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enate granted the lecturers the utmost liberty, and experiental methods, which could not be learned from books, ad been practised at the University for more than a entury. Galileo had many opportunities for the developent of his genius, both in the lecture-room and in the ome, in the preparation of scientific publications, and in e workshops of scientific instrument-makers both in adua and Venice. To Venice he frequently went, attracted ither by the means it afforded him for study; by that and arsenal which had already been sung by Dante, ad which in his reputed Dialogues is spoken of by alileo with admiration; but above all by the advantages derived from scientific intercourse with eminent en who resided in the dominion. The culmiiting point of the discourse was naturally reached aen the orator had to deal with the invention the telescope, and with the astronomical disveries made by means of it, the immediate result of hich was the recall of Galileo to Tuscany. This did ot aid Galileo in his glorious career, or help to protect m from the attacks which were for a long time made on m by invidious adversaries. Even some of his own rvants changed at once to implacable and dangerous hemies, and at last he was involved in all the miseries hich sprang from the memorable lawsuit. This led the ator to recall the fact that when the clouds assumed eir most threatening aspect, the Venetian Republic, rgetting with real magnanimity whatever resentment it ight have felt at Galileo's abandonment of his chair at dua, offered to re-appoint him, and to print at Venice e work which had brought upon him so much trouble. e said also that a pleasant memory of Padua must have ssed through the mind of the prisoner of the Holy fice, when there came to him his only comfort, the essage from the favourite of his childhood, the nun who Padua had tenderly cared for him during the first ten ars of his youth.

After Prof. Favaro's oration discourses were delivered the foreign delegates, Holmgren, Fayrer, Darwin, sserand, Lampe, Keller, Foerster, Sohncke, Blasing, emcke, Farey, Lanczy, Schmourlo, and by Italian legates, Nardi-Dei, Mantovani-Orsetti, and Del Lungo. en followed the conferring of University honours, of ich seven had been set apart by the Council r seven men of science, one for each nation, all stinguished for their devotion to the studies in nich Galileo excelled, viz. Schiaparelli, Helmholtz, omson, Newcomb, Tisserand, Bredichir, and Gylden. e degree of philosophy and letters was given to the inister Martini; of natural philosophy, and philosophy d letters, to the leading delegates. The ceremony was sed by the inauguration of a commemorative tablet in : large hall.

Of the other festivals connected with the celebration it u'd be out of place to speak here, and it will be better add a list of the publications which have been issued the occasion. The oration read in the Great Hall by of. Favaro has been published, with the addition of enty-five facsimiles of documents containing the varidecrees of the Senate concerning Galileo, the date of early prelections given by him at regular intervals, eral autographic records of Galileo, chosen in order give a more exact idea of what are the most precious terials for his biography, the frontispieces of the varipublications issued by Galileo, or relating to the e of his sojourn in Padua, the geometric and milicompass, the writing presenting the telescope to Doge, and the first observations of the satellites upiter. A portrait of the great philosopher, from inting which represents him at the age of forty, taken 604, is prefixed.

y favour of the University there have also been pubed two other works, one containing all the notices of studies at Padua in 1592, the other proving which

was the house inhabited by Galileo and the place in which he made his astronomical observations. The ancient Academy of Padua, among whose founders Galileo is numbered, has issued a publication in which are collected several works dedicated to his memory; and the students of the University have sought to perpetuate the remembrance of this festival by the publication of a "unique number," bringing together all the documents relating to the sojourn of Galileo in Padua, collected from all quarters. These publications will serve as suitable memorials of a great and most interesting celebration. ANTONIO FAVARO.

SIR RICHARD OWEN.

IT is with great regret that we record the death of Sir Richard Owen He died on Sunday, after a lingering illness, at Sheen Lodge, Richmond Park, in his eightyninth year. In publishing his portrait in the series of "Scientific Worthies " (NATURE, vol. xxii. p. 577) we have already presented an estimate of his work and of his place in the history of science. It is only necessary now, therefore, to recall some of the leading facts of his

career.

He was born at Lancaster on July 20, 1804, and received his early education at the grammar school of his native place. Afterwards he matriculated at the University of Edinburgh as a medical student. In 1825 he joined the medical school of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and in 1826 he took his diploma at the Royal College of Surgeons. His professional studies having been completed, he began to practise in Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields; but the bent of his mind was towards purely scientific investigation, and he soon had a good opportunity of exercising his powers. Dr. Abernethy, with whom he had acted at St. Bartholomew's as a dissector, had recognized his ability; and, in accordance with the advice of this famous surgeon, he was invited in 1828 to undertake the task of cataloguing the Hunterian collection at the Royal College of Surgeons. The invitation was accepted, and in 1830 the first catalogue of the invertebrate animals in spirits was published. In the same year Owen read at the first meeting of the Zoological Society's committee of Science a valuable paper on the anatomy of the orangutan, and afterwards he made many important contributions to the Society's Transactions and Proceedings. He was also well known as a reader of papers before the Medical Society of St. Bartholomew's and the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London. In 1832 appeared his well-known essay on the Pearly Nautilus (Nautilus Pompilius), in which he gave most striking proof of his power of interpreting the facts of natural history in a thoroughly philosophical spirit.

Before he was thirty years of age Owen had achieved so good a reputation that in 1834 he was appointed to the newly-established chair of comparative anatomy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Two years afterwards he succeeded Sir Charles Bell as professor of anatomy and physiology at the Royal College of Surgeons, and he was elected to the newly-established Hunterian professorship at the Hunterian Museum. He also became conservator of the Hunterian Museum on the death of Mr. Clift, whose daughter he had married. He had gradually been withdrawing from the practice of his profession, and ended by devoting the whole of his time and energy to scientific work.

His connection with the Royal College of Surgeons lasted for twenty years, and during this period he achieved results which placed him in the front rank of original investigators. In the article to which we have referred we have already indicated the nature and importance of these results, and need not go over the same ground again. It must suffice to mention the completion, in five volumes, of his catalogue of the Hunterian

collection; his " Odontography"; his Lectures on Comparative Anatomy and Physiology; his " Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton"; his memoirs on "The Nature of Limbs" and on " Parthenogenesis"; his monograph of British fossil reptiles; and his papers on the fossil birds of New Zealand, and on some fossil

mammals of Australia. In 1856 he was appointed Superintendent of the Department of Natural History in the British Museum. How splendidly he fulfilled the duties of this position all the world knows. He fought steadily and earnestly to obtain proper accommodation for the magnificent collection placed under his charge, and to him, more than to any one, Great Britain owes the fact that this particular set of her scientific treasures is now so securely preserved and so finely displayed. The practical duties of his office were not allowed to interrupt his scientific researches, and year after year he continued to give fresh evidence of the astonishing range of his knowledge and of his remarkable capacity for farreaching and brilliant generalization. Among the writings of this period are his Manual of Palæontology, and his memoirs on the classification and geographical distribution of mammals, on the British fossil reptiles of the Liassic formations, ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, on the British fossil cetacea of the Red Rag, on the British fossil reptiles of the Mesozoic formations, pterodactyls, and on the fossil reptiles of South Africa.

In 1883 he resigned his official position, but he did not cease to interest himself in the studies in the prosecution of which he had displayed so commanding a genius. In 1884 he issued in three volumes his great "History of British Fossil Reptiles," and until a comparatively recent date he submitted to the Royal Society from time to time papers embodying the more important results of his labours.

In the course of his long career Owen did much good service as a member of various Commissions, and it is scarcely necessary to say that honours of many different kinds were conferred upon him. About these matters we have given all necessary information in our previous article. Owen was very far from being content merely with the collection and classification of facts; he sought also to bring out the ideas in which his facts seemed to him to find their ultimate significance. He was unable to adopt the theory of evolution as presented by Darwin, but his researches did much to prepare the way for the general and rapid acceptance of Darwin's hypothesis, since it was felt that there must be some strictly scientific explanation of the affinities by which he had shown vast groups of animal forms to be allied to one another. Apart altogether from its speculative aspects, his work is universally acknowledged to be of high and enduring value, and there can be no doubt that he will rank among the strongest and most impressive figures in the intellectual history of the nineteenth century.

He desired that his body should be buried beside that of his wife in Ham Churchyard, and his wish is, of course, to be complied with. At the funeral, which will take place to-morrow (Friday), there will be representatives of all the learned societies with which he was connected.

NOTES.

THE following memorial, numerously signed, has been presented by Sir Henry Roscoe to the Right Hon. the Earl Cowper, Chairman of the Royal Commission on the Gresham University-The undersigned desire hereby respectfully to record their strong opinion that the foundation of a Teaching University for London, without due provision being made for higher Education and original Research, would be unworthy of the Metropolis, and would entail the neglect of an admirable opportunity for promoting the advancement of Science and

Learning. The signatures cannot fail to command attentina The following learned Societies are represented by their Pres dents: The Royal Society, the British Association for th Advancement of Science, the Royal Dublin Society, the Rup Society of Edinburgh, the Iron and Steel Institute, the Phy Society, the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the Institute Mechanical Engineers, the Chemical Society, the Royal He cultural Society, the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Bri and the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Irelar Eton College, Harrow School, Rugby School, and St. Pa School are represented by their head-masters. There are representatives of the University of Oxford, Cambridge, Edi burgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews, the Victor University, the British (Natural History) Museum, the Roy

College of Science, London, University College, Londe Mason College, Birmingham, Durham College of Science, Fin College, Sheffield, University College, Dundee, Univera College, Bristol, City and Guilds of London Central Institence the Royal College of Science, Dublin, and the Pharmaceutic Society of Great Britain. A special group of signatures cor sists of the names of a number of Fellows of the Royal Socie

SIR JOSEPH LISTER, Sir Henry Roscoe, and Prof. Ry Lankester, will represent the Royal Society at the Pasteur criebration in Paris on the 27th inst. Captain Abney has be invited to represent the Society at the 150th anniversary of the American Philosophical Society in May 1893.

WE are glad to see that a movement has been started for the purpose of securing that due honour shall be done to the memor of Jean Servais Stas, one of the most illustrious of moders chemists. It is proposed that a new edition of his writings sh be issued, his memoirs, notes, and reports being grouped in the proper order, and that a commemorative monument shall als be erected. An influential committee, representing science it all parts of the world, has been a ppointed to take the necessary steps. Subscriptions will be received by M. L. Errera, 1, Place Stéphanie, Brussels.

THE Committee of the International Electrical Exhibit to be held at Milan in 1894 proposes, according to La Lu Electrique, to offer a prize for the most important invention discovery in the province of electricity, especially in connecti with the transmission of energy to a great distance, and its d tribution and transformation for industrial uses

SUCCESSFUL experiments have been made in France relative to the introduction of telephones for use in warfare. The tele phonists are organized in sets of two men, each set being pro vided with equipment for a mile line. The very sm receiving and transmitting apparatus are attached to the military cap, and the wire is on reels in a sort of breast-plate, the whole being so light that a man's ordinary equipment weighs less tha six pounds.

THE tunnel at Niagara Falls is finished, and the power plac will be in operation by next March. It is expected that a car rent of 45,000 electric horse-power will be transmitted froz there to Buffalo, and 30,c00 to other points.

M. MAURICE MALLET, in L'Aéronaute, describes what be claims to be the longest balloon ascent on record. His balloon, "Les Inventions Nouvelles," started from the gasworks of La Villette, Paris, on October 23, and the voyage terminated at Walhen, in Central Germany, at 6 a.m. on the 25th, after a total journey of 36 hours 10 minutes above ground. The flight was interrupted several times by the snow which fell in the higher regions of the atmosphere. When lower strata were reached, the snow melted, and the balloon regained its ascending pr During one of these descents it was stopped and examined by

DECEMBER 22, 1892]

NATURE

'russian gendarme, who had followed it at a gallop for some tance. The route passed over part of Belgium, the Taunus, 1 the Odenwald, and the towns of Metz and Frankfurt were ognized in passing.

THE "Annals of the Harvard College Observatory" contain liscussion by H. H. Clayton of the cloud observations made Mr. A. L. Rotch's observatory at Blue Hill, Massachusetts. e of the most noticeable facts brought out by the measurements cloud heights and velocities, which have been conducted h great care, is the difference in height between the same ads in summer and winter, the clouds, with few exceptions, ng lowest in winter. The bases of the cumulo-nimbus clouds, vever, are generally lower in summer, while, at the same e, their tops are higher than in winter. The heights of the erent clouds were found to maintain an almost constant ratio each other. The mean velocities recorded showed that the ire atmosphere moves twice as fast in winter as in summer. e mean velocity of the highest clouds in winter was about > miles an hour; the extreme velocity amounted to 230 miles hour, from which it appears that the upper currents are ich more rapid over America than over Europe, which posly explains the greater velocity of the storms in America. regards the directions of cloud movement, the tables show it from the highest clouds to the earth's surface, the prevailwind is west; above 4000 metres more than 90 per cent. of observations show the clouds from some point between south In the cirrus and the cumulus st and north-west inclusive.

ions, and near the earth's surface, the prevailing direction is
m a little north of west, but in the intermediate levels, from
little south of west, the excess of the southerly component
these regions being possibly due to the influence of
clones.

THE weather during the past week has been generally very
1, and scarcely any rain has fallen over the southern parts of
kingdom. Butween Friday and Monday there were several
pressions to the northward of our islands, passing in an easterly
ection, which caused very severe gales and high seas on the
ists of Scotland, the difference on pressure on Sunday between
: north and south of our islands being more than an inch.
ring the first part of the period the temperature was un-
tally high for the season, the maxima exceeding 55° in
ne parts, and the night minima were occasionally higher
n the average daily maxima for the month; subsequently,
wever, a decided fall occurred, with fog and mist in most
ts of England, while in Scotland hail and sleet showers
e experienced. The Weekly Weather Report of the 17th
ant shows that for that period the temperature was from 2°
above the mean. Rainfall exceeded the mean in the north
Scotland only, and just equalled it in the north of Ireland;
ll other parts there was a deficiency. Bright sunshine was
ch less prevalent than during the preceding week, although
nost parts of England the amount exceeded the average.
ROF. COLE writes from Dublin that the afterglow in the
t and zenith on Saturday, December 17, was of a superbly
iant character. Mr. R. Langton Cole observed that in
don on December 15 the whole sky was covered by the
v, which was deeper all round towards the horizon.

N interesting lecture on "Water and Water Supply" was
vered last week at the London Institution, by Major L.
As an instance of the im-
ver, of the Sanitary Institute.
ant part which water played in the economy of nature, he
tioned that if a man weighing 140 lbs. were placed under a
raulic press and squeezed flat, the result would be 105 lbs.
rater and only 35 lbs. of dry residue, which was a fact for
eited people to reflect upon. Major Flower gave some
It is, of course,
esting facts about the rainfall of England.

an

highest in mountainous districts, the maximum fall being found
in Cumberland, where the record for six years shows
The lowest in England is between
annual rainfall of 165 in.
Biggleswade and Bedford, where it reaches only 20 in. London
Speaking of drinking
and the east coast average about 25 in.
water, Major Flower said the best way to get it was to bottle
it at the fountain head and have it delivered in bottles, which
had been done already and might be done to a greater extent in
the future.

MR. W. F. HOWLETT writes to us from Pahiatua, New
Zealand :-"Can you inform me what is now sold in England
as gum arabic? I used to be able to buy a soluble gum; what
I get now is the same in appearance, but it will not dissolve. It
swells up, truly, but will not form a homogeneous filterable
solution. It would be a great boon to small buyers if such
Am I right in sup-
things were sold under their proper names.
posing that since the Soudan trouble gum arabic has disappeared
from commerce?"

season.

A VERY interesting report on artesian boring, by Mr. J. W. Boultbee, is included in the volume containing the annual report of the Department of Mines and Agriculture, New South Wales, for the year 1891. Mr. Boultbee shows that, as a rule, artesian waters are suitable for irrigation purposes, only those heavily charged with salt or alkaline matters being unsuitable; and he can see no reason why such irrigation should not be an element of immense value, deserving the utmost consideration in connection with the development of that north-western portion of the colony, where the fertility and recuperative powers of the soil are so wonderfully illustrated by the growth of feed after rainfall at the proper The average quantity of water required for the irrigation of grain crops, based upon the experience of other countries, may be roughly estimated at 72,600 cubic feet, or One inch of rain would equal 3630 543,485 gallons per acre. A rainfall of 20 inches cubic feet, or 22,622 gallons per acre. would therefore yield 72,600 cubic feet, or 543,485 gallons per acre. 640 acres would consequently require 46,464,000 cubic feet, or 347,830,400 gallons upon them as an equivalent to 20 inches of rain. When it is considered that the flow per diem from the Native D g Artesian Bore, 45 miles from Bourke, is approximately 2,000,000 gallons per diem, or 730,000,000 gallons per year, it will be seen that upon the foregoing basis a supply of water equal to a rainfall of 40 inches per annum, per 640 acres is available, or that an area of considerably over 1280 acres can be supplied with water equalling a rainfall of 20 inches per annum.

THE Cambridge Local Lectures Syndicate have just issued an announcement of their next Summer Meeting of University Extension students, to be held at Cambridge in August, 1893. The programme is a large and varied one, and a number of well-known lecturers have already promised their services. Among the scientific lecturers we notice the names of Sir Robert Ball, Sir H. E. Roscoe, Mr. Pattison Muir, and several of the best known of the Cambridge Extension lecturers. Cambridge has always laid great stress on the importance of providing, as far as possible, practical work in science as well as theoretical teaching. It has seldom been found possible to arrange much practical work in connection with the lectures given in the provinces, chiefly on account of the difficulty of But students who can finding laboratory accommodation. spare a fortnight-or, better still, a month-have now the opportunity of coming to Cambridge and seeing, at any rate, something of the resources of the University laboratories. Even two or three weeks' work in a well-equipped laboratory may easily be a revelation to a student who has hitherto learnt his (or her) science from books or lectures. The laboratory work has always formed an important and highly appreciated part of the

Cambridge Summer Meetings. Next year no less than five practical courses are promised, viz. in physics, chemistry, botany, physiology, and paleontology, thus providing for a considerable variety of taste, and for the accommodation in the laboratories of a fairly large number of scientific students. Another feature in the programme is an entire novelty. It is proposed to give a series of short courses of lectures on the growth of various sciences-astronomy, "physics, chemistry, and geology—to illustrate from different points of view the methods by which discoveries are actually made, and science makes progress. These will be accompanied by a short theoretical course on scientific method. The sciences selected only cover a small portion of the whole field, and some aspects of scientific method-such as classification-will obviously scarcely be represented. The organic sciences generally are left out, and may possibly form the groundwork of a similar scheme on some future occasion. The idea of illustrating scientific method by the history of science is a familiar one, and is the basis, for example, of Whewell's great books on "The Philosophy and the History of the Inductive Sciences." Few men, however, possess the encyclopædic knowledge of science which Whewell had, and the progress of science since his day would make such a task as he undertook well-nigh impossible for a more modern writer. The Cambridge Syndicate do not attempt to find a Whewell, but hand over the history of each science to competent specialists, and hope to give real unity to the whole by the lectures on method, in which the lessons taught by the history of the various sciences will be brought into a focus, and made to lead up to general principles. The experiment is certainly an interesting one, and we shall watch with some interest to see how it succeeds. The programme includes also lectures on history, literature, art, and other subjects. But we have dwelt only on the science as being of special interest to our readers.

IN the Herz oscillator, as used hitherto, the spark discharge of a Rhumkorff has been produced in air between two balls. MM. Sarasin and de la Rive lately thought (Arch. de Sciences) to place the balls in an insulating liquid, and they find that this gives a more intense effect in the resonator. Olive oil does best; oil of turpentine, liquid paraffin, and petroleum were also tried. Placed near the oscillator the resonator gives quite a bright spark, and at about 30 ft. distance, with a resonator of large diameter, the spark is strong enough to be visible a good way off.

ATTEMPTS are being made to create a silk-producing industry in the district of Nicolaieff, in South Russia: and, according to

the British Vice-Consul at Nicolaieff, the result is not unlikely to be satisfactory. He says that the mulberry tree, for the growth of which the soil and climate are well adapted, flourishes wherever it is planted, and that with very little trouble or expense every little plot of ground, now yielding nothing more than a crop of weeds, might in a short time be transformed into a remunerative feeding-ground for the silkworm. The matter has been taken in hand by a society, and every encouragement is given to the peasants and poorer classes to take advantage of the opportunities provided for them. If seriously followed up, the scheme may, the Vice-Consul thinks, prove a source of revenue to many a poor family, and eventually be the means of establishing a large and flourishing industry.

AT a recent meeting of the Trinidad Field Naturalists' Club there was some discussion as to the question whether the bite of the tarantula (Mygale) spider is poisonous. Mr. C. W. Meaden, writing to the Club's journal on the subject, describes an incident which came under his own observation. Early in the present year he had a gang clearing some land after burning, and on visiting them one afternoon he saw a black tarantula dart from a heap of bush and deliberately bite one of the

prisoners on the heel and then scamper away, which it did safety to itself, although chase was made after it. The scr seemed to be in an angry mood at being disturbed in a fav haunt for food and shelter. The bite drew blood, about two three drops. A Trinidad labourer's foot is thick enough alm to resist an auger, yet the spider managed to penetrate, s may safely be asserted it was in earnest. Immediately the was given a shout went up, "The man is bitten by a big bla spider—a tarantula !" This made the bitten one almost fra: with fright, and he cried out piteously, "Me God, me go in gaol, me God," &c. Mr. Meaden took him to the infra some 300 yards distant, and the sufferer carried his heel in hand, i.e. hopped all the way. His foot was fomented with water, and spirits of ammonia were applied, with the addi of a little liquid ammonia, and he received a dose of e mixture. About two hours afterwards he ate his dinner hear and slept well at night. He complained of no pain morning, and went to work as usual. There was no la swelling or inflammation, and but little pain at any time. Fr was the only ill effect.

SOME interesting results in application of cold have le recently recorded. Thus M. d'Arsonval has found that w with rising temperature, microbes die before soluble fermer with lowered temperature the opposite occurs. The inverti beer yeast cooled to -40°C., does not lose its power, bet destroyed as a ferment at -100°. On the other hand yeast itself cooled to 100° is still active. M. Raoul F. has lately observed that at - 150° all chemical reaccice suppressed. Thus, if sulphuric acid and potash are br together at this temperature, they do not combine. Li paper, introduced, keeps its colour. Curiously, it is possib restore their energy to these inert substances, by passing electric current, and the current passes readily whatever the stances; at 150° all bodies are good conductors. disappearance of affinity at a low temperature can be utilize. get absolutely pure substances, and M. Pictet has thus obta alcohol, chloroform, ether, and glycerine.

SOME good notes on the Shuswap people of British Cole read before the Royal Society of Canada by Dr. Ge Dawson, F. R. S., are now printed in the Society's Transac and have also been issued separately. In an interesting ser on the superstitions of the Shuswaps he notes that they ha singular idea about certain small lizards. A man who sees of these creatures is supposed to be followed by it whereve may go during the day, till at length, when he is a during the following night, it finds him, and entering body, proceeds to eat out his heart, so that he quickly dies late Mr. Bennett, of Spallumsheen, told Dr. Dawson in that the Indians employed by him in making a ditch fet poses of irrigation, on coming into camp in the evening, jump several times over the fire in order to lead the p pursuing lizard to enter the fire and be destroyed in attem to cross. He also noticed that they carefully tied up the their trousers when retiring. If while at work during the they saw one of these little lizards, which appeared abundant in that locality, it would be caught in a forke the ends of which were then tied together with a wisp of and the butt end of the twig afterwards planted in the soil. treated, the lizard soon died and become a natural mumas during the progress of the work any one found and car. tossed aside one of these lizards, the Indians would throw their tools and search diligently until they found it, and sit in the manner just described. Dr. Dawson thinks the superstition must be widespread among the Indians, for afterwards related to him in identical form by a mas Nicola River, who further pointed out a small lake, si

tuated on the summit of a high ridge about a mile and a half outh of the mountain named Za-kwās'-ki, as a noted resortossibly the only place known to the man-of this peculiar imal. He described it as being a few inches in length and early black. Za-kwas'-ki, to which other stories attach, is outh of Nicola River, at the source of the Nicoamen River.

A COMMON impurity in many seeds which are used as food or live-stock is the seed of corn-cockle (Agrostemma githargo). otably is this the case on the Continent, and especially in ungary, where the refuse from the machines used in cleaning ain consists chiefly of cockle-seed, and is largely used in eding swine. It appears, as a rule, to have no ill-effect upon ese animals. Upon other animals, however, it sometimes has ious and even fatal effects, especially upon calves and dogs. :cording to Kobert (Landw. Centralblt. Provinz Posen, 19) it ould appear that the seeds contain a glucoside-saponin H4018,-which acts as a poison either when eaten in the rm of cockle-seed or when introduced into the blood. Various imals are affected in different degrees, but dogs, cats, and rds soon die when fed upon the seed. The poison decomposes e blood, dissolving the red corpuscles, and also destroys the nsitive albuminoid portion of the nerve elements. Heating to C. decomposes the saponin, and renders the seed harmless. nce this glucoside is found to lie only just below the surface of e seed, Kobert suggests that the seed should be coarsely ground d the outer husk separated; to cook the meal would be a still er precaution. A good deal of cockle-seed comes into the t of Hull, chiefly, it is presumed, amongst grain which has not encreened. From such seeds as linseed it is removed by eening before pressing, but it is too often found in the cake ich results after the oil is expressed from the linseed. isiderable quantity of corn-cockle is handled in Hull, whater its ultimate destination may be, and it sometimes occurs in ding-stuffs in far too large a percentage to be considered as an idental impurity. Its use in admixture (as impurity or otherwise) h other feeding-stuffs is strongly to be deprecated so long as re is the slightest risk attending its consumption by any dom. ic animal. Its detection is very easy, the peculiar rough husk he seed being characteristic; the husk, after clearing with ite sulphuric acid, and then with caustic soda, and examined ler a low power of the microscope, will exhibit dark-red voluted markings which distinguish it clearly from the husk ny other well-known seed.

A

T is a well-known fact that sea-anemones have a sense by ch they recognize food. This has been studied recently by Nagel at the Zoological Station in Naples, and he has eavoured to localize it. Among other experiments, a small e of a sardine was brought carefully to the tentacles of one ese animals; the tentacle first touched, then others, seized ood and surrounded it, and the morsel was swallowed. A lar ball of blotting-paper saturated with sea-water, brought in the same way, was not seized. If, however, the ball was ed in the juice of fish, it was seized with the same energy as ›iece of fish, but often liberated again after a time without z swallowed. Blotting-paper saturated with sugar acted the other, but more weakly. If saturated with quinine, it refused, the tentacles drawing back. On the outer surface e body, as also in the part between the tentacles and the h, quinine had no effect, nor had coumarin, vanillin, or : acid. When a piece of meat was placed in or near the h of a widely-open animal, no notice was taken of it; it was seized when the tentacles were touched. Thus the sense ste seems to be in these alone. Cutting the tentacles did vidently give pain, but these organs appeared sensitive to and to touch, so that they appear to be the seat of three

MR. JOHN MURRAY has published a fourth edition of Dr. W. Fream's "Elements of Agriculture." The work was originally issued at the beginning of the present year, and two editions were sold out before the end of January. The third edition has for some time been out of print. The book has now been thoroughly revised, and enriched with a completely new set of illustrations.

A NEW edition of Dr. John Casey's "Sequel to the First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid" has been issued as a volume of the Dublin University Press Series. The work has been edited by Prof. P. A. E. Dowling, by whom it has been carefully revised and considerably enlarged. The editor has obtained much valuable aid from Prof. Neuberg, of the University of Liège.

MESSRS. BLACKIE AND SON have issued a second edition, revised and enlarged, of Mr. J. McGregor-Robertson's Elementary Text-book of Physiology."

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A FURTHER Communication concerning the nature and properties of hydroxylamine, NH,OH, is contributed to the Recueil des travaux chimiques des Pays-Bas by M. Lobry de Bruyn, whose isolation of the free base was described in our note of vol. xlv. p. 20. It may be remembered that pure hydroxylamine was found to be a solid substance, crystallizing in colourless thin plates or needles, which are extremely deliquescent. So powerful indeed is the affinity of hydroxyl. amine for water, that the crystals rapidly dissolve when exposed to the air, in the moisture attracted. The crystals melt at a temperature of 33°, and the liquid boils at 58° under the reduced pressure of 22 millimetres. If the liquid is heated under ordinary atmospheric pressure in contact with the air, it explodes with great violence when a temperature between 60° and 70° is attained; if the experiment is carried out in a vessel from which air is excluded, the liquid may be heated as far as 90° without accident, regular decomposition into gaseous products occurring at this temperature. Explosion, however, usually follows at once if this temperature is much exceeded, and generally after a short time if the source of heat is removed as soon as the thermometer has reached 90°, inasmuch as the decomposition which is induced at this temperature is accompanied by evolution of heat. The crystals are without odour. They react with considerable violence with the halogen elements, the reaction in the case of chlorine being accompanied by production of flame; the products do not appear to have been investigated as yet beyond ascertaining the presence among them of the halogen acids. Metallic sodium also vigorously attacks hydroxylamine, brilliant incandescence occurring. Warm zinc dust reduces it to ammonia so rapidly, that if any considerable quantities are employed a violent explosion follows. Highly oxidized compounds, such as potassium permanganate, chromates, bichromates, or chromic acid react with crystals of hydroxylamine, as may be expected, in a most energetic manner, brilliant flame being produced often accompanied by detonation. Chlorates, perchlorates and bromates behave similarly in the presence of a drop of sulphuric acid. Hydroxylamine liberates iodine from iodic anhydride, and rapidly reduces iodates to iodides. Dehydrated sulphate of copper inflames in contact with the crystals of the base, and powdered nitrate of silver is reduced to metallic silver. Addition of trichloride or pentachloride of phosphorus to the crystals likewise brings about ignition. Hydrogen peroxide oxidizes hydroxylamine to nitrous acid. These reactions, selected from a large number which M. de Bruyn describes, amply demonstrate the remarkable chemical energy with which anhydrous hydroxylamine is endowed. It is interesting to learn that the melted substance is capable of dissolving a considerable volume of ammonia gas. Moreover, carbon dioxide and sulphuretted hydrogen are so soluble in melted hydroxylamine that

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