieved by travelling long 

 journeys in fast trains. The greater the oscillation 

 the better they are. Dr. Charcot, noticing this, has 

 had a chair made to which a rapid side to side 

 movement is given by electricity. The effect is to 

 give a healthy man nausea, but a palsied patient 

 enjoys it, and after a quarter of an hour in it is a 

 different man. He stretches his limbs, loses fatigue, 

 and enjoys a good night's rest afterwards. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Dr. A. M. Edwards, of Newark, U.S.A., kindly 

 sends us the following "Microscopical Notes" : — 



Substitute for Glass for Covers and Slides 

 for the Microscope. — I think the price of slides 

 and covers for microscopic use is enormously high, 

 and as they can be made of a substance much cheaper, 

 and at the same time possessing properties which 

 glass has not, viz., being unbreakable, that it should 

 be known. In using celluloid, which is wood ren- 

 dered soluble in ether and alcohol with gum camphor, 

 for films for microphotography, I was struck with 

 some of its properties, that made me think it could be 

 used in microscopy. It is transparent, almost as 

 transparent as glass, unbreakable, the weight is very 

 little, making it especially valuable when sending by 

 post, and therefore occupying very little room, which 

 can thus be dispensed with. It is strong as wood, 

 and stronger, has no fibre, and can be cut readily with 

 scissors. I really wonder that it has not been used 

 before for slides and covers. It can be obtained with 

 a ground surface as well as plain, and the cost, which 



