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RARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



of Ranunculacae " (illustrated),, by Fred Maxwell ; 

 " Flowers and Insects," by C. Robertson; and the 

 " Influence of Anaesthetics on Plant Transportation," 

 by Albert Schneider. Towards the end Mr. F. 

 Cook is also very interesting in his. note " Is 

 Polyporus Carnivorous?" 



"Nature Notes" for this month (March) 

 contains a considerable number of sonnets, to one of 

 which, by Robert Bridges, our attention is especially 

 and correctly drawn by the editor. Several of the 

 articles are exceedingly enjoyable and instructive, 

 among which stands forth the "Last of the King- 

 fishers;" and the "Daily News" article on 

 " White of Selborne " will interest many. 



THE "Bibliography" running through the 

 "Naturalist" will be very useful for reference pur- 

 poses, when bound at the end of the year. J. Spencer's 

 article on the " Glacial Boulders in Calderdale " 

 indicates keen observation ; and the various other 

 papers will be very welcome to local botanists and 

 ornithologists. 



" The Journal of Botan y."— The editor of this 

 excellent monthly is anxious to increase the number 

 of subscribers, in order that the number of plates 

 may be increased in proportion. Readers wishing to 

 become monthly recipients of this magazine should 

 send their yearly subscription (i2j.) to the editor, 

 18, West Square, Southwark. 



The question of the origin of the human race is 

 once more to the front. We love to speculate upon 

 our noble selves— our whence and our whither. Lord 

 Beaconsfield preferred the "angel" theory, and 

 dear old " Punch" cartooned him, more than twenty 

 years ago, attired in angel costume (that is, a pair of 

 enormous wings without muscles to work then)), 

 smiling at his own presentment in the pier-glass of 

 his dressing-room. The origin of man is now being 

 discussed as if it were as important as his destiny. 

 Professor Virchow, the distinguished German anthro- 

 pologist and stiffest opponent of Professor Hoeckel 

 (the " Darwin " of Germany) strongly leans to the 

 " fallen angel " origin of mankind. He has made a 

 special study of the comparative anatomy of human 

 crania. Possibly specimens of those of every race 

 now existing on the face of the earth except one have 

 passed through his hands in the course of his life. 

 Recently the exceptional skulls have been secured — 

 those of some native races in the peninsula of 

 Malacca. As is usual with remnants of ancient 

 races, these people are mountain-dwellers. A Russian 

 traveller has recently penetrated into their jealously 

 guarded mountain villages, and writes to Professor 

 Virchow concerning the appearance and physiognomy 

 of this ancient people. They are of very small 

 stature, very curly-haired, and their skulls are re- 

 markably like those of negroes. They present no 

 anatomical signs of simian or ape origin. 



No other form of crystallised matter has such a 

 wonderful fascination as the diamond. The baroness 

 as well as the burglar is spell-bound by it. It is the 

 pearl of great price, unless it is too yellow — 

 " Cape-ish." Then it can only be worn at night, 

 but where there is no electric lighting. Some three 

 or four weeks ago we had occasion to draw attention 

 to the new and marvellous electric furnace invented 

 by a French electrical engineer, M. Moissan. The 

 latest news of its doings are that real diamonds have 

 been produced thereby from the fusion of carbon 

 with silver, or cast-iron. This sounds very like the 

 conditions in which we find diamonds in shooting 

 stars or meteorites. The temperature required to 

 produce real but artificial diamonds by M. Moissan's 

 process runs up to three thousand degrees ! Fifty 

 horse-power is required to generate the electrical 

 energy of conversion of the carbon from the amorphic 

 (or blacklead-and-soot stage) to the crystallised or 

 or diamond condition. How many duchesses, 

 countesses, actresses, etc., etc., are aware of the 

 enormous ' 1 horse-power " represented by their dia- 

 monds ? Of course this moral and scientific remark 

 refers to the " genuine article," not paste. 



News, however brief, reaches us from Vienna of 

 the outbreak of a desolating epidemic of quite a new 

 character, which is now raging in the Russian 

 Trans-Caspian provinces. The world has hardly re- 

 covered from the "Russian influenza." Are epi- 

 demics the only gifts Russia can give to the world ? 

 Some nations degenerate into pest-houses, and breed 

 epidemics to be free-traded. 



Is it not becoming important that architects should 

 know something of geology — especially the architects 

 who persist in building rows of heavy streets as nearly 

 as possible to the verge of cliffs in popular seaside 

 resorts? At Sandgate and other adjoining localities 

 along the sea-coast the cliffs are formed of upper 

 greensand, a loose, porous, and easily-saturated bed 

 resting upon the gault-clay, the latter being as greasy 

 as soap. Along the Suffolk coast the condition of 

 the cliffs is physically similar, although of a later 

 geological date. In the latter district the sands and 

 shell beds of the red crag rest upon an equally greasy 

 surface of underlying London clay. Along the 

 southern and eastern coasts, along the junction of 

 the sands and clays there is a constant oozing out of 

 water, even under_ natural and uninfluenced physical 

 conditions. Plant half a million tons of houses on 

 the top of such sand-cliffs, if anywhere in the world, 

 and can it be surprising if their pressure upon the 

 yielding superstratum will induce its sliding down 

 over the surface of the greasy and unyielding clay 

 bed beneath ? Our seaside resorts are becoming 

 more built upon every year, and unless architects 

 learn a little geology, seaside landslips will be as 

 common as measles. 



