associations of this kind! It is a right and a good thing not to allow these old-world beliefs concerning the ascribed virtues, &c., of plants to die out. Consequently we warmly welcome the handsome volume before us, in which the myths, traditions, superstitions, and folk-lore of the vegetable kingdom are fully worked out. The author is also the printer of the book-so that it is everything the book-lover can wish as regards type, woodcuts, paper, &c. Moreover, the fact lends additional point to the remarks already made concerning the contributions made by British industry to British science. Mr. Folkard has the charm of an interesting and clear style, as was unavoidable from the thorough manner in which he is interpenetrated with his subject. His book displays much learning and research, and it is both pleasant to read, and useful to refer to.

Origin of Cultivated Plants, by Alphonse de Candolle (London: Kegan Paul & Co.). This is another of the now famous "International Scientific Series," and it is also one of the most important, both on account of the high scientific rank of its author, and the importance and interest of the subject-matter. The latter is almost as much archæological and historical as it is botanical and horticultural; for many of the most important of our foodplants have their origin lost in the mists of antiquity, just as the races of mankind are. Prof. de Candolle only deals with the plants useful as food, he leaves out the medicinal kinds. With wondrous patience and learning, he has traced the history of some plants for thousands of years back, and shown how their culture was carried on at different epochs. At the same time he points out, that three out of four of the original homes of cultivated plants (as indicated by Linnæus) are wrong. Nevertheless, these have been continuously repeated by subsequent authors, who will now have a better authority to appeal to.

Leisure Time Studies, Chiefly Biological, by Andrew Wilson, Ph.D. (London: Chatto & Windus). This is the third edition of a series of essays and lectures, whose literary success is proved by the fact, that their republication is thus constantly called for. Dr. Wilson has a very quiet but effective way of telling what he has to say, which charms his readers into following him from essay to essay. Some of these (as that on corals, for instance) are models of how much information can be clearly and effectively packed into so small a space. The last essay on science and poetry rises to a lofty expression of poetical feeling, and its perusal would be a complete answer to those who imagine that science and poetry are antagonistic to each other.

Effie and Her Strange Acquaintances, by the Rev. John Crofts, M.A. (Chester: Phillipson & Golder). After reading this delightful child's book ourselves, we subjected it to the criticism of a little book-worm of ten years old, who has read it four times through! This will be considered as a fair test of its readable

character. The author has skilfully combined the form of Kingsley's "Water-Babies" with Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland," and has brought out a book which plainly shows how much he loves both children and flowers, or he could not intellectually cater for them so attractively.

The Geology of Weymouth, by Robert Damon (London: Edward Stanford). This is a new and enlarged edition of a very successful geological handbook to a very attractive and highly fossiliferous locality—a locality known to the author for many years. The volume is beautifully got up, and well illustrated; and no naturalist, certainly no geologist, ought to be without it who wishes to enjoy the feast of fat things offered in our Southern English coasts.

Natural History Sketches among the Carnivora, by Arthur Nicols, F.G.S. (London: L. Upcott Gill). The delightful freedom from any form of literary stiffness which marks all this author's previous works is evident in the present. It is a most attractive volume, inside and out; and the subject, although to some extent a hackneyed one, is redeemed by the graceful style of the author.

The Speaking Parrots, by Dr. Karl Russ (London: L. Upcott Gill). This is a nicely got up manual, dealing with the habits, food, training, health, &c. of this class of birds. We are frequently asked to recommend a book of this kind, and we are therefore glad to draw attention to it, and to speak of it as one which seems to fulfil all the requirements of "A Manual of Talking Birds."

The Universe of Suns, by R. A. Proctor (London: Chatto & Windus). It requires only the announcement of a new book by Mr. Proctor, for it to be read. The present volume consists of a series of essays, chiefly relating to solar and planetary astronomy, and embracing earthquakes and volcanic phenomena, and even social subjects, all discussed in that terse and elegant English of which the author is so skilled a master. It is a most delightful book to read.

The Story of a Great Delusion, by William White (London: E. W. Allen). A nicely printed, and altogether attractively got up book. The literary contents are about as hopeless a jumble as we ever saw in print, and a believer in vaccination could not desire to inflict a more refined act of cruelty upon an anti-vaccinator than oblige him to read the present volume right through.

Rabbits, by R. O. Edwards (London: W. Swan Sonnenschein & Co.). A handy little manual on this perennial subject, as useful to the amateur as to the professional rabbit-keeper, with full and minute details relating to everything which concerns the well-being of these familiar pets.

List of British Vertebrate Animals, by Francis P. Pascoe (London: Taylor & Francis). All British naturalists should procure this most useful and compact little manual. It will save much time, and

assist in securing greater accuracy. The newest views and changes in classification are included; and, although the book is a small one, there is a good deal in it.

Nature's Hygiene, by C. T. Kingzett, F.C.S. (London: Baillière, Tindall, & Co.). Although this is the second edition of a book which we noticed favourably when it first came out, the author has improved it by partly rewriting some chapters, and adding others, as water supply, sewage, infectious diseases, &c. It is a good practical manual on all matters relating to health, and we are pleased to see the public taking so much greater interest in this subject as to require a second edition.

The Naturalist's World, edited by Percy Lund (London: W. Swan Sonnenschein). This is the first volume of a bright and attractive monthly magazine, published under the auspices of the Practical Naturalists' Society. It covers a good deal of ground, contains a variety of well-written articles, and shows plain proof of careful editorship.

We have also received a neatly got up volume, containing the Reports of the Meetings of the Scientific Association recently held in Montreal and Philadelphia, as given in the American weekly journal Science. It is a very handy volume, and contains the pith of the best papers and addresses, carefully edited.

filled in fact with iron-pyrites, but many were very perfect. By searching under lumps of clay and boulders, I found many species, such as Ammonites varicosus, A. lautus, very plentiful; Nucula ovata and N. pectinata, common, but only occasionally found perfect. Nucula vibrayana, not so common as the two other species. Belemnites minimus, B. ultimus and B. attenuatus, rather plentiful. These singular objects when water worn, are not unlike bits of slate-pencil, a comparison which I fear will shock a geologist.

In some places lately left bare by the tide, I

D

GAULT FOSSILS AT FOLKESTONE.

URING a recent visit to the Warren, near Folkestone, Kent, in search of Lepidoptera, the weather having become unfavourable, I was obliged to turn my attention to some other branch of Natural History, otherwise I should have to return with empty boxes. On looking from the cliffs above the Warren, I observed the dark line of gault near the beach, and remembering having read that fossils were to be obtained somewhere near this spot, I thought I would become a geologist, for the first time.

On descending the cliffs, "which are here much broken, and often very wet from the springs which trickle over the impervious clay to the beach," I soon observed remains of shells in various parts of the gault, but, on attempting to dig them out, I found that it was almost impossible to obtain them in perfect condition; however, I managed to get a few specimens of such species as Inoceramus concentricus and I. sulcatus, Ammonites interruptus and A. auritus. These Ammonites were mostly broken in extricating them from the clay in which they were found.

I then turned my attention to the beach, and found the fossils were much more plentiful there, but they were in most cases in the form of interior casts

Fig. 27.-Aporrhais Parkinsonii.

found hollows in the gault filled by a deposit consisting of small fossils, pebbles and fragments of ironpyrites. I here found many small species, some of which I have not yet got named, Aporrhais Parkinsonii and A. rostellaria, rather plentiful, but very imperfect. Hamites tuberculatus, only broken parts of this species could be found, also portions of serpula tubes, and encrinite stems. Corbula gaultina, two specimens only were found on this occasion, but, being much pleased with my first attempt at collecting fossils, I went again, and obtained many specimens of Corbula gaultina and also Cardita tenuicosta, Solarium ornatum, some nearly perfect. Acteon

pulchella, Hemiaster minimus, Trochocyathus harveyana, a few specimens of each were found. Many specimens of a cerithium [?] were found, but not perfect. Natica gaultina, a few were obtained in a fair state of preservation. Hamites rotundus, only broken bits of this species could be obtained. Rostellaria carinata, a few good specimens were found. I also found a few specimens of Bellarophina miniata: a species which I understand is rather rare; it is certainly rather difficult to find, on account of its small size and general resemblance to a rounded fragment of ironstone. A shark's tooth was obtained fairly perfect,

Fig. 28.-Ammonites lautus.

and also a number of small teeth, not yet named. These are remarkably perfect. All the above smaller species require much care to detect and separate them from the sand and stones. I observed that the few persons who did collect the fossils appeared to look for the larger Ammonites only, taking very little notice of the smaller species. I think the fact that I have obtained nearly thirty species in two or three visits to this locality, may be of interest to many. My object in writing the above list, is to induce others to collect. I am indebted to Mr. Newton, of the Geological Museum, London, for his kind assistance in naming my specimens.

London.

A. H. SHEPHERD.

GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOPICS.

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

THE

HE very active people who have lately been denouncing physiological investigations made upon living animals, and misrepresenting 97 per cent. of them by applying the title of "vivisection"; and who evidently imagine that all perpetrators of physiological research are mere sportsmen finding personal enjoyment in the infliction of pain and death upon helpless animals, should read Dr. Richardson's lecture on "The Painless Extinction of Life in the Lower Animals," delivered at the Society of Arts, and published in the Journal of that Society for December 26th last. They will learn thereby that a very eminent physician and experimentalist, who according to

their confession of faith should be a heartless beasttorturing ogre, has during more than thirty years been working most industriously, at considerable expense of money and still greater cost of valuable time, without any pay or prospect of pay, in devising methods for rendering the customary slaughtering of animals absolutely painless. If these denouncers of vivisection are really sincere they will at once emulate the truly humane efforts of Dr. Richardson, will sacrifice their time, their labour, and their cash as he has done, by co-operating in a great national effort to introduce the use of the "lethal chamber" in all our slaughter houses. There is no excuse for holding back, as the effectiveness of the method has been practically demonstrated and is practically carried out at the "Dogs' Home" at Battersea, where as many as a hundred at a time of dogs, that would otherwise be violently butchered, are gently made to sleep, not suffocated, but lulled by a device as painless as the cradle rocking of an infant. In this simple sleep they remain until the heart follows the example of the dormant brain, and beats no more. All the practical details are described and illustrated in the above named report; and a society is already formed for carrying them out on animals to be killed for food (The London Model Abattoir Society of which Dr. Richardson is president); the heaviest of the work is already done. I have a list of the names of many that have spoken loudly as antivivisectionists, and shall look for those same names among the leading supporters of this movement. If they do not thus appear, I shall be driven to conclusions that need not here be specified and which will be shared by all who appreciate moral consistency.

The Students of the University of Paris are forming an association which is to be worthily inaugurated by a public celebration in honour of the oldest living philosopher, M. Chevreul, whose hundredth birthday will presently be attained. In a paper which he read at the Academy of Sciences two years ago, he had occasion to say:-"Moreover, gentlemen, the observation is not a new one to me. I had the honour to mention it here, at a meeting of the Academy on May 10th, 1812." Here is a chemist about as old as chemistry (which can scarcely be said to have existed before the discovery of oxygen), and still alive, and intellectually vigorous. Fontenelle, who died in 1750, was nearly as old, and shortly before his death said to his inquiring friends, "I have no suffering, but am feeling merely an increased difficulty of living." In another part of the same number of "Nature," from which I quote this saying of Fontenelle, are the last words of John Lawrence Smith, the American chemist, geologist, and engineer; they were "Life has been very sweet to me; it comforts me. How I pity those to whom memory brings no pleasure." Such expressions, such feelings in the evening of life are the logical

results of earnest devotion to Science. The gloomy visions of a wicked, ill-fashioned world, and dread of a worse to come, which darken the later moments of so many of those who have groped through life in the midst of artificial darkness due to the blindness of ignorance, is impossible to men who have earnestly explored the wondrous harmonies of Nature, and have done so not merely for trading purposes, but with genuine scientific enthusiasm. Neither the past nor the future can appear ill-shapen and miserable to them. The influence of coloured light on plants, concerning which such contradictory conclusions have been formed, has been further studied by Hellriegel. In his later researches he arranged the plants so that they should have the benefit of free air during fine weather, and be removed to shelter in bad weather, instead of keeping them continuously in a glass house.

Better general results were thus obtained. Barley plants were grown under blue cobalt glass and yellow carbon glass. Less ash and more organic matter were produced under the blue than under the yellow. Those under the blue glass grew well, while those under the yellow seemed to be retarded, and when shaded were long in the internodes, and the leaves were thin and delicate. The general conclusions derived from these and other experiments are, that leaves are not very sensitive to moderate changes in the composition of the light to which they are exposed, and consequently that the modifications of light produced by the ordinary glass of greenhouses can have but little effect, so little that there is no practical necessity for specially selecting the glass used for this purpose.

The persistence of an old fallacy has been curiously shown by a paragraph which has lately gone the round" of the daily papers. After describing the bursting of water mains in Buchanan Street and Paisley Road, Glasgow, and the stoppage of the music in the churches having hydraulic organs, we are told that "sudden thaw after the severe frost caused the bursts."

Another popular fallacy, not quite so elementary, is continually breaking out among newspaper correspondents. The following, written from Vevey, appeared in "Nature," December 11th. "On the night of November 28th, at about six in the evening, I went to the window to look at the moon, and saw, as it were, a second moon, behind the other. The effect was so like what one sometimes experiences from suddenly going out of a light room, or other causes (my own italics) that, at the time, I fancied it was only a defect in my sight. On going into my son's room an hour afterwards, he said, 'If something has not gone wrong with my eyes there are two moons to-night.' On this I went out again, but only saw one moon as usual. Later in the evening, a young girl who had been meeting a friend at the Montreux train, said her friend had said the moon looked queer all the while she was in the train.

The night previous a pretty severe shock of earth quake occurred in Geneva and Lausanne, and a few hours after we had observed the moon on the 28th a very violent gale and snowstorm took place." It should be noted that this account states that each of the observers saw the double moon through windows, and that the writer only saw one moon on going out." Herein lies the explanation without invoking any of the "other causes" to which temporary double vision is usually attributed. The moon, or any other luminous object viewed obliquely through a pane of glass, is always visually doubled. The light passing obliquely through the side of the glass next to the luminous object is reflected when it reaches the inner surface next to the observer, and then is re-reflected by the opposite inner surface, and thrown towards him. This second reflected image appears near to the directly transmitted image, but is not coincident with it, the distance between varying with the thickness of the glass. When the object is large, it only appears to have blurred outlines, when small the true double character of the image is evident. Double stars may thus be discovered without any telescopic aid.

After all the protection and subsidies and bounties that have been bestowed on that very political agricultural product, beet sugar, it is now in danger of being outrivalled by Sorghum sugar. German and French chemists are working out the scientific elements of the problem. In Biedermann's Centralblatt, V. Pfuel describes his experiments on its cultivation, finds that when the seed ripens there is 15 per cent. of sacchrose present; before that time, only from one to three per cent. After the autumn cutting the plants throw up a good fodder for sheep. N. Minangoin, in the same journal, says that Sorghum may be cultivated in France at less cost than beet, that its yield of molasses is less, but good brandy is obtainable from it, and the residue makes good fodder. Beet and Sorghum are evidently running a close race, with the advantage of the start and consequent experience and skill, on the side of the beet. But this may not be maintained.

Two elaborate, and from a purely chemical point of view, able papers are contributed to Dingler's Polytechnisches Journal by E. Valenta, on the action of glacial acetic acid on different oils. One of the results of these researches, which the author claims, is the detection of the adulteration of mineral oils with resin oils, the resin oils being soluble in acetic acid, the mineral oils almost insoluble. The idea of such adulteration is rather amusing now that these mineral lubricating oils are so much cheaper than the imaginary adulterant. I find by the price current in last month's "Oil Trade Review,' that the heavy mineral lubricating oils go as low as £5 per ton, i.e. about fivepence per gallon; the light mineral oils range from 6d. to 11 d. per gallon, while light resin oil is 24s. 6d. per cwt. or 2s. per gallon. This is

something like the supposed adulteration of tea with iron filings, which was so gravely and repeatedly asserted to be a widespread commercial villany, until (in 1873) I showed that in China iron filings would cost more than tea leaves, and that the adulteration, if practised on this side, to the asserted extent would demand four or five million pounds of selected fine iron filings per annum, sufficient demand to produce an extensive and very visible traffic to London, which is the tea port of Britain. The fact is, that iron filings are practically unsaleable from absence of demand. Firework makers use a few steel filings.

OBJECTS OF INTEREST IN OUR PIT
DISTRICT.

A STRANGER travelling through our district would meet with no rugged scenery, or headlong waterfall. For a radius of a few miles, he would find he was entirely free from any mountain, and a level piece of country would stretch before him. Looking eastward, he would have a clear sea view of the sea only a few miles distant. Turning in any other direction, he would see numerous small plantations mixed with farm houses, and a few villages teeming with a busy population. If he were fond of botany, he would find some very interesting plants. If an ornithologist, he would see some fine rookeries, as well as flocks of starlings. The latter used to be a migratory bird, but has now, for several years, remained all the winter through. Often have I stood in the summer evenings watching their movements. Magpies he would not see, as they have for more than twenty years entirely deserted our district. The conduct of our youngsters, I fancy, will have been the cause of their desertion. The ornithologist would only on very rare occasions meet with any blackcaps, as they are with us fast dying out. Two species of wagtail stay with us long after the migratory birds have left us. A lover of entomology would meet with the two garden white, red, admiral, small tortoiseshell, orange tip, meadow brown, painted lady, the small copper, and occasionally the peacock. The small streams are well stocked with small fishes. I give an extract I once sent to a Newcastle paper on our stickleback. One fine summer evening, the sky very clear, the air quiet, the scenery calm and peaceful, and all nature appearing at rest, I took a stroll by the side of a gentle stream. In my company was a gentleman who was very anxious to be shown some nests of stickleback, as he had never before seen anything of the kind. As we wandered along, shoals of stickleback darted rapidly past us, for, with their keen sense of sight, they soon recognised us on the banks as strangers. We sat down on the bank, and the fish soon returned, and began their usual pranks. The

males took their places and stood guard over their charmed circles, like the Roman soldiers of old went on doing their duty, and ready to die rather than be driven from their posts. My friend expressed much surprise to find all those having the prettiest colour to be the worst tempered. "Yes," I said, "that is true, but let us look at their motive. You see those little raised mounds, with a round hole in the centre; they are nests, and the coloured stickleback you see close by are the males guarding their precious homes. The males have the places to select, the nests to build and to keep in order, the females coming when all is right, to deposit their spawn, and, unless the nests were closely guarded by the males, not only against the attack of other fishes, but even against the parents themselves, as the ova or spawn is always a precious meal to fishes, they would soon be destroyed." Their colour I have found to be mostly due to their valour in fighting, the bolder they are the more fierce they look, and the more courage they show in defending their nests the more colour they get. I have frequently seen females go from nest to nest, depositing ova without being molested. Yet, at the same time, I have seen them chased away, when I much fancied they had not any ova to deposit. The nests I could see were repeatedly visited by the males. Ist. To see the nests are kept in order, and to make fast any loose material by a gummy substance which they have the power of discharging. 2nd. The eggs of the female have to be fertilised by the males; without this the fecundity of the eggs would not take place. Now these eggs, and those of snails, frogs, &c., that I have examined, are the same shape as the eggs of birds, when viewed under the microscope. As I was in want of a nest for my home aquarium, my friend insisted on taking one home. He stretched himself across the stream with his head close to the nest which he wanted, and which was only a few inches under the water. As he listened very attentively, he fancied he heard something moving. Presently the whole brood of young ones came away, and so fascinated were we with the sight before us, that a few seconds passed away before we could speak to each other again. He took off his round felt hat, and indented the crown so as to hold about a pint of water. Into this miniature vessel he placed the whole shoal of young. This mass of life, so newly ushered into existence, was to us the most interesting of all sights we had before witnessed. I have found these last few years, that that pretty little fish the minnow fails to keep its own in the struggle for existence, in some of our very small streams. Where it used to be plentiful, it has now entirely died out. They fail to stand the repeated attacks of the pugnacious sticklebacks. The traveller in our country would pass acres of land, scarcely fit to graze a single animal. On his route he would notice a peculiar looking hill, or heap, varying in different shades of colour, mingled with patches of the