88 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



the aggressors would not eat their prey, they left them 

 where they killed them. But this theory won't hold 

 water. A friend of mine and his brother managed, 

 just casually looking in a lane a mile long, to pick 

 up eighty-seven dead shrews on the roadside ; doubt- 

 less, strict searching in the grass would have doubled 

 the number. Now, hawks and cats will not account 

 for such a wholesale slaughter as that ; moreover, 

 most of the shrews found thus showed not the 

 slightest signs of violence or rough usage. Obviously, 

 then, there must be some other cause for death. My 

 idea, correct or incorrect, is this, that at that period 

 of the year in which this great mortality takes place, 

 the shrews obtain with their food some bacteria or 

 micro-organisms which produce a condition fatal to 

 the life of the animal. I intend, however, if I have 

 time and opportunity, to make a microscopic research 

 on this subject this summer, and I wish some other 

 readers of Science-Gossip would do the same, to 

 see what decision we arrive at. And now I wish you 

 au revoir before I weary you. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Our old planet is practically as solid as if it were 

 made of cast-steel, and as elastic as an indiarubber 

 ball. The incoming and outgoing tides, as well as 

 the varying barometrical pressures of the atmosphere 

 cause the crust of the earth to rise and fall like the 

 palpitation of a small bird's bosom. This that won- 

 derful little instrument the microphone has demon- 

 strated. Nevertheless it must not be imagined that 

 either geologists or astronomers have got all out of the 

 interior of the earth that is contained within it, even 

 in the shadowy form of scientific speculation. 



There was a very pretty and courteous little duel 

 recently going on concerning the physical condition 

 of the interior of the earth, more particularly as 

 respects that part lying immediately underneath the 

 outside skin we call the earth's crust. The duellists 

 are the Rev. O. Fisher, one of the best, even of Cam- 

 bridge mathematicians, and a geologist and physicist 

 of thirty years' standing, and Professor Darwin, eldest 

 son of the reverend naturalist. Mr. Fisher believes 

 in the earth's kitchen-boiler still containing an 

 enormous amount of original heat, and he boldly 

 declares that the amount carried off by conduction 

 through the earth's crust, even in one hundred million 

 of years, is quite inconsiderable, compared to the full 

 amount generated in the interior. Mr. Fisher is 

 evidently not disinclined to believe in what we were 

 rash enough to declare more than a quarter of a century 

 ago, that if the earth's crust is as thin as some 

 geologists make out, and the age of our planet any- 

 thing approaching what is usually declared, there 

 must exist convection currents in the interior, which 

 prevent the crust from growing thicker by melting 



off the lower parts as fast as they solidify. Possibly 

 this may have been the cause, as Professor Green 

 pointed out twelve years ago, of the gradual conver- 

 sion of the lower-seated rocks, such as gneiss, 

 granates, etc., into their pasty igneous condition. 



The Hertfordshire Natural History Society is 

 probably one of the most important of its kind in 

 England, comprising nearly 300 members, among 

 which are the names of many leading naturalists and 

 scientists of the day, Professor Huxley, Sir J. 

 Lubbock, Miss Ormerod, the late Sir Richard Owen, 

 etc., etc. We have before us three numbers of this 

 society's "Transactions" of the past year, and these 

 transactions contain some extremely interesting and 

 learned papers, foremost among which stand ' ' Bats 

 and some other Birds," by G. Rooper, F.Z.S., 

 " Terrestrial British Quadrupeds existing in a Wild 

 State at the Present Day," by T. V. Roberts ; " Our 

 Food- Fishes, their Friends and Foes," by F. E. 

 Beddard, F.Z.S. ; "Report of the Rainfall in Hert- 

 fordshire in 1S91," by the President and Editor, 

 together with the society's business, list of members, 

 and other engaging papers. 



We have received the "Annual Reports and 

 Proceedings." of the Liverpool Science Students' 

 Association for the sessions 1890-91 and 91-92, con- 

 taining several papers, foremost amongst which is 

 Mr. E. D. Fish's, "On the Classification of Insects," 

 in which he adopts Westwood's taxonomy, which 

 divides the Insecta into thirteen orders, several of 

 which — Strepsiptera, Thysanoptera, Aphaniptera, 

 etc. — are now merged into one or other of the exist 1 - 

 ing eight, and well recognised orders. " Fossil Fish 

 from the Old Red Sandstone of Caithness," by J. 

 Herbert Jones, which are all ganoids, or those which 

 had a bony armour. The existing representatives 

 of these nearly " lost creations" now hold their own 

 in the waters of the St. Lawrence River. He also 

 goes on to mention the Pterygotus, club-mosses, ferns, 

 and Coniferae. 



At a recent meeting of the Royal Institution, 

 connected with the Hodgkins Trust, the following 

 resolution from the managers was read : " Having 

 regard to the fact that the work of the Institution is 

 devoted to the attainment of truth, and thereby con- 

 siitutes in itself an investigation of the relations and 

 co-relations existing between man and his Creator, 

 resolved that the income of the fund be devoted to 

 that work, and that once in seven years, a sum not 

 exceeding 100 guineas be paid to some person to be 

 selected by the manager for writing an essay showing 

 how the work of this Institution has, during the pre- 

 ceding period of seven years, furthered the objects of 

 the trust. 



On February 6th the Rev. J. Magens Mello, M.A., 

 read a paper at the Victoria Institution, on Prehistoric 



