56 
THE NATURALISTS* JOURNAL. 
\ 
BOOK NOTES. 
On the 25th of September, No. 1 of “The Nature Lover” 
will see the light, and we have every reason to believe that a 
successful career is before the new quarterly, for such the mag¬ 
azine will be. The title perhaps sufficently indicates the nature 
of the magazine, and it will be edited by our esteemed contribu¬ 
tor, Mr. H. Durrant, whose name is familar to every reader 
of this magazine. Particular attention will be paid to reviews 
of kindred literature, while a series of Nature Classics, will also 
be given, including Gilbert White, Jefferies, Thoreau, &c. The 
Contents of No. 1 will be as follows :—“ Izaak Walton”; 
“ Sketches of a voyage to Nova Scotia,” No. 1, “ From the Old 
to the New”; “In a Fir Wood”; “Sweet Violets”; Shake¬ 
speare’s Wild Flowers”; “Grace as distinguished in trees”; 
“Timber”; “To the Nightingale” [poem]; Reviews, Corres¬ 
pondence, etc. There will also be a corner devoted to literary 
competitions, with prizes, of which particulars will be given. 
The price of the magazine will be 1/-, and we advise all our 
readers to order a copy of No. 1 from their bookseller or news¬ 
agent without delay.—at the same time mentioning the Pub¬ 
lisher, viz.—Elliott Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, London, e.c. 
or by sending a postal order for 4/-, to the office of this Journal, 
309, Euston Road, London, n w., they can have the magazine 
sent post free for one year. Single copies, 1/1, post free. 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
The Colours of Flowers. —A Canadian naturalist, Mr. A. I. Drummond, 
has been investigating the colours of flowers, in relation to the time of flower¬ 
ing, and has contributed a paper on the subject to a recent number of the 
“ Canadian Record of Science.” He finds that April, May, and even June 
and July, are remarkable for the prevalence of white flowers, July and 
especially August, of yellow, and September and October of purple and blue. 
Munchausknism does not seem to have quite died out yet, judging by the 
following cutting which has been going the round of the papers lately :— 
“ Condors have been killed in Peru with wings of 40 feet spread.” No one 
but a newspaper correspondent could have measured the wings of those 
condors ! 
Earthworms and Contagion. —One of the questions treated by the 
Tuberculosis Congress has been the obligatory cremation of the remains of 
consumptives. Earthworms, it was urged, bring to the surface the bacilli 
which infest the dead body, and in dry weather they may be inhaled in the 
form of dust. This is perhaps why the health resorts of the south of Europe 
are centres of tubercular contagion. Doctors Lortet and Depugnes, of Lyons, 
related cases of such infection, and described experiments they made which 
led them to demand obligatory cremation. They mixed the sputa of consump¬ 
tives in earth which they placed in pots. A month later the earthworms in 
them were tubercular, and the earth they passed through communicated the 
disease to animals. Other experiments were made by placing earthworms on 
graves where bodies of those who had died fronn consumption had long lain, 
and with similar results , — Daily News. 
