Gigantic ants scurried here and there. One large black fellow, solitary in habit, carries a massive pair of jaws, but fights only when disturbed. He is known commonly as the "policeman or bull-dog ant "because he separates the "soldiers," a fierce and warlike tribe with red bodies; the latter have uncontrollable fits of passion. Tickle one with a stick, and he will simply lie on his back kicking with fury. Beware how either species touch the skin. I am informed that the sting or bite is intensely painful, like the touch of a hot iron. But there is a more extraordinary species still in Queensland, called the meridian ant; the hillocks erected by them are several feet high, but remarkably thin. Passing in the train they have the appearance of so many tombThe strange thing is, each one is erected due north and south; they never vary from this position. Small white ants (Termites, I suppose,) I saw at work in a gentleman's stable, near Sydney. They had ruined the coach-house, in spite of constant petroleum dressing.

stones.

In Melbourne I had the good fortune to receive an invitation to the conversazione of the Field Naturalists' Club, and was fairly amazed at the evidence of work accomplished in all branches of Natural History. The collections and groups of birds alone repaid us for the evening expedition. A crimson-breasted specimen of Columba superba, a pair of frontal tit-shrikes, rifle-birds, regent-birds, and many others dwell in the memory; while the variety of robin is quite bewildering. Flame-breasted, crimson-headed, yellowbreasted, grey-throated, hooded robin, pink-wood robin; and I believe this does not complete the list of the New South Wales species.

When the club organise an expedition in holiday time, they simply start off for a week or so to some spot hardly known to naturalists, say an island, perhaps ten times as large as the Isle of Wight. Here they camp, shoot and hunt, collect unknown treasures from the sea-shore and botanise inland to their hearts' content. It is virgin ground. Things unknown to science may turn up in any direction. Such conditions are enough to excite our envy, cramped up in over-populated England. I saw scores of bottles crammed full with strange sponges, Echinoderms, Hydroids and Polyzoa; not one quarter of these had been examined, and doubtless new genera and species lie waiting to be described. The difficulty during a short visit-where life is so prolific -is to know what to study; there is material for years' work. If these lines should meet the eyes of any member of the Melbourne Field Naturalists' Club, I venture to suggest that he should forward a short account of one of their splendid expeditions (say to King Island this last year), to the Editor of SCIENCEGOSSIP. It would prove deeply interesting to scores of fellow workers in far off Old England.

At one of these meetings in Melbourne, Professor Baldwin Spencer, Biological instructor at the Uni

versity, showed me a dish of sea water, containing the curious fish in a living state, Amphioxus lanceolatus, dredged up in Port Phillip. They are transparent, and barely exceed two inches in length, and possess the slightest possible structure. Having notes on this fish, I hope to deal more fully with the subject in the future.

Confirming the repeated assertion, that snakes swallow their young ones at the approach of danger, the following may not be without interest. On the 28th March, 1888, Mr. H. J. M'Cooey, at Coogee Bay, surprised a black snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus) in the scrub. It made a hissing sound or gulping noise, and opened the mouth wide; no less than eighteen young ones rapidly disappeared down its throat. He killed the snake and thirteen young ones; the remainder escaped as the parent was dissected. Mr. John Taylor, a shipper well known in Queensland trade, informed me he had himself seen a large black snake swallow her young. I think ample proof of this now exists from various parts of the world, and in England we may still look for evidence that the common viper performs a similar feat.

I cannot at present put into shape my impressions of the Sydney and Melbourne Botanic Gardens. From the directors of both, I met with all facilities and assistance in studying the Australian and tropical flora. I am now occupied in planting seeds of typical Australian plants in an English green-house, from a splendid collection given to me by Mr. W. Guilfoyle, F.L.S., of Melbourne Gardens. Among them are hakeas, acacias, eucalypts, casuarinas, pittosporums, and many beautiful species.

It is strange to see how the weeping willow flourishes at the antipodes. Indeed, this Salix Babylonica is a wonderful tree, and appears to be transmitted by cutting all over the world, wherever civilisation advances. I believe the male plant only is known, and the original home is said to be Asia. I picture it drooping on the terraces of the famous hanging gardens at Babylon, aud likely enough it was the same tree mentioned by the Hebrew poet : "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept As for our harps, we hanged them up upon the trees that are therein."

...

with its size, are very bright. Indeed, their very insignificance of size seems to be compensated for by their remarkable brilliancy and beauty. A slowworm's eye is the prettiest part of its whole body. Another delusion of those ignorant of natural history and its teachings (although like most of the other erroneous notions of reptile life, such belief, owing to the advance of scientific culture, is rapidly on the decline) is that a slow-worm can inflict a bite that is poisonous. It is well I have said "those ignorant of natural history and its teachings," for it is evident if these ignorant ones were more conversant with nature, they could not labour under such an error. It is as much an impossibility for a slow-worm to poison anyone, as it is for an eel to do so, for the very simple but conclusive reason that, instead of possessing fangs with which to inject poison and a pair of glands from which to secret the venom, it possesses numerous minute teeth. The use of these teeth to the slow-worm is not very obvious, for it swallows its food whole. In the summer of last year I was returning from a ramble, with a half dead slowworm in my hand, when I met an acquaintance. After we had been talking for some time, the gentleman, who, by the way, had sorely neglected the fascinating study of nature, although he was an artist, told me he was once bitten by a slow-worm, and that the wound became very much inflamed. There is no doubt he was bitten by an adder and not a slowworm, for the latter's teeth cannot pierce the epidermis. Another belief, common among the uncultured, is that snakes "sting," and that they do so by means of that wonderful structure, the forked tongue. This is probably the reason the slowworm, as well as the ringed snake, has gained its present reputation of "stinging" and "poisoning.” The common ringed snake (Natrix torquata) is reputed to be venomous, no doubt, as I have said before, in consequence of its possessing a forked tongue.

Adders are deservedly known to be as venomous as Anguis fragilis and Natrix torquata are harmless. Frogs and toads have been believed for many years to be capable of existing under most extraordinary circumstances, and are even now believed by many to have the power of living without food and air for months and even years. It is truly marvellous how long reptiles can live without food. Here are a few instances, very kindly furnished by Mr. Halfpenny, which I quote, not because they are extraordinary, for there are many others on record much more wonderful, but because they are of recent occurrence and their accuracy can be relied on. "I have a young live adder in my possession which has taken no food since I have had it, the first week of last October (1884)." This would be nearly four months the adder fasted, and it is the more perplexing, that during this period, the adder has been kept in a case in a warm room, where the fire was constantly

burning. The adder had not therefore been dormant during those four months, but constantly wearing away tissue which it could not repair. He then goes on to say, "A toad I have kept four months without food, and a triton six; the same fact has been observed in the tortoise by a friend of mine. They each expired at the end of that period." According to occasional reports, frogs (Rana temporaria) and toads (Bufo vulgaris) have been found alive in rocks and trees where they must have been for years, without the possibility of air penetrating to them, much less food. If a toad or frog has been found alive under these circumstances, depend upon it both air and food in some way penetrated to the prisoner. Dr. Buckland, by his experiments, has perhaps done more to dispel this absurd idea than any one. He confined twelve toads in separate holes cut in soft sandstone and covered the apertures with plates of glass firmly cemented to the sandstone, so as to exclude both insects and air. When about a year had elapsed he examined the holes, and of course found the toads dead. Toads are also thought by many to be capable of emitting fire. As a matter of fact they cannot "spit fire," but still it is interesting to note how credulous some people are in the nineteenth century. The toad, in spite of its evil character, has been found by gardeners a most useful adjunct, being very effectual in ridding the garden of insects. The last reptiles to be mentioned are newts (Triton cristatus and Triton punctatus) and lizards. these creatures are believed to be capable of biting, and thus inflicting a nasty, if not dangerous wound. How some of the errors, which I have enumerated were originated, is a fitting subject for the philosopher. The humble naturalist will not venture an opinion on so profound a mystery.

ARTHUR AYLING.

THE ECDYSIS OF INSECTS.

All

NE of the writers in the August number of

Phthirius inguinalis, in which he noticed that within each of the animal's claws there existed another claw, resembling the one within which it was situated. He asked, with great caution, whether it was possible that the animal was about to moult. There can be no doubt in my mind that such is the case. All insects which do not pass through the regular stages of larva, pupa, and imago, but at all times resemble the adult animal, periodically cast their inelastic, chitinous skins. As examples of this can be taken, the cockroaches, crickets, aphides, earwigs, and the whole family of bugs. Were it not for this provision, these animals would not be able to grow.

The state of things described in the August number, is not confined to the Phthirius inguinalis.

I have observed the same in several specimens of Pediculus capitis.

In the specimens examined by myself, the whole of the skin was seen to be reduplicated. Two sets of spiracles, one within the other, were beautifully shown. In all the great tracheal vessels, the spiral membrane was seen to be double, the inner tube being continuous with the outer skin of the abdomen, thus showing that the trachea are shed as well as the external skin.

The most interesting fact, however, that my specimens showed, was, that not merely the shell or exoskeleton was about to be shed, but also the muscles that worked the terminal joint, a phenomenon that has not, I believe, been hitherto observed.

bodies, and are marked with fine transverse striae. The muscle which flexes the outer claw is seen to be entirely outside the inner shell, and must, therefore, be cast off when the animal casts the outer skin.

It has been objected, by one savant to whom I submitted my specimens and views, that the striated bodies in question are not muscles at all, but merely tracheal dilatations, and that the apparent muscular striation is caused by the spiral thickening within those tracheal dilatations. This objection seems to be frivolous. At any rate, it is easily overcome. If the striae were due to the tracheal spiral, they would present, when the microscope is focussed half through their substance, a dotted appearance at their ends. This is found not to be the case.

The accompanying diagram, drawn with the aid of a camera lucida, from the foot of a Pediculus capitis, will serve to show what I mean. The last three joints are represented. Within the shell of these can be seen the new skin (s'). This is seen to be delicate and wrinkled; it does not become chitinous until the removal of the outer shell (s).

The relative position of the two terminal joints, or claws, is peculiar, and has an important bearing upon what follows. It is seen that the terminal claw of the inner, or new limb, lies not within the corresponding claw of the outer limb, but within the last joint but one.

Attached to the base of both of the terminal claws can be seen the muscles-f, f'-by which they are flexed. They are elongated sub-cylindrical

The very position of these bodies shows them to be flexor muscles. They are inserted into the only available part of the claws, and lie in the only possible direction in which properly-acting flexors could lie.

Even supposing that these bodies are not muscular, it stands to sense, from the relative position of the two claws, that the muscles within the inner skin cannot possibly act upon the outer claw. Hence, those that do move the outer claw must lie within the space between the two, and must therefore be thrown off when the ecdysis takes place.

The specimen from which the drawing was made, was mounted in Canada balsam, after being first treated with potash, and cleared with turpentine. JAMES HARVEY.

Scarborough.

GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOPICS.

By W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS, F.R.A.S., F.C.S.

A

BIG METEORITE.-A visit to the collection of meteorites at the end of the mineral room of the British Museum, presents a curious commentary on the fact that, until the beginning of the present century, the orthodox scientists denied their existence, and treated all accounts of their fall as they now treat all descriptions of the sea serpent, they would have sacrificed their scientific reputation had they done otherwise. This, in spite of the actual exhibition in London, in 1796, of a stone weighing fifty-six pounds, utterly different in composition and appearance from any rock known to exist on the face of the earth, and the fall of which was witnessed and attested by several credible witnesses.

The Royal Society of that date refused to listen to the evidence; but was forced to do so in 1802, and now it listens placidly to a theory which builds up the stars, and all the other heavenly bodies, of these wandering lumps.

The National Museum of Brazil has lately secured a noble specimen, weighing 11,800 lbs. The cost of its transport was defrayed by Baron Greahy. The survey of its route, and preliminary arrangements, occupied three months; its journey commenced on November 25th, 1887, and it reached the railway by which its journey was completed, on May 14th of the present year. It had to cross above a hundred streams, to ascend 870 feet over one mountain chain, besides crossing many of smaller elevation, and this in a region of mule paths. The distance from Bendego Creek, where it was lying, to the railway that finally carried it to Rio, is 71 miles.

RELATIVE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF STARCH AND FAT. According to some recent experiments made by O. Kellner, who fed horses on different materials and compared the results, the nutritive value of linseed oil as compared with starch, is 2.6 to I. These figures were based on calculation of the work done, and it should be noted that the comparison is made between vegetable oil and farinaceous vegetable food.

I am not surprised at this result, having long ago witnessed similar experiments made upon human beings in Shropshire. At the time when mowing machines were but little used, large numbers of Irish labourers came across to assist in the hay harvest. These were typical specimens of poor cottiers, who at home fed almost entirely upon potatoes, i.e. mainly upon starch. At first, for a week or two, the Irishmen were unable to keep up with the English labourers in mowing, a kind of work which pretty accurately measures the muscular energy of the labourer when paid for by the acre. At the end of about a fortnight, they became able to do their fair share, having in the meantime been largely fed

on fat bacon. The Irish labourers were annual visitors, and had the same amount of training in the peculiar muscular action of mowing as the English

men.

Mr.

My observations in Ireland in the course of four summers, during which I visited every county of the "distressful country," convinced me that the politicians on both sides are raving in vain; that the chief curse of Ireland is neither the Saxon, nor the priest, nor the league, nor the tory, nor the radical, but is the potato; and the craving for a sluggish distension of the stomach which is generated by potato feeding, becomes a vice that in many cases is comparable to the alcohol crave. Parnell would be converted into a true patriot, a genuine benefactor to his country, if he would import the Colorado beetle, or any other creature that should devastate and finally extirpate the debasing tuber. Even pigs degenerate if fed upon it exclusively, and human beings similarly fed suffer from a combination of habitual distension, and lack of nutrition that deprives them of both physical and moral energy. The Irishman transplanted to America and properly fed, becomes quite an altered being, so far as industry and general energy are concerned.

CONSUMPTION OF MUSCLE BY EXERCISE.-In Chapter xix. of "The Chemistry of Cookery," I have discussed the two rival theories of the "Physiology of Nutrition," that of Liebig, and that which has been lately picked up by certain fashionable physicians. The first asserts that life-work is generated by the transformation or self-decomposition of living tissue, the latter that it is due to the combustion o food. According to the first, the work is done by the consumption of the engine itself, which the food renews; according to the second, by the combustion of the food, as by the coal of our steam engines. I believe that Liebig is right, and that the analogy of the steam engine, which is claimed for the modern theory, is utterly fallacious.

This view is confirmed by experiments recently conducted by A. Monari, and recorded in the "Gazetta Chemica Italiana." Monari has determined the difference of the chemical composition of muscle before and after exercise by killing full-grown dogs after repose, and others after protracted exercise. He finds that the proportions of both creatine and creatinine are increased by fatigue, and that this is especially the case with the creatine. The results of his analyses are displayed in tables.

To appreciate the significance of this result, it is necessary to understand that the destruction of muscle, which Liebig described as the chief source of animal mechanical energy (that of nervous tissue being also demanded in a lesser degree), is shown by the conversion of organised matter into saline material of a chemical character intermediate between itself and ordinary mineral matter. Such is urea, kreatine,

and kreatinine, the two latter being salts of some complexity of constitution, as compared with the usually simple constitution of purely mineral salts.

THE TRUE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.-There

is one passage in the interesting address recently delivered by Sir Frederick Bramwell before the British Association, that should be read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested, by some of our modern scientists, or, more properly speaking, pedants. I refer to that class who pretend to despise popular science, and who imitate the vegetarian fox of the fable in their treatment of those who have grasped the great truths of science with sufficient thoroughness to be able to expound them clearly and simply, and thus place them within the reach of all intelligent people.

Sir Frederick Bramwell reminded the Association that its declared and primary object is the "advancement of science," and that such advancement implies its practical application for the benefit of mankind. The class of benefits to which he, as a civil engineer maintaining the dignity of his vocation, especially referred, were those physical blessings which science, in the hands of its best votaries, has so beneficently showered upon us.

Besides these, there is another class of blessings which the teacher who diffuses science among the millions is justified in extolling, viz. the moral advancement which necessarily follows its general diffusion. The poetry of creation is an epic, compared to which all the poetry of the human imagination is but nursery rhyming; and the highest and purest of all religion is the worship of divine truth, the teaching and the application of which is the whole and sole business of science.

Mere discovery is but one of these three steps, and, being the first, should be honoured accordingly. Without the other two it is worthless, and may even be mischievous by perverting the religion of pure truth to the vile purpose of creating a pestiferous priesthood of pharisaical pedants; pretentious prigs, who would appropriate for their own purposes of selfexaltation, that intellectual wealth which is the common property of all mankind.

The British Association has nobly fulfilled its purpose in the true advancement of science by its missionary work throughout the kingdom. Whereever it has halted, held its meetings, and made its excursions, a popular awakening and elevation of intellect has followed. Its admission of all to membership prevents the possibility of its partaking in any degree of the character of a mutual admiration club, and constitutes a bold and clear expression of the common rights of all human beings to freely partake of the intellectual banquet which science has prepared.

ACTION OF COAL-TAR DYES.-One of the peculiarities of the coal-tar dyes is their partiality to

animal substances, such as wool and silk. To these they adhere with admirable pertinacity, saving the dyer all the trouble of preliminary or subsequent treatment with mordants to destroy the solubility of the dye, and fix it to the fabric. To apply the coaltar dyes, he simply immerses the fabric in the hot solution of the colour, retaining it there for a longer or shorter time, usually at a boiling heat. I have frequently made the experiment of immersing a skein of natural silk cleansed from its "silk glue" by alkali, in a solution of the dye, and boiling this until the colour leaves the water and goes over to the silk, the water thus becoming quite colourless, thereby showing a positive appropriation of all the dye by the silk, which is quite different from mere participation of stain.

E. Knecht has recently investigated this subject, in order to determine whether the taking up of these dyes by the fibre is a chemical or mechanical process. He submitted woollen and silken fibres to the action of hot solutions of the dyes until all the colour was taken up by the fibre, then analysed the decolorised solution, and found it to contain ammonia derived from the fibre, and that, in the case of rosaniline hydrochloride, the hydrochloric acid remained in the solution, and the rosaniline had gone over to the fibre. He found that similar changes occurred with other colours, such as diamidoazobenzine-hydrochloride, &c. These results he regards as proving that the adhesion of the dye in such cases is a quantitative chemical change and not a mechanical process; or, to express it otherwise, the dyed silk or wool is a chemical compound of the silk or wool itself or some constituent thereof with the colouring matter.

IMPROVED WINE.-The following from the Journal of the Chemical Society of July, page 737, is a summary of the results of the experiments of Laborde and Magnan on the toxic or poisoning action of alcohols, and of the artificial bouquets that modern chemical science has supplied to the ingenious manufacturers of high-class wines. I copy it to afford some cheerful reading for those who are fond of such beverages, merely explaining that the liqueurs named are some of those usually added to champagnes, &c., or which, skilfully applied to fortified vin ordinaire, converts it into choice vintage with exquisite bouquet, and raises its price in this country from one shilling to five, ten, twenty, or thirty shillings per bottle, according to the label or cobwebs. 'Salicaldehyde, which is added to vermuth, bitter, and essence de reine des prés, produces strong epileptic convulsions. Methyl salicylate, which is used as a substitute for oil of winter-green in vermuth and bitter, also produces convulsions, although not of an epileptic form. Benzonitrile and benzaldehyde, which are added in small quantities to noyau, produce tetanus and even death."