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The Musemn Gazette 



The harvest full moon occurs this year on October 2. Moon 

 rises September 30, before sunset ; October 1, seven minutes after 

 sunset ; October 2, twenty-eight minutes after sunset ; October 3, 

 fifty-three minutes after sunset ; October 4, seventy-seven minutes 

 after sunset. 



The less the interval between the autumnal equinox and the harvest 

 full moon the more marked will be the phenomenon. This year the 

 interval will be the considerable one of nine days. The phenomenon 

 is most conspicuous in high latitudes. In quite low ones it is 

 hardly apparent. 



C. B. draws our attention to Byron's line respecting the Mediter- 

 ranean — 



" Where there sinks no ebb on that tideless sea." 

 It is not quite accurate. There are feeble tides in this great land- 

 locked sea. These are most perceptible at the ends of long bays : 

 at Malta scarcely to be noticed, they are very evident at Venice at 

 the extremity of the Adriatic. The tides in the Baltic are, like those 

 of the Mediterranean, very poor. 



High and Low Water. — The range of difference between high 

 and low water is, of course, far greater in spring-tides than in neap- 

 tides. It may be two or three times as great. 



Critical. — You may spell the word as you prefer : Ager — Alger— 

 Agre — Mgre. It is derived from a Saxon name for a river god. 



"Mushroom," "Fungus," or " Toadstool" ?— On the use of the 

 term Mushroom Dr. Hay writes : " In this work the designation mush- 

 room is used in a wide generic sense. It is intended to express any 

 of the larger Fungi in contradistinction only to those small but 

 numerous forms that might similarly be called moulds. Taken in this 

 sense the word mushroom is an equivalent for the French cham- 

 pignon, and for the German pilze and schamme. We cannot very 

 well employ the word Fungus in this relation, because that title has 

 a wider signification." 



A recent author on diet tells us that " The edible fungi are popu- 

 larly spoken of as mushrooms, and the inedible ones as toadstools. 

 There is really, however, no such division, for all the larger fleshy 

 fungi are toadstools, and probably most of them are edible." The 

 word "toadstool" is here used as if it had a real meaning, which 

 certainly it has not. It ought surely to be left to young children, 

 and even by them disused as soon as possible. 



Plague in India. — The plague mortality in India is, we regret to 

 know, increasing year by year. It was 80,000 in 1903, had grown 

 to 166,000 in 1904, and to 305,000 in last year. It is now a well- 



