SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
349 
determining the sulphur of coal-gas, the a single ” (fish-tail) burner, caused 
to consume the gas at the rate of cubic feet in five to six hours, effects 
its combustion most completely. That even under these circumstances 2 per 
cent, of its sulphur cannot be burned into sulphurous acid. 2. That in no 
case can the sulphurous products of the combustion be wholly recovered 
where condensing receivers open to the external atmosphere are employed. 
The best arrangement of apparatus set up on this principle loses 40 per 
cent, of sulphur. And the arrangement given by Dr. Letheby, I find, from 
the same cause, always entails a loss varying from three-fourths to four - 
fifths of the bisulphide sulphur of the gas. 
Professor Anderson has already given evidence upon the subject of coal- 
gas before various Committees of the House of Commons, and we trust that, 
in the event of the passing of the new Act, the Government will select men 
of his practical experience for the proposed offices of Inspectors. 
ZOOLOGY AND COMPAEATIVE ANATOMY. 
The Australian Timber-boring Insect , Tomicus monographus. — The last-named 
species which is stated to be new to Australia, has, we believe, been recently 
introduced into that country. It is a most destructive creature, which seems 
to prey on casks and barrels with a voracity almost unequalled in the class 
to which it belongs. The T. typographic, a species more familiar to ento- 
mologists, is said to have destroyed no less than a million and a half of pines 
in the Hartz forest in the year 1783. An Australian paper gives the follow- 
ing description of this species, and of its ravages among the casks in some of 
the local breweries : — The proboscis forms an excellent gimlet, with which 
the little insect penetrates the hardest wood in an incredibly short time, 
while the hinder portion is shaped like a shovel, and is employed in getting 
rid of the sawdust. They make clean holes through the staves ; and some 
of the full barrels are leaking in fifty places. In a wine-cellar, thousands 
burrow into the wine and spirit casks. As soon as they get nearly through 
the wood, the liquor begins to ooze out, and the animal, of course, gets 
killed. Every description of box or barrel is full of them, also the doors and 
timber in the building. Almost every store in the township is infested with 
these mischievous insects. The head is red, with a proboscis somewhat 
resembling a parrot’s bill ; and the body is like a small black glass bugle 
broken off at the end ; the whole length, one quarter of an inch. 
The silk-worm disease has this year shown itself at Grenoble, under a new 
form, and is doing extensive damage. According to the reports, the worm 
does not present any of the symptoms such as blackish spots, noticed in 
former years, but when it has arrived at the third change, it cannot go any 
further, and dies of exhaustion. This is attributed to the yellowish leaves 
of the mulberry, which do not furnish sufficient nourishment. The evil has 
not been so great in fact in the Ardeche or the Gard, where the weather has 
been less rainy. Too much rain, it is known, proves injurious to the nutritive 
qualities of the mulberry leaf. 
The Crested Agouti, — Mr. St. George Mivart, of St. Mary’s Hospital, has 
