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THE
INTELLECTUAL OBSERYV Eh:
REVIEW OF NATURAL HISTORY,
MICROSCOPIC RESEARCH,
AND
RECREATIVE SCIENCE,
VOLUME IL.
ILLUSTRATED WITH PLATES IN COLOURS AND TINTS, AND NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD.
ONL DFOUN
GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS§, PATERNOSTER ROW.
syn * MDCCCLEIII.
HARRILD, eile, LONDON. é
CONTENTS
—————->- — RAGE RIBBAND FIsHes oF THE GENUS GyMNETRUS. By JonaTHsN Covcn, BLS. With a Coloured Plate and other Illustrations .........ccccceeeeees it Moss Parasires. By tHe Rev. Mines JosrppuH Berxeney, M. mM H.L.S. Laie LULOSURAMIOIOS. “Seb eabeoneucedeessecoudonae sO Nhe RE AB SE died TR attabis 8 Is THE GIRAFFE PROVIDED WITH MORE THAN “Two Horns ? By T. SPENCER CopgonD, M.D., F.L.S. With a Tinted Plate ........s000c000 12 MINSTRELS OF THE SUMMER. By Surrtpy HIBBERD .................. ae 18 Insrcts Insurious to tar Erm. By H. Norn Humpureys. With Illustrations .. ce pF URSELF I AN a at OR ace a a e, L) S Star Finpina. With an Auction CRER SS BIA ten Wns ae We tNid 2 ED bate Sache ate DE TA RIVE ON THE AURORA BOREALIS ..........0.ccecceeeeees a dashes 38 Curious InLusTRATION OF VEGETABLE MorpPHonoay. “BY “ROBERT GausBY. W2th an Illustration............ RA a ine RSE Ne Os RE ARS Soa ue eae Tar New Mrran THALLIUM ........... Peer an sentad TERR ROE IE CE OC RHE ERT SCT CRD ter acs 33 PCED EK OMAR) EIATEOS, 2c napysepin mee, one deciseernce ail Jecede betas Sane See oftltireiieaiciearehO MeEtEoROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AT THE Kuw Opsreryatory. By C. COSIVANN TEENS Ne Me hati SAQA or OL IU fa a hay all RET PRA AU SE Ae Bia TARY Te 46, 292 TRANSIT OF THE SHADOW OF Vr ‘AN— DOUBLE STars—THE Moon—Occvt- TATIONS. By THe Rey. T. W. Weep, F.R.A.S. With an Illustration. 52 Birps or Paravise. By T.W. Woon, F.Z.8. With a Coloured Plate ... 69 A DrepGing Excursion. By D. WALKER, IVERSEN STE oS ROS ae Se aoe eesti} Tuer SUNFISH as A Hosr. By T. Spencer CopBoxp, M. D., IMIS soc cacace 82 Honty: 17s Origin anp ADULTERATION. By W. W. SroppaRr SEA a RS) G) ORIGIN AND TRANSFORMATION OF ANIMALS ........00.00:- HEL SBN ETA aR MANA R ER RANE 95 CHEMICAL MANUFACTURES AS JELUSTRATED IN THE EXHIBITION OF 1862. By J. W. M°GauLevy......... SEY ae Baa aR PEEL CHAR AR ARR oNE CeaSnereann . 208 Taste IN ART Span ite ately “ia odecenie Hak: Poisonous CATERPILLARS. By iH. ‘Nor “HUMPHREYS. ‘With TOES. 124 NEw PROCESS OF VINEGAR MAKING........ccccecsceeces ees HS aula en a un a 1 OPprposirion oF Mars OccULTATIONS— Tan ComrtT. By THE Rey. T. W. Wess, F.R.AS....... a rear tbater Gay ae Becton aia Sanne Hypravuiic Intusions. By W. B. TeGetMErER. With Tine nons 140 A SumMMER AFTTRNOON BY THE SEA. Tue Tomorrreris. By Puinir H. Gosst, F.R.S. With a Tinted Plate....... Bashar sluincidaenontes ert Mean 149 PHOTOGRAPHIC DELINEATIONS OF Microscopic OBJECiS. “By GrorGE SwpRany, MRICS. ......... SS eRe evan Tae UUs ee A Re Se Bel EIR OMe cae KS fo. ZOOLOGY OF THE INTERNATIONAL PXHIBITION ROS Sa SRB TIN ee Ne meetin soterrie NS pies oo 160 INFLUENCE OF Mass oN THE PRODUCTION OF INFUSORIA. By “HENRY SPACES STA CROHNS Sa ual la GURU Abn Vad LAL ee ere atest Auk) Devin Fish oF JAMAICA. By THE Hon. RICHARD iseentt With illustrations. 167 On an InscriBED Roman Tine Recenriy Founp IN LEICESTER. BY THomAS Wricut, F.S.A. With an Illustration ............ AU Stantnoeaned uae A ORGANIZATION AND LIFE ...,.......... SRE Naa Bs Bae HEA SPAN sdssiueaekenann Se History OF THE SALMON , Ai eee ROAR AS SE AC i U . 188 THE Hum AND ITs INsEcT ENEMIES. By SHIRLEY HIBBERD.. Ga Neal npyatied 1 8 SPIRANTHES AUTUMNALIS, NEoTTra SrPiratis, on Lapres’ Trusses. BY ANE OMAR KE Habe LEUsSEnateonsy, Aes eee eee Sdaeeh DOD Comet il., 1862. By roz Rev. T. W. Wesp, F.R.A. ‘8. With Illustrations. 188
OBSERVATIONS ON ComET II., 1862. By tHr Hon. Mrs. Warp. Witha Coloured Plate and other Illustrations.........
Sete e hee e eee ee teresa ese eedeer ene
IV Contents.
PAGE APPEARANCE OF ComET II. at Paris. Nore From M. OCHACORNAC......... 220 APPLICATION OF DIALYSIS TO THE PRESERVATION OF BUILDING STONES ... 224 Puysania Prnacica (THE Portua@urs—E Man-or-War). By H. Noru AUMPHREYSS | Wath Coloured ELaten eee ee eee eee ees 233 Hints to BEGINNERS WITH THE Microscorr. By T. RyMER JONES, E19) 2 > ERCP PTS pte RUE NE Ee sO A AUIS idee aoc Goo 243 Tur Funeus Foor or Inpia. By tHE Rey. M. J. BERKELEY, M.A., F.L.S. ; Pathe: TUSEr GEO ns st is iio dlarsee eee SOUR Noah eS Ee 248 On THE Avrora Borzatis. By Davip Waker, M.D., F.LS. ............ 258 IPTV CIGAR) ON SPE CURR UM PAINAUDY. GTS en ete lense ater reece ce eee Eee ee ee nee ER eEEe 265 RESTING Ea@a@s, oR, STATOBLASTS OF A PLUMATELLA. By Hinry J. Snack, ¥B.G.S. With a Coloured Plater vie ee dock ool code ice ee 271
PIcTET ON THE MeEtTHop oF DETERMINING THE AGE OF Fossrn Groups ... 275 Fosstt HUMAN SKELETON FROM GUADALOUPE. ByS. P. WoopWARD, F.G.S. 280
TEEN PEE DEEP SAW. pl eancne bord aces ieee ao ake ena cae eeemeenes 284: MicRoscoric WRITING, ENGRAVING, AND PRINTING ...,...c0..:..ccceceseceses 298 DovUBLE STARS—OccULTATIONS—THE HARTH IN OPPOSITION. By THE REV.
ATW: Wi BBY SBIR AR See sae Ur ise ieee isang ty ie aaa il Se, rae 299, 370 FEATHERED FossIL FROM THE LITHOGRAPHIC LIMESTONE OF SOLENHOFEN.
By Henry Woopwarp, F.Z.8. With a Coloured Plate. .......c...000+ 313 ORTGINGOR. ENRUSORTAL Glee each s sbi uieseeleciilc ee tee Ok ee eee Dae eee 320 THe Wuie-worm. By T.Spencer Copsorp, M.D., “ELS. With a Tinted
L211 a RR HO eae er RR Anne PURSUE GC ss enon Sad 000 825
ASPECTS OF NATURE IN SOUTHERN PERU. By WittiamM Borranrt, F.R.G.S. 331 SUBMARINE ARCHITECTURE. By Sarrtey Hipperp. With an Lilustration. 339
EFFECTS OF HascuiscH on M. St. Lucca............... aaleiaae his ea eT aero 346 CARPENTER ON LEE METCROSCOP EME er are eee eee ene Ree EEE een 348 1 GVAGKH ap mone WONpwe NaN Op OVE) INGOIE ABN, |) 444 noooassododedanooneacodoaaccodoacooDdpnencodees 253 LrrcH-Lort. By THe Rey. W. Hovenuron, M.A., F.LS.. eo oes
STRUCTURE AND HapiTs OF Puysatra. By G. C. WALLICH, MM. By, aon inet isn 362 Lamont’s New THEORY OF ATMOSPHERIC VAPOUR. By ALEXANDER 8.
TERR SCH EL Hea wees ee tate ea eee opis eee dee sane aUR ea cae aE 368 HABITS OF THE AvE-AYE. By W. B. TEGETMEIER.........-.ccecccsccecseeceess 379 CoMETS—AN ACCOUNT OF ALL THE COMETS WHOSE ORBITS HAVE NOT BEEN
CancuuATED.) Bye GaCHAMBERG: tea ke ee Create nara ee ceeeet rene 380 Fret oF Insects. By L. Lane Cuarke. With a Tinted Plate a) a aa 393 Economic Propuction oF ARTIFICIAL Heat. By J. W. M‘GAULEY...... 398 QUETELET ON THEW LHOTRICIMY OF) MEHEATR 2). ace. ckuseeioceeet en cesecerontene 408
THE SeA Lamprey. By JonatHan Coucn, F.L.S. With a Coloured Plate 411 - MAGNIFICENT METEOR SEEN ON THE 277TH oF NovemBER, 1862. By EH. J.
OWE, TSR ALS S HIE eee kee delete ta aT ie ARSE IE era ee ee 422 Tue HYE anD THE Microscorr. By Henry J. Snack, F.GS. ............00 427 EXPERIENCES OF HascuiscH. By SurrLeEy HIBBERD...... .....sceeceeeseeeees 435 Fuyine LizarDs oF THE SECONDARY Rocxs. By Henry Woopwarp, RZES 3) abe LUST ALONS) yin CRE ee ee ERE Eee Tee eT eee 443. ' PeRvVIAN Bark TREES AND THEIR TRANSPLANTATION. By BERTHOLD SHE MANN, AES GH ss Gr Siar eal eracislo croton uistoor oak acehiea se orm st aaa seat ee ee 452, Asn Miler, Isswansnny IRwohye AY WAYS \WVaniiey THoI Wash ppooneouapdadnoonobodnSDono one 461 PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES ............ceceeesseseees 60, 225, 305, 384, 465 GLEANINGS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL WXHIBITION ........c0cccoecseces 64, 143, 226
USHIVO S$ S{Ue_
THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER.
AUGUST, 1862.
RIBBAND FISHES OF THE GENUS GYMNETRUS. BY JONATHAN COUCH, F.L.S.
Tue habits of that family of Ribband or Band fishes called Gym- netrus are so little known that their history for the most part, is confined to the knowledge of the places where they have been taken, and the circumstances attending the capture. Yet there is reason to believe that they are widely distributed in the Ocean; for while the greater number of instances in which they have been obtained have been in the north of Hurope, one at least is believed to have occurred in the Hast Indies, one in New Zealand, and another among the islands of Bermuda, of the particulars of which we intend to give a more minute account. The earliest reference we have of a fish of this kind as being obtained in Britain, is quoted from the Annual Register by Albany Hancock, Esq. and Dr. Embleton, as having occurred about the year 1759; but it was not described by any scientific naturalist, and we might have entertained doubts concerning the species, and even the genus, but for the mention of a circumstance attending it which has since accompanied the capture of every example, and which, therefore, while it forms a character, permits a doubt to continue with regard to the exact form of some of its parts. It became easily broken and mutilated when handled, as was the case also with the next specimen of which we have any account. This was left, dead by the tide near the little town of Newlyn, close to Penzance in Cornwall, in February 1788; the date of which is to be particularly noted, since there appear to have been repeated mistakes concerning it. The occurrence of this example, which was then believed to have been its earliest instance in Britain, excited considerable attention at the time; ‘and of it I possess a coloured drawing, which was presented to me by Mr. Chirgwin, near whose house the fish was found, and who expressed his’ belief that 1t was the authentic original from which all the other figures that have been circulated were copied. VOL. II.—NO. I. B
2 Ribband Fishes of the Genus Gymnetrus.
This last circumstance must be a mistake, as we shall see; but in itself his figure is a fair representation of the actual appear- ance of the specimen as it then existed, with, perhaps, the exception that the jaws are unnaturally drawn out; and at the
li
bottom of the drawing is the following inscription :—“ This is a drawing of a fish that came on shore at Newlyn on Saturday the 23rd of February, 1788. Its length without the tail (which
it wanted) was 8} feet, its extreme breadth 103 inches, and its thickness but 22 inches—M. Wright fect.” The artist has supplied the deficiency of a tail by something which bears a resemblance to the same part in the common sea-bream—but
Ribband Fishes of the Genus Gynmetrus. 3
without actually joming it to the body; and a deficiency also occurs at the head, where the crest or plume is represented by two long rays only that are bent forward, and each one tipped with a membranous expansion not much unlike the termination of a peacock’s feather, but of a red colour, as are all the fins, The ventral fins are formed, each of a single ray, with its fan- like expansion, and reaching to about the middle of the body. The acknowledged imperfection of portions of this fish appears to have been deemed a sufficient warrant for the exercise of the imagination in persons who had not seen the original, but who undertook to form a likeness according to what they supposed it ought to be. Such must have been the case as regards a figure in the possession of the late William Rashleigh, Hsq., F.R.S., etc., by whom I was permitted to take a copy of it; and which requires to be particularly noticed, as it was that from which Mr. Yarrell’s figure was derived in the first and second edition of his History of British Fishes. In this case, the two rays which naturally rise from the forehead, and are so represented in Mr. Chirewin’s figure, are transferred to the throat, and thus the ventral fins are represented with double their usual number of rays, a mistake which is rectified in the last edition of Mr. Yarrell’s work.
That Mr. Chirewin, as above referred to, was in error when he supposed that no other drawing but his own was taken from the actual specimen at Newlyn appears from the fact that there exists in the library of the British Museum, bound up in a quarto ' copy of Pennant’s work on the Natural History England, for- merly in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks, a figure of this same fish, but which differs im several particulars from Mr. Chirgwin’s drawimg. In this the jaws are reduced to their proper position, but the rays on the top of the head are without their membranous expansion, and the ventral fins are broken short, which defects appear to be sufficient proofs that the figures im Pennant’s volume were really copied from nature, but somewhat later than that of Mr. Chirgwin. The remarkable habilty to injury in this fish, from rough handling, will explain the difference thus observed. Block’s great work on fishes con- tains a hkeness of what that author supposed to have been this. Cornish fish, but his description of it appears to be scarcely intelhgible. Some account of it, with a figure, was sent to him by Mr. John Hawkins, who had travelled on the Continent as a. naturalist, but chiefly in pursuit of botany ; but this gentleman appears to have sent also asmall specimen of what both of them supposed to be the same species, but which had been taken in the Hast Indies, and what the Prussian naturalist is able to say on the subject is derived from a combination of these distinct and even diverse materials, with some confusion perhaps arismg
4, hibband Fishes of the Genus Gymnetrus.
from not having well understood the information afforded by his Cornish friend. A claim has been made for two other ex- amples of this fish as having also been taken in Cornwall—one in the year 1791, and the other in 1796; but after close inquiry I have found no ground for altering the belief that such was not the fact m either case; and in the last named instance it seems probable that the capture of Banks’s oarfish at Filey Bay in Yorkshire, at that date, has led to the mistake ; an opinion also countenanced by Dr. J. H. Gray of the British Museum, who communicated a satisfactory paper on this subject to the Zoological Society. As the published account of this last- named specimen gives a particular description of its appearance, we extract it more at large. It was thirteen feet and a half in length, rather more than a foot in depth, and not more than three inches in thickness. The skin was smooth and of a silver hue, it had no tail, and its fins were the colour of those of the roach or perch. The following notes are added from a private hand :—‘“‘'The head seven inches long; eye, one inch and three- eighths in diameter; no scales, but very small protuberances, silvered over like the surface of a herring. These run the whole length in stripes, alternate with others that are bare and of a hight colour. The dorsal fin runs the whole way from the head to the other end, and is red like that of a roach or perch: branchial rays six; dorsal fin with two hundred and ninety, and thirteen rays; pectoral fin with twelve, ventral one; no anal; no teeth, a soft tongue; the face and inside of the mouth black; anus, four feet nine inches from the head; iris a silver white.”
Another example of this fish, which attracted much atten- tion, was caught by some fishermen at Cullercoats in Yorkshire on the 26th of March, 1849, and fortunately came into the hands of Mr. Hancock and Dr. Embleton, who published a particular account of it in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for July in that year. The fish was first seen at about six miles from land in water of the depth of from twenty to thirty fathoms. When first seen it was lying on its side on the surface, but as the fishermen approached it it became erect and came towards them with a gentle lateral undulating motion, with its crest and a small portion of its head above water. When struck with a staff it made off with a vigorous and ver- tical undulating motion, and quickly disappeared. In a short time it again came within reach, lymg on its side, but when laid hold of with a hook it tore itself away, but was lifted imto the boat at last by two young men placing their arms round it. It lived for some time after being taken on board, but there cannot be a doubt that when discovered it was in dying circumstances; and in every instance yet known it is clear
Ribband Fishes of the Genus Gymmnetrus. 5)
that these fish have been driven from their usual haunts by disease, these haunts beimg in some of the deeper and more secluded caverns of the ocean, beyond the reach of human sight. In shallower water, and with less protection from the rage of storm, their fragile structure would expose them per- petually to destruction; for in the present instance the rude handling of rough visitors was found to have injured it greatly, in addition to what it had undergone in its immediate capture.
The length of this fish was twelve feet three mches, the greatest depth eleven inches and a quarter; the body exceed- ingly compressed; in its general form resembling a double- edged sword-blade; four longitudinal flattened ridges, each rather more than an inch broad, extended from head to tail above the lateral line, the uppermost, which was the longest, running forward almost to the eye. The dorsal fin extended from immediately behind the upper and posterior end of the curved frontal profile to within three inches of the tail. The anterior part of this fin was more prominent than the rest, with twelve rays, which, when the fish was taken, are said to have been twelve or fourteen inches in length, and each furnished with a membranous expansion on its posterior edge, increasing “in width upwards, something like a peacock’s feather. The first ray was a rather strong spine arising within the frontal curve ; the three next very slender, and much closer together than the rest; the next equally slender with the preceding, but rather further apart; the three or four after this nearly as strong as the first, while the rest diminished in strength and length, and became uniform with the more level rays of the dorsal fin. Exclusive of the crest, there were two hundred and sixty-eight rays in the dorsal fin. The fishermen said that this fin was without colour when caught, but it had a red tinge along the border when examined by the gentlemen who described it. Hach ventral fin had a very strong spine, with a limited motion, and at first their colour was a bright red. It will be observed that the number of rays in the dorsal fin differed rather con- siderably from those which were counted in the example obtained in Filey Bay ; but this variation offers no difficulty in regard to the sameness of the species, since it is generally found that where the fin- -rays in fishes are very numerous, they. are rarely alike in number in different individuals. - It is only when they are few that their number affords a character to be depended on.
This fish, obtained at Cullercoats, of sesh we have given a very much abridged description, was conveyed to London for the purpose of being exhibited ; and it was there that, in company with Mr. Yarrell, I was favoured with a private examination of it; by which opportunity I was enabled to
6 Ribband Fishes of the Genus Gymnetrus.
obtain the figure which accompanies this paper, and some notes which will enable us the better to understand some further particulars of its peculiarities. It is to be observed that the figure given in Sir John Richardson’s (second) supplement to Mr. Yarrell’s History of British Fishes, is represented, especially as regards the crest or plume on the top of the head, as itis said to have been seen at first by the fishermen, and not as when it was examined by the gentlemen who described it; but we prefer to represent it as it actually appeared when examined by ourselves in London.
On comparing the fish as exhibited with the figures repre- sented in the great work on fishes by Cuvier, an adequate likeness did not show itself in any of them. The mouth ap- peared arched above, the mystache conspicuous, angle of the mouth depressed. The front ray of the fin on the forhead admitted of very little motion, but projected firmly forward ; but this and all behind it were broken short, and no one of the fishermen who were present at this examination would affirm that the rays were at first bordered by a membrane through their whole length. A membrane united the rays for less than half their length, but beyond this it seemed uncertain. By joining the piece of the pectoral fin that had been broken off, this fin was shown to have the first rays longest, and conse- quently that it tapered towards the extremity. The tail portion of the body was remarkable, and therefore has required to be exhibited separately. The dorsal fin ended a very little short of it; and from thence the outline sloped downward, the lower portion forming an angle two or three inches behind a perpen- dicular line drawn from the upper. ‘The exact internal struc- ture of this part could scarcely be known without dissection ; but from a fixed point of bone above there passed a firm bony curve, with the concavity towards the body, to the fixed pomt below; and from one to the other was stretched a thin sub- stance resembling membrane, which appeared to represent something that might act as a fin, at least for the purpose of guiding or assisting its progress. A curiosity in the inward structure of this fish was observed in the convolution of the intestine, which passed backward close to the end of the body, and then returned to the vent that was much nearer to the head.
It is clear that this fish is an inhabitant of the northern seas, where it grows to a greater length than we have already men- tioned ; for since the date given above an example was obtained about five miles north of Wick, in Scotland, that measured more sixteen fect. But there is much difference of opinion among naturalists as regards the distinction of species of several of the examples which have been met with. Dr. J. H. Gray has ex-
Ribband Fishes of the Genus Gymnetrus. CG
pressed his belief, “‘ from a comparison of the various descrip- tions and figures given by English observers and those given by Ascanius, Brunnich, and Lindroth, that there is only a single species yet found in the North Sea, and that this species comes as far south as the coast of Cornwall;’’? while, on the other hand, Dr: Gunther, who is engaged in arranging the fishes preserved in the British Museum, expresses his opinion that five separate species have been found in the seas of Hurope. Without attempting to decide where doctors differ so widely, J will add an account of a fish which may be of the same species, and certainly is of the same genus, which ran itself on shore on Hamilton Island, one of the Bermudan group, and of which, besides the notes published in the Zoologist for 1860, I was furnished with pen-and-ink sketches and measurements taken at the time by an officer of the royal navy. The contradictions whick appear in the descriptions of this example by gentlemen who cannot be suspected of a wish to deceive, will afford a lesson how far we should implicitly accept the information con- veyed by those who possess no knowledge in the science of natural history. This unfortunate fish encountered the usual fate of its race in suffering violence sufficient to destroy its symmetry, even at the first; the fears of its captors bemg excited by the belief that they had met with a sample of the far-famed serpent of the ocean, the oneae of which has been so strenuously denied.
The effect may be imagined when we are peered that this supposed reptile was attacked with large forks, which were lymg near at hand, for collecting sea-weed, by ‘which it was “‘unfortunately much mauled” before it was secured. Its length was sixteen feet seven inches, and the general propor- tions much like those of Banks’s oarfish, which the profile of the head also much resembles. ‘The crest, or plume on the head is, in an American figure, given in Harper’s Weekly Paper, represented as separate from the more level dorsal, but in others it is not so; and, says Captain Hawtaigne, in the Zoologist, this crest was formed of a series of eight lone thin spines of a bright red colour, which followed each other at about the interval of an inch: the longest ray, which was in the middle, was two feet seven inches long, and flattened at the end like the blade of an oar. Mr. Jones, however, who more closely examined this fish, and better understood its nature, informs us that the number of rays in this crest was “ten or eleven, from two to three feet in extent.’”? And my other account represents them as exactly ten, the longest three feet in length, and united by a membrane for more than half their length. In the American figure the dorsal fin runs to near the extremity of the body, of a bright scarlet colour, the pectoral much
8 Moss Parasites.
injured, but with twelve rays. In all these descriptions there is nothing to lead us to suppose that this example was other than the usually described Banks’s oarfish, except that Mr. Jones says that what remained of the right ventral fin was “composed of two consistent bony rays,’ which would be decisive of an hitherto unknown species, and even of an. aber- rant genus. A sketch referred to gives only a single ray to this fin, but in the American drawing there is the appearance of two. It is probable, however, that neither of these un- scientific persons were aware of the interest attached to the question whether these rays were one or two, and until this is settled the exact nature of this fish must remain uncertain.
MOSS PARASITES, BY THE REV. MILES JOSEPH BERKELEY, M.A., F.L.S,
ALMOST every one is acquainted with the rhymes which speak of the parasite upon parasite with which some members of the insect world are infested, and a similar legend would equally hold good with respect to other branches of the animal kingdom. Nor are vegetables less subject to become the prey of other vegetables. The mistletoe and broomrape, after they have done their worst by their victims, are in their turn infested with fungi, and the fungi themselves are obliged to submit to the attacks of other more minute species, though not exactly ad infinitum. Hven lichensin their more arid form, subject as they are at times to months of drought and the direct rays of a burning sun, are not without their peculiar parasites, constituted to endure the same abrupt changes from continued damp to almost perfect dryness as themselves. Nor are the vascular cryptogams, such as ferns, mosses, and liverworts without their own especial enemies, though these are fewer in number per- haps than in other organized beings. Mosses, for example, besides affording a nidus for the development of such fungi as the pretty scarlet Peziza axillaris, which perhaps is only a false parasite, have one or two species which are developed in their substance, as Septoria thecicola, Berk. and Broome, and Spheria envperigonia, Auerswald. ‘The former of these was found on the ripe capsules of Polytrichwm piliferum at Aberdeen, by Dr. Dickie, and the latter in Germany by Herr Auerswald, on the rose-like male inflorescence of Polytrichum commune, specimens of which are published by Rabenhorst in his German Fungi. Different as they are in structure, as will appear from the accompanying figures, there is good reason to believe that they
Moss Parasites. 9
are merely different conditions of one and the same species, for nothing is more common than for fungi to exhibit two forms of fruit on the same or on different plants, after the fashion of
Fia. 1.—Septoria thecicola, Via. 2.—Spheria emperigonia, Berk. and Broome. Auerswald.
a. Perithecia, magnified. a. Asci, magnified.
&. Spores, highly magnified. b. Spores, highly magnified.
monoicous or dioicous Phoenogams, a fact long since suspected by Fries, and now proved to demonstration by the brothers Tulasne.
Besides these pigmies of the vegetable kindom there are some higher Fungi peculiar to mosses, or indifferent as to their nutriment, whose spawn or mycelium runs over their leaves and quickly effects their destruction.
For example, nothing is more common than to find mossy. sticks im our woods covered with delicate snow-white patches consisting of threads far more slender than those of a spider’s- web. ‘These patches soon extend to the mosses, which pre- sently become discoloured, and ultimately fade altogether. This enemy when fully developed is found to be Corticiwin arach- noideum, one of those fungi, which at a later period form little solid pellets which live through the winter, and are ready on returning spring to attack the tender shoots of another year’s growth.
Another fungus still more destructive to mosses can scarcely have escaped the notice of those who are accustomed to greet Nature in all her phases. In calcareous districts, especially the Oolitic, where the stone fences are capped with a kind of mor- tar consisting almost entirely of comminuted oolite, which has been crushed down upon the roads, and adapted admirably for the development of many a moss, nothing is more common than to see the pretty tufts, which rejoice the artist’s eye with their warm tints when lghted up by a sunbeam, more or less completely marred by large white mouldy patches, which soon run into decay. A close imspection shows that here again we have the mycelium of a fungus at work, though of a very different kind from that just mentioned. At first, indeed, nothing but the cotton-web is visible, but this soon becomes
10 Moss iaaasien
partially tinted with salmon colour, and then studded with little pale scarlet specks, which are the cysts or perithecia of a Nectria, which from its peculiar habit has been called Nectria muscivora. ‘This species is found on the Continent as well as - in this country, and appears in M. Desmaziéres Cryptogames du Nord dela France as Spheria bryophila, having been found by
him about the old fortifications of his neighbouring city, Lille. : This little enemy is of the greater importance, and more worthy of be- ing mentioned there, be- cause 1b is no less active in destroying § mosses under cultivation than in the open air. I have seen it at work in a
a. Perithecia, magnified. : little conserva: e 6. Asci with sporidia, magnified. ye ae
e. Sporidia, highly magnified, natural size voted to these beauti- zo00 inch long. ful and interesting ve-
getables; and it very. soon proves fatal if the gardener is not careful to remove it with a feather or camel’s-hair pencil, as fast as it appears.
I observed a few days since another moss parasite in a very peculiar position, which deserves record, as much on account of its curious habit, as because it forms an addition to our list of fungi which prey upon mosses.
The oolitic stepping stones which run along the ancient causeway leading from the site of Fotheringay Castle across the valley of Nene, produce, where they are not worn by the feet, alarge quantity of that variety of Orthotrichwm cupulatum which has a smooth veil, mixed with Schistidiwm apocarpum, and one or two other mosses. ‘The capsules of the different species of Orthotrichwm,as is well known, are just a year from their first growth in coming to perfection, and perhaps partly on account of their comparatively short fruit-stalk, and partly from the tenacity of the fruit-stalk itself, are more persistent than in most mosses, so that the plant at the present moment presents the capsules which were ripened last year, those that have just come to perfection and the rudiments of the crop which is to be matured early next summer. The teeth which surround the mouth of the capsule are sixteen in number, and when dry spread out more or less, but are not recurved as in several other species. I was surprised, however, to find in many of the old capsules, that the teeth were horizontal and applied by their edges to each other, exactly as when they were still within their lid, and just after the fashion of that arrangement of the unopened petals or sepals of phoenogams which is known by
Fic. 3.—Nectria muscivora, Berk. and Broome.
Moss Parasites. 11
the name of valvular estivation. When immersed in water no change took place in their position, and the teeth seemed per- manently glued together. ‘This, of course, excited attention, and on opening one of the capsules it appeared that the mass of spores was infested by a little pmk Fusisporium, whose shghtly gelatinous spores had been the means of closing the orifice of the capsules, and preventing the dispersion of the spores. I did not indeed always find the mould withm the capsule, its proper season being probably over, but on washing the surface of the united teeth, | was always able to obtain a quantity of the spores of the fungus, which from their peculiar form were not likely to be mistaken.
It is very possible that this little parasite may be extremely common, but I believe that it has not been observed before, and its discovery affords one among
the many proofs that, even in the most unpromising: situations, there is always some novelty to be found Va
or some interesting fact to be ascer- tained if there is an eye to mark it. The characters of the little para-
site are not striking, and its specific distinction must rest partly on its peculiar habits, for the spores ie
scarcely differ from those of one or Fy, 4.— Fusispori ium incarcerans, two other species. Its characters
such as they are may be given as Spores, dese sce ee follows :—
Fusisporium incarcerans, Berk. pallide roseum intra sporan- gium muscorum vel in peristomio nidulans, sporis arcuatis tenuibus triseptatis.
The spores are about 1-416th of an inch long, but, as is very often the case with fungi, are by no means uniform in size.
12 Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns ?
IS THE GIRAFFE PROVIDED WITH MORE THAN TWO HORNS?
BY T. SPENCER COBBOLD, M.D., F.L.S.
Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy, Zoology, and Botany at the Middlesex Hospital Medical College.
In the first of a course of public lectures “ On the Structure, Habits, and Affinities of the Herbivorous Mammalia” which I had the honour of delivering at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Albemarle Street, during the summer of 1860, I ven- tured to answer the above proposed question affirmatively. I say ‘‘ ventured,’ because I was aware that in doing so I should be recording an opinion directly at variance with the published views of one to whose elaborate and long-continued researches the progress of anatomical and zoological science is deeply indebted. In the present case, however, we have to deal with a simple matter of fact, and I therefore proceed im the following pages to explain the grounds on which, in contradistinction to the statements of Professor Owen, it may be truthfully affirmed that there are three horns, or “pseudo-ceratophorous epiphyses,”” projecting from the skull of the adult male giraffe.
The veteran traveller, Dr. Edouard Riippell, who, according to recent information, is still in the enjoyment of good health, and living in the city of Frankfort, was the first to declare unequivocally that a third horn existed im the full-grown male. In his trustworthy and admirable Reise im Nordlichen Afrika, published in the year 1828, he observes that “the horns con- stitute the principal generic character, they being formed by distinct bones united to the frontals and parietals by a very obvious suture, and exhibiting throughout the same structure as the other bones. In both sexes one of these abnormal bones is situated on each branch of the coronal suture, and the male possesses an additional one, placed more anteriorly, and occu- pying the middle of the frontal suture.” Not having the original work by me at the present time, I quote the above translation from an excellent article in the Hnglish Cyclopedia, where a rough woodcut is also given, copied from Ruppell, representing the third horn in profile. In the Atlas zw der Reise, etc., the plates are beautifully executed, and from repeated examinations and comparisons, I am convinced of their accuracy in all respects. Though less developed and conspicuous, the mesial prominence is precisely like the two posterior epiphysial horns, and all of them are distinct from the true osseous ele- ments of the cranium.
This early statement of Rtppell appears to have received the unqualified support of Baron Georges Cuvier, and so far
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Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns? 13
as I am aware, no anatomist found occasion to doubt its correct- ness before Professor Owen, who, from the examination of crania preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Sur- geons, Lincoln’s Inn, was led to believe Riippell’s views to be erroneous. In his otherwise valuable memoir, modestly entitled ““ Notes on the Anatomy of the Nubian Giraffe,” published in the second volume of the Zoological Society’s Transactions, at page 217, he says: “In regard to the existence of horns in the two sexes, we find a few examples among both deer and antelopes, which thus resemble the giraffe. The horns of the giraffe possess, however, certain characters which are pecu- liar to themselves ; the basis of the horn, for example, is arti- culated by synchondrosis to the frontal and parietal bones, and thus constitutes an epiphysis rather than an apophysis of the eranium. <A broad, obtuse, osseous eminence in the middle of the forehead has been described as a third horn, and has been stated to be similarly articulated to the frontal bone, at least in the male Nubian giraffe, and to be the only instance of a horn developed in the mesial line of the cranium, and over a cranial suture in the mammiferous class.” Cuvier says: “Au milieu du chanfrein est un tubercle ou une troisiéme corne plus large et beaucoup plus courte, mais également articulée par suture.” J. B. Fischer describes the third articulated horn as peculiar to the male giraffe. To this sentence Professor Owen also appends a foot-note, wherein he observes: ‘The figure of the skull which illustrates the account of the Nubian giraffe im the Atlas zu Tvippel’s Reise im Nordlichen Afrika, pl. ix. p. 28, repre- sents indeed this third tubercle as distinct and articulated by suture with the cranium; but in the original cranium, from which the original figure is taken, and which I have examined in the Frankfort Museum, I could not perceive any evidence of the existence of such a suture; the mesial protuberance had not been detached from an epiphysial articular surface, but had been sawn off in order to be preserved in the stuffed animal.’ Further on, at p. 235, whilst mstitutmg a comparison between the Cape and Nubian varieties of the giraffe, Professor Owen adds: “In the adult male Cape giraffe, the only appearance of the distinctness of the anterior protuberance is due to some irregular vascular grooves at the circumference of its base; but similar grooves are also visible in the skull of the female; and a section of the skull, taken through the middle of the frontal protuberance in the male, shows that it 1s formed by the thick- eninge and elevation of the anterior extremities of the frontal, and the contiguous extremities of the nasal bones. In the male Nubian giraffes, which had attained nearly two-thirds of their full stature, the posterior horns, like other bony epiphyses, were less firmly attached to the skull than they were in the full
14 Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns ?
grown Cape giraffes, and they became detached from the frontal and parietal bones after a short maceration. Now if the anterior protuberance had been formed by a similar sepa- rate ossification, this would undoubtedly have been demon- strated ina similar manner; it, however, consisted only of a partial elevation of the frontal and nasal bones, as in the adult Cape giraffe.”
The very argument which is here adduced by Professor Owen to prove the absence of the third horn, is precisely the one which I shall presently brmg forward to show that the mesial epiphysis exists; but im the meantime I may observe that the Professor’s convictions as to the certitude of his views are elsewhere more strongly expressed. Thus in his excellent article ‘Giraffe,’ in Mr. T. Brande’s Dictionary of Science, Iite- rature, and Art, at page 514, speaking of this animal, he observes: ‘‘ Up to a very recent period, we find it described as having callosities on the knees and over the sternum like the camel, and as a kind of lusus with three horns, of which one, being articulated over a suture in the middle line of the fore- head, seemed to take away from the chimerical nature of the unicorn by indicating a transition to that heraldic monster. The truth is, however, that the giraffe possesses neither those callosities nor this median articulated horn.”
Having thus fairly stated the grounds on which the absence of a third horn is denied by our highest authority in vertebrate anatomy, I now proceed to record the evidence and experience which enable me to vindicate the originally received opinion, as expressed by Ruppell, and to throw light upon a question which should now, at once and for ever, be set atrest. In this persuasion, let it be observed, I do not stand absolutely alone ; for, as I shall afterwards show, the independent Osteologische Bemerkungen of Dr. George Jaéger, as recorded by him im the twenty-sixth volume of the Acta Acad. C. L.C. Nat. Cur., part i. section 3, for 1855, prove that distinguished anatomist to have been led to a similar conclusion :—
1. Inthe young giraffe which died last year at the Zoolo- gical Society’s Gardens, Regent’s Park, there was only a slight thickening of the subdermal periosteal tissues immediately above the central frontal eminence; but it was sufficiently thickened to allow of detachment by dissection; and I have preserved the separated portion in a dried state. This young male giraffe was only about six weeks old.
2. In another young male giraffe which died at the Zoolo- gical Society’s Gardens on the 2nd of December, 1859, the fibrous sub-integumentary aponeurosis was still more markedly thickened ; but there was as yet no development of a gristly cartilaginous tissue within its substance. This giraffe was born
Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns? 15
on the 6th of July, 1859, and was therefore about five months old. I have given an account of the accidental circumstances which led to its death, together with the anatomical peculiarities it presented, in a paper entitled ‘‘Contributions to the Anatomy of the Giraffe,” published in the Zoological Society’s Proceedings for February 14th, 1860.
3. In an immature male giraffe which died at Hdinburgh during the severe winter of 1854, I found the frontal aponeu- rotic thickening much more marked, forming on the dried skull a distimct fibrous mass, which presented an appearance in profile such as I have here represented in the accom- panying diagram; the letters a b indicating the border of the fronto-nasal eminence, and c the fibrous mass. I gub- sequently detached this fibro-cartilagmous matrix for separate preservation and examination, but it was, I believe, swept away with other museum debris, by an assistant who had no knowledge of its value. After removal, it was perfectly transparent, and free from osseous deposit. The giraffe in ques- tion belonged to Wombwell’s travelling menagerie, and was represented to me as being about eighteen months old. Having, at the outset, devoted three weeks to its dissection, and renewed my examina- tions of the various organs at subsequent intervals, I may, for further particulars respecting its anatomy, death, etc., refer to my several memoirs in the Hdin- burgh Physiological Society’s Reports for 1854, the Edinburgh New Philosophical Jowrnal for 1856, and more par- ticularly to the June number of the Annals of Natural History for 1854.
4, When engaged during the autumn of 1856 in writing the article ‘‘ Ruminantia”’ for the Supplement to Dr. Todd’s Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology; I took occasion to visit the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin, expressly with the view of examining the adult cranium of a fine male giraffe, which I understood to be preserved there. Asa result of this inspec- tion I subsequently wrote as follows :—“ Through the kindness of Dr. Ball we have examined the skeleton of a male giraffe which died at the Dublin Zoological Society’s Gardens, and which is now preserved in Dr. Harrison’s anatomical museum. In this mdividual the central cranial eminence is not smooth as in our specimen (above referred to); on the contrary, it is particularly rough, owing to the deposition of osseous nodules which bear a marked resemblance to the irregular bony laminze prolonged from the attenuated margins of the bases of the true horns. If these rough prominences could be shown to be . separable by maceration, we might with good reason infer the
16 = Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns ?
rudimentary existence of a third horn.” This fine male for- merly belonged to the London Zoological Society, and was bred in the Society’s Gardens, Regent’s Park. I have noted the peculiar cause of its death, in the paper already referred to, in the Zoological Society’s Proceedings for 1860.
5. After completing the article above mentioned, I visited the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln’s Inn; and having, through the ever-ready kindness of the late Professor Quekett, had an opportunity of inspecting the giraffine crania there preserved, I was in time to append a footnote to “ Rumi- nantia” to this effect: “The osseous nodules noticed in the Dublin specimen not only exist im one of these crania, but they could be partly raised from the subjacent bone by the easy insertion of the finger-nail under the margin.” Since the year 1856 I have repeatedly examined these crania, and have no shadow of doubt as to the existence of an ossified synchon- drosis which has united the third horn to the frontal eminence.
6. The distinctness between the third horn and the frontal eminence was still more significant in the skull of an adult giraffe which died at the Zoological Society’s Gardens several years back; but in this case also there was union by synchon- drosial ossification. J examined the cranium in 1857, before the skeleton was finally cleaned and sent away, and have since been informed that it is preserved in a museum at Bristol.
7. The most cogent evidence, however, which I can adduce, is that derivable from the skull of a young male, whose cra- nium is here represented in profile, and whose entire skeleton may now be seen, set up and preserved, in the Derby Museum at Liverpool. This skeleton was formerly in the possession of Mr. Gerrard, the accomplished taxidermist at the British Museum, and J am indebted to his son for the loan of a care- fully-executed drawing which I have here sketched in a reduced form, and caused to be’copied in a tinted plate. In this in- stance, as I am distinctly and unequivocally informed by several gentleman connected with the British Museum, who have examined the skull, the third horn became readily detached by maceration, 1b was for a considerable time separately preserved, and presented all the ordinary characteristics of the two poste- rior horns, of whose epiphysial character no one entertains the slightest doubt. The third horn, or central pseudo-cerato- phorous epiphysis, has since been glued on to its original posi- tion, and may now be seen in situ, as a standing proof of the correctness of Ruppell’s original persuasion.
8. In the Museum of the University of Tubingen there is also preserved a similar skeleton of a young male giraffe, in which—according to verbal information kindly communicated to me by Dr. Gunther, of the British Museum, who is familiar
Is the Giraffe provided with more than Two Horns? 17
with the specimen—the third horn was equally well marked and separated by maceration.
9. Lastly, I adduce additional conclusive evidence from Dr. George Jaeger’s Bemerkungen wher die Horner und Epiphysen, etc., as recorded in the twenty-sixth volume of the Acta already referred to ; and I bee to call particular attention to this extract, which I translate from a footnote appended to the memorr in question ; the italics are mine. The author says: “In the skull of a young male in the collection at Munich, whose horns are scarcely two inches long, and hkewise separated, there is, in the place of the third central horn, a rather strongly-marked elevation of the frontal bone, but no trace of an epiphysis. In the skull (nineteen inches long) of a male received a short time ago from the north of Africa, through Dr. Heuglin, which skull we believe to be mature, the suture of the hmd horns is still perceptible, but the serrated borders are almost firmly united to the frontal and parietal bones. The mesial horn, however, is still quite separated by the epiphysial cartilage from the frontal and nasal bones, whose sutures are not yet obliterated, as also obtains in the other cranial bones. The anterior margin of the central horn-bone projects about one inch over the posterior limit of the nasal bone. From thence the anterior part of the horn rises to the tip, forming a very gradual slope, while the posterior inclination is comparatively steep and short. It results from this that the central horn unites with the bones much later than the hinder horns, which are common to both Sexes.””
After such evidence, it is scarcely reasonable to regard the pomt under consideration as still an open question. Had Professor Owen chanced to have examined the crania of younger males, he would undoubtedly have confirmed Ruppell and Cuvier in all essential particulars. The old skull at Frank- fort, the skeleton at Dublin, and the cranium in the Hunterian collection, all seem at first sight to lend their support to his view, because the synchondrosial ossification has in all of these cases firmly welded the third horn to the subjacent fronto- nasal emimence; but even in some of these specimens a minute | imspection indicates at the margins the original distinctness of the several osseous elements. The skull at Munich repre- sents an example where the mmtervening fibro-cartilage has not yet commenced ossification, although it appears to be just on the point of doing so.. The crania of young males preserved at Tubmgen and Liverpool show the separable but distinctly- osseous third horn im a less completely developed condition ; and the three young male giraffes dissected by myself seve rally displayed yet earlier stages, where the periosteal aponeu- rotic matrix in which the third horn would have been developed
VOL, 11.—NO. I. C
18 The Minstrels of the Summer.
had become more and more thickened, according to the rela- tive increase of age. These being the facts of the case, I have no hesitation, for my own part, i asserting that every adult male giraffe is certainly possessed of three distinct horns, or, to speak in the more precise zoological phraseology which I have elsewhere adopted, this ruminating herbivore possesses three cranial ‘“‘pseudo-ceratophorous epiphyses permanently invested by a hairy integument.”
THE MINSTRELS OF THE SUMMER. BY SHIRLEY HIBBERD.
Tr is one of the consolations of having to live within the hear- ing of the tolling of the hour by the clock of St. Paul’s that all the summer minstrels are to be heard in the garden. Though only three miles distant, as the crow flies, from the General Post Office, Stoke Newington is annually visited by the nightingale, cuckoo, flycatcher, blackcap, garden warbler, whitethroat, grasshopper warbler, redstart, and some few other nomadic minstrels of less fame. Every spring it occurs to me that it would be an interesting contribution to natural history if we could have lists of all the birds visiting and nesting in the im- mediate vicinity of our great towns and cities, and as the plants peculiar to numerous suburban districts have been care- fully registered, we might hope some day for similar catalogues of birds classified as to their localities, with especial reference to the nearness of their haunts to populous places. In the
pages of Rustic Adornments, I called the attention of Lon- - doners to the fact that at Stoke Newington the nightingale was
always to be heard in its season, and in consequence of that intimation there have been numerous parties formed to visit the reservoirs in Lordship Road, where, in the secluded shrubberies, this and other warblers breed in perfect security. Though during the period of twenty years’ experience in connection with the nightingale in this locality, buildings have increased to an extent which would be saddening were it not true that men are better than trees, the nightingales have not only not left it, but this year they literally abound, and since the 22nd of April I have commonly heard three and four at a time singing in rivalry among the trees surrounding my own garden. So with the cuckoo, its merry, inspiriting note may be heard resounding from every point of the compass, and wrens and blackcaps are almost as numerous as sparrows. This, I imagine, is to be attributed in some measure to our increasing
The Minstrels of the Summer. 19
regard for the protection of small birds; people are beginning to appreciate birds as proper adjuncts of rural scenery, and the destructive propensities of the untaught are kept in check by proprietors who value birds in trees more than birds in cages.
The supposed ornithological poverty of suburban districts is mainly attributable to the infrequency of a habit of obser- vation among the residents. People who believe that no more select feathered visitants than sparrows ever do them the honour of a call should adopt an agreeable method of putting the matter to the test. Choose a time between the Ist of May and the 20th of June, and to secure the best day let it be the lst of June, and on that day renounce the solicitations of Morpheus. In other words, sit up all night, walk about the garden, read a play of Huripides in a room overlooking the woodiest prospect you have, and take care to keep the window open. I confess that I set apart many nights during that period to enjoy perfect stillness, broken only by the bark- ing of dogs, the crowing of cocks, and the singing of feathered minstrels. With a cup of good coffee, and Virgil’s Georgics, or a readable edition of Columella, better still the Psalms of David, it is like adding a year to one’s life, so intense is the enjoyment of the coolness, the greenness, the music, and the whispers of the wind. From 8 till 11 p.m. the concert is kept up with unflaggine vigour by thrushes, blackbirds, wrens, blackcaps, and nightingales, the cuckoo adds his bass accom- paniment or chorus. I have just seen the sun rise after one of these nocturnal vigils, and I feel fresh: the dew is wet on my beard; I feel elastic, and should like to walk up a breezy hill, had I not noted a few passages in books that I have turned over, and to which I propose making reference. I have heard the muttering of crickets and beetles in the privet hedge, seen roosting thrushes change their places, heard a quarrel between two sparrows cowering under a ledge of timber on the roof of a shed, and counted the voices of nine species of birds between midnight and 2 a.m. Within one hour from 11.30P.m.to12.30a.m. I heard the cuckoo, nightingale, thrush, woodlark, reed-wren, whitethroat, willow-wren. Soon after 1 a.m. I heard, in addi- tion to the foregoing, the chaffinch, the wren, and the chiffchaff, and after two o’clock there was such a general mingling of voices that it was possible only to distinguish the thrush, cuckoo, chaffinch, and robin, whose utterances are so distinct as to be at all times unmistakeable. Far away on the borders of the New Forest, and among the crowded slopes of Hereford- shire and Hertfordshire, 1 have at night heard the golden oriole, the rmg-ousel, the water-ousel, and the grey wagtail; the last to be seen as well as heard during moonlight at the midnight
20 The Minstrels of the Summer.
hour, but none of these, so far as I know, visit the gardens near London. .
The music of birds has a different effect to music of every other kind, and it may be that the associations of vegetable luxuriance and the enjoyment of a refreshing out-door tempe- rature assist the charm and are properly parts-of it. Gassendi gives a curious reason for preferring the music of birds to that of instruments, and describes the effect of the latter on the mind—“ Preehabebat porro vocibus humanis, instrumentisque harmonicis, musicam ilam avium.” Certainly with a western prospect, consisting of broken campaign sward terminating in a backeround of copse and tall elms, when the sun darts his first horizontal beams across it, and with a scarlet thorn to perfume ~ the air and a thrush or nightingale m song overhead, the plea- sure is as great as can be borne, and is enough to make one satisfied that our summer grows by successive increments, for if it were to burst upon us all at once it would be too much for ordinary powers of endurance.
it has been frequently remarked that song birds generally haunt the dwellings of man. ‘This is particularly the case in Britain, though it is a mistake to allege that the birds of the tropical wilderness are deficient of musical powers, and in the tropics, especially of America, the richest bird-music is heard in districts where man is at most a sojourner, and has never chosen a site for a village or encampment. It may be that _ song birds like human society, as it is certain the robin, black-
bird, and thrush do; and it may also happen that food and conveniences for building are more plentiful on the skirts of towns and villages than in deep forests and great open wastes. But this association has not been without its effect on litera- ture; and when I have heard some of those wild Scottish and Irish airs that remain to us of the music of the past, I have often thought they were borrowed from the songs of birds; and I should suppose the modulations of the robin, the nightingale, and the song thrush, would furnish ready-made compositions, needing only to be copied, for the use of the mellowest human voices, and for any class of soft-toned wind instruments. Gardener’s Music of Nature I have never seen, but have always understood that it is a reduction to musical scale of the songs of our best birds. Kircher; in his Universal Harmony (vol. 1. chap. 14), attempted a reduction of the nightingale’s song, and with much better success than Bechstein’s reduction to words consisting of zi and zo endlessly repeated. The very thought of wedding such music to words, as I believe was done by the old Scottish and Irish minstrels, suggests the question, What do the birds themselves mean? for these exquisite utterances have a meaning, we may be sure, and are not far away from
The Minstrels of the Summer. 21
parallels to the hymns and ballads we sing ourselves. Every observer of birds must be familiar with their several call-notes to each other, their expressions of joy and alarm, from the blackbird’s “ chuck ” when in possession of a snail, and “‘chirrall, chirrall,’” when suddenly alarmed, to the harsh ‘‘ chink” of the robin when about to fight. As Plato called flowers the joy of plants, we must perhaps be content with equal vagueness of description in designating song the joy of birds. When the heart is merry we are wont to sing, and while the woods and gardens resound with a thousand melodious lays we can dis- cover therein a new cause for thankfulness to the Father of all things, not only that we are made happy thereby, but that all the world brims with joy and speaks aloud its ecstasy in the voices of these timid, fluttering creatures.
The language of animals is not a new theme. Sir William Jones tells of a lutanist whe, m a grove at Schiraz, competed with the nightingales who gathered round him on the branches, and in their endeavours to outdo the musician fell on the ground at his feet exhausted. In the thirty-fifth number of the Quarterly Review is an account of a man who had learnt the language of birds, and knew by the call of the mother where the nest was, how old the young were, and how many she had reared in the nest. But this 1s nothing to the story of Por- phyry, in his delightfully gossiping book on abstinence. He Says, vindicating the possession of reason by animals, “that which is vocally expressed by the. tongue is reason, in whatever manner it be expressed, whether in a barbarous, or a Grecian, or canine, or a bovine mode; all other animals that are vocal participate of it.” * * * * “This, for instance, is related of Melampus and Tyaneeus, and others of the like kind, that they understood the speech of animals. It is related of Apol- lonius Tyanzus that once, when he was with his associates, a swallow happening to be present, and twittermg, he said that the swallow indicated to other birds that an ass laden with corn had fallen down before the city, and that in conse- quence of the fall to the ass the corn was spread about on the ground. An associate of mine informed me that he once had a boy for a servant who understood the meaning of all kinds of birds, and who said that all of them were prophetic.” (De Abstinentia ab esu aninralium, lib. iii. 8.)
Thales and Tiresias are both represented to have under- stood the language of birds; and Plato, in his picture of the golden age, supposes men to have understood the language of birds and beasts. Cicero says the Arabians cultivated this knowledge; and Sigard, in the Scadinavian Mythology, ac- quires the gift by eating the flesh of a serpent.
It is an old dispute, of which a book-lover never tires,
22 The Minstrels of the Summer.
whether the song of the nightingale be merry or sad. As Hartley Coleridge puts it, it is a poet’s question :—
“Oh, nightingale, what doth she ail, And is she sad or jolly ?”
But the naturalist must have an opinion, and his decision will be that it depends very much on the mood of the person hear- ing it. Such exquisitely tender, plaintive, and refined modu- lations as the nightingale pours forth for hours together, and generally at a time when other birds are sparing of their songs, will, of necessity, induce a feeling of agreeable sadness. No intensely wrought performance in any department of art causes mirth; the absorption of enjoyment is fatal to jollity, which catches at things as they flit over the surface of life, and cannot go deep without the certaimty of being lost. Homer and Horace give us no opinions on the subject. The passsge in the Helena of Huripides, beginning at line 1191 of Potter’s version, is de- cisive as to the opinion of this careful observer of nature :—
** Thee, sweetest bird, most musical Of all that warble their melodious song The charmed woods among, Thee, tearful Nightingale, I call. Oh come, and from thy dark plumed throat Swell sadly sweet thy melancholy note Attempered to my voice of woe.”
The beautiful thought of Isaac Walton is familiar to every reader; not so, perhaps, that in Sylvester’s Dw Bartas, be- ginning—
All this is nothing to the nightingale! Breathing so sweetly from a breast so small So many tunes.”
Sophocles invariably represents the nightingale as sad, and, in common with the poets, addresses the bird in the feminine gender. How awfully touching is that passage in the Agamemnon of Alschylus, where the chorus describes the “frenzy of a mind possessed with wildest ravings,” as
“Like the sweet bird That darkling pours her never-ceasing plaint.”
And what reader of Sophocles will forget the wandering (Hdipus, in his blindness and exile, led by his daughter to a land the name of which they knew not, where
‘In the midst Thick fluttering nightingales their sweet notes tune.”
Whose line is that—“ Dulces variat Philomela querelas ?” At would be worth knowing, for it gives a new form to the dis- cussion. Virgil comes near its spirit in the Georgics (IV.1. 511),
The Minstrels of the Summer. nce
“‘Qualis populed’ mcerens Philomela sub umbri,” etc.,* beauti- fully rendered by Dryden— “Her children gone,
The mother nightingale laments alone,
Whose nest some prying churl had found, and thence,
By stealth, convey’d th’ unfeathered innocence,
But she supplies the night with mournful strains ;
And melancholy music fills the plains.” —(L. 741—7.)
Milton described the song as ‘most musical, most melan- choly,” yet, after all, these quotations go for nothing, except tq show that, according to the mood of the mind is the nature of the impression, for the chorus in Helena is overwhelmed by anguish as the tragedy moves towards its climax. Virgil de- scribes the song of a bird bereaved of its young, and Milton has it, in Il Penseroso, where every item of the furniture “‘some sad embroidery wears.” So Aischylus, in the Agamemnon, makes amends for coupling the nightingale with images of woe—
“Ahme! Ah me! the nightingale’s sweet lot! A sweet existence that lamenteth not.»
The nightingaie is, in habit, one of the cheerfullest, as it is, perhaps, the most elegant of small birds. There is a tree in my garden on which a nightingale perches over my head a dozen times a day, while huntmeg for caterpillars and other dainties, and its sprightly action is unequalled for life and grace and spirit, coupled with a delicate shyness, most appro- priate to such a marvellous songster. I often repeat to myself, as I enjoy the glorious concert, which, from the end of April to the end of June, rings out during the whole twenty-four hours, those lines of Gavin Douglas—
** To bete thare amouris of thare nychtis bale
The merle, the mavys, and the nychtingale, With mirry notis myrthfully furth brist.”
It is at night only that the thought of sadness would occur, and as the nightingale, until his mate has hatched the brood, sings at all hours, except just before and just after noon, it
only needs to be heard in the daytime to prove that, intrinsi-
cally, the song is neither sad nor playful; it is deeply joyous, rich, sonorous, and enlivening, except during the gloom of a moonless night, when it rises above the sigh of the fitful gust, and issues out of darkness like weird music from a tomb.
Birds vary much as to the power of individuals and the effect of circumstances. The same bird will trill out a more spirited lay after a warm shower than during a cold, dry east wind. ‘There are times when, for a few hours, or a whole
* Comment peuvent se rencontrer ensemble la nuit et ’ombre du peuplier.— Heutiana, x\v.
24 The Minstrels of the Summer.
day, the feathered choristers seem animated by a passion of emulation, and pour forth such an exuberance of ewild music, that is almost more than a sensitive mind can bear. Such a day was Tuesday, the 29th of April, when the gardens of Stoke Newington seemed to be peopled with all the songsters of the world, engaged in an international contest. Others, beside myself, observed it; it was a subject of conversation for days after. Amongst the number then noticeable was @ thrush, who had a nest hard by in a thicket, and who, since early in February, had made the welkin ring from the dawn of day till long after evening twilight. That same evening one of my neighbours—hatine the noise, | suppose—fired a gun, and that particular thrush has not been heard since. Whether he killed the thrush I cannot say, he is perhaps happy that he silenced it. Requiescat in pace, with no ghost of a thrush to warble reproaches on his grave.
Cowper has the credit of first honourmg in verse the fre- . quency of the nightmgale’s song by day. But Rapin had already noticed the fact—
**Omanes implevit ramos Noctes atque dies.” —Hort. lib, i. And Shakspere has actually misrepresented the case— “The nightingale, if she would sing by day, When every goose is cackling, would be thought No better a musician than a swan.” —Merchant of Veniee, act it SC: Ve The song, day or night, is doubtless the most delicious music that ever saluted mortal ears since the day when the angels sang “ Glory to God in the Highest.” Milton was the first to make it the music of Hden, where Eve relates her dream to Adam, and when we hear it now, we may all say— “Music of Paradise! which still is heard When the heart listens.” Tennyson has caught at the same idea in In Memoriam, in the invocation to the nightingale— “ Wild bird, whose warble liquid sweet, Rings E Eden through the budded quicks. ii Keats’s ode is as rich and tender as the fullest eush of this rare warbler’s notes, and it has the truth of all his rustic images and scenes, especially where he describes 1t—
** Tn some melodious plot Of beechen green and shadows numberless ;””
for strange to say, if there be a beech within range of the bird’s haunts, he will choose that for his retreat, and at the present moment a pair have nested in a beech within sight of my study window. I would help to hang a bird-catcher, ama-
* The Minstrels of the Suimer. 25
teur or professional, who would dare to molest them. I can only say more about the nightingale’s song that the best de- scription of it is m Conder’s Star in the ‘Bast, and that to account for its disappearance when its short season of love and song is over, Carew has a capital conceit— ** Ask me no more, whither does haste
The nightingale ; when May is past.
For in your sweet, dividing throat
She winters, and keeps warm her note.”
What a mysteryis migration,and how much greater a mystery has it been made by that class of naturalists who persist in treating animals as if they were mere receptacles for food and vehicles of fur and feathers. The Marquis of Worcester’s disqui- sition is worth reading for its quaintness, but the notions of Linneeus do discredit to that generally broad-minded philoso- pher, for the great master clung to the notion of swallows hybernating under the waters of ponds, and in Hllis’s Cor- respondence of Linneus are particulars of the experiments for any who would have a laugh at the great Swede. Stranger * still that Gilbert White, most observant of observers, had a ‘secret fancy for the hybernating theory, though well aware of the fact that the temperature of the blood of any of our summer birds is higher than that of man, or any other of the most active creatures. Tor a bird to hybernate, especially under water, is simply impossible. So energetic is the life of these little creatures that while they remain with us they scarcely sleep at.all. You shall see swallows and swifts darting about till the last moment of twilight, and you shall see them again. at half-past two next morning wheeling aloft and twittering as freshly as if they needed no rest, and so with the cuckoo and the warblers, the almost unbroken contimuance of their song during the twenty-four hours round, is a proof of the energy of the circulation and all the vital processes. Their bones are hollow, they are themselves reservoirs of oxygen, and the flame of life burns more fiercely in their breasts than in any other class of animated creatures. Dr. Derham, in his Physico- Philosophy, notices two circumstances about migratory birds, first, that these wntaught, unthinking creatures, should know the proper times for their passage, when to come and when to go; as also that some should come when others retire. Now to call them untaught and unthinking is to beg the question. In what revelation do we read that they are in either case such utter negatives? surely only in the revelation of human vanity. Hx- periments with which every tamer and teacher of birds is familiar, prove that their natural songs are acquired by the Same process as we acquired a knowledge of A, B, © at school. As you pass along the side of a copse in July and “August, you
>? 26 The Minstrels of the Summer.
will hear hundreds of little birds recording the songs they, are just learning of their parents, and the parents always sing till their young have learnt their lesson properly; and hence, though the nightingale usually sings less vehemently after he has found a mate, he does sing till August if the first brood has met with an accident, and the parents hatch out a second. White records the singing of the mightingale on the Ist of May, and Markwick on the 4th of July,and the latter adds, “last seen, the 29th of August.” Take a young bird from the nest before it is old enough to have learnt of its parents, and it will learn any song or no song, just as circumstances in- fluence it. J have acanary that was brought up to the nightin- gale’s sone, and sings it to perfection. He has since learnt the chirp of the sparrow, the warble of the wren, the harsh twirk- ing of the blue-headed parakeet, and the graceful melody of a creaking wheelbarrow. Hen birds of almost any kind will sing nearly as well as cocks if well trained from the nest, and if singing is so mucha matter of tuition, why should not flymg be. Anywhere just now you may see the sparrows teaching their young to fly, and a pretty sight it is; the prettiest of the season. If they are taught to fly from a tree to the ground, and from the ground to a paling, why not over seas and conti- nents im such cases as render long flight necessary? We are met here with the word “Instinct,” which gives no account of motives, of caution in avoiding accidents, or of the almost supernatural powers of sight and wing which migratory birds possess. The swift will fly a mile in a minute, and in the course of a season traverses eight times the circumference of » the globe in search of flies within the range of less than an acre of territory.
I remember a match of pigeon-flying between London and Amsterdam, in which the winning bird flew at the rate of two mules every three minutes, according to the timing of the com- petitors, who started and received the bird at the two extremes of its journey. Let those who cling to the unsatisfactory solu- tion of instinct keep carriers three years, and fly them on scientific principles, and they will, at the end of that period, toss Dr. Derham’s idea of “ untaught, unthinking creatures” to its proper limbo among obsolete notions. ‘There are three things noticeable in the migration of birds; first, that change of residence is desirable; secondly, that they know where to go, and thirdly, they know how to go by the safest and the shortest route. Hgypt houses a vast number of our summer visitants. Why we cannot say, except that doubtless the food and climate suit them. Africa, indeed, is the winter home of the greater number of the British warblers; and why they come here we cannot say, except that, as before, the food
OR
ae eae - os > en ee ee
The Minstrels of the Sunvmer. 27
and climate suit them. And what a blessing that our woods, and flowery leas, and gardens, are deemed worthy of a long stay, and of deep domestic joys by such happy, confident, and silver-throated creatures. The puzzle to naturalists is that they find their way over lakes, rivers, deserts, and seas, to the very spots that best suits them. I know a still more curious case, for when a boy I had given to me a pair of Guildhall pigeons, which I kept in a large cage of laths until they reared a pair of young ones. ‘They then got out, owing to a rent in the laths, and made their way back to Guildhall, where, one of them having lost its tail, they were identified the same day by the friend who had scandalized the civic authorities in catching and sending them me. In this case the bump of locality must have been larger than that of philo-progenitiveness, and as the birds had never made that particular flight before, it was a greater puzzle than the passage of birds from Africa.to England, or vice versd, because these go in flocks, and there must be in every flock a certain number who have made the journey before, and can pilot the way for all the fledglings. Nor isit such a great undertaking, as it seems they rest on the rigging of ships, on headlands, and in places of seclusion, when stress of weather compels, and as the majority of migratory birds, especially those that traverse the Mediterranean, are insect eaters, they will probably find enough food to support them while on the wing, both by sea and land. The narrative by Mr. Thompson, in the Annals of Natural History for October, 1841, gives a list of twenty-seven birds which alighted or hovered about her Majesty’s ship Beacon, durmg a voyage up the Mediterranean, in the month of April, and amongst them were the swallow, martin, willow-wren, quail, hoopoe, oriole, redstart, flycatcher, wheatear, and some of the minor raptores, When we see a sheep leave a parched herbage to rejoice in clover it does not surprise us, but we commend the creature for its good taste ; the flight of a bird to a region adapted to its habits, when its hitherto home has ceased to be attractive, is but a similar process on a grander scale, and our wonder arises because of the distance, and the apparent frailty of the creature attempt- ing it. But the poetry of the fact is heightened by granting reason and motive for the act, and wonder may stretch more wide her wings, and take flight with them through the mysterious darkness over pathless wilds, the more happy to be associated with roving intelligences that move according to a plan for mutual protection and guidance, than when resting in the thought that they know not how to go or where to go, but ily by blind destiny, the victims of erratic chance, like so many whiffs of gossamer scattered about by the winds. To see the swallows gathering at nightfall among the mists of autumn,
28 Insects Injurious to the Eln.
though a common enough sight to country people, is one never to be forgotten as long as a man lives. To talk of magnifying the Creator, by ascribing all those movements to “ unerring instinct,” is to reduce Almighty wisdom to the cunning of an artist who has made a toy, and is half frantic that it dances when he pulls the strings. How much more consistent with all the plans and operations of nature which He has ordered, to believe that these wanderers have had given them a sufficient intelligence to rule their lives for good, and direct their appetites and passions for the preservation and increase of each particular race. When Natural Theology squeezes the mind out of a poor bird, it stoops almost as low as the bird-catcher who has drawn his net upon a sparrow, and who then twists its neck, because, in the first place, he delights in cruelty, and in the second place it is not the bird he wants. Pretty creatures, putting human wits to shame by your long journeys, without chart or compass, from one flowery land to another, how many risks have you to encounter, like the first Phoenician merchants, or the voyagers for the Golden Fleece, yet how much wiser than they in your unerring course and peaceful purpose, to carry happy voices into every chosen haunt.
INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE ELM. BY H. NOEL HUMPHREYS.
Iv has been asserted that of late years our native elm has exhibited less vigour mm its growth, and that, im many in- stances, trees which might have been considered in the vigour of their age have been seized with sudden symptoms of decay, and have rapidly perished. Some have attributed the less flourishing state of this handsome and useful forest tree to the extensive system of drainage now going on, as the elm prefers a damp soil. Others have suggested different causes; some, and apparently with most show of reason, assigning it to the ra- vages of certain insects which burrow between the bark and the © hard wood of the trunk, which is the most probable cause. Taking this as the most likely cause of a certain amount of decay, the experiments of M. Robert, an eminent French botanist, merit careful consideration. Some years ago the trees of the Parisian Boulevards having shown symptoms of disease, M. Robert, whose experiments in tree diseases were already well known, was consulted on the subject. He attributed their diseased state principally to the ravages of the larva of a small beetle—Scolytus destructor, and with a view to the prevention of
Insects Injurious to the Elm. 29
this cause, pared off portions of the bark in longitudinal strips, thus removing at once both the food and the protection of a great portion of the msect enemies. This measure was, how- ever ineffectual, and M. Robert next proceeded to strip off the whole of the bark. This was considered by many a rash pro- ceeding ; but the event seems to prove that M. Robert was right, for entire colonies of insects were thus destroyed, and the bark, contrary to general expectation, 1s stated to have been perfectly reproduced. M. Robert, having apparently proved .the efficacy of his method in cases where trees were attacked with scolytus, was called upon to apply his mode of cure to diseased trees in many parts of the French provinces, and also in Belgium; receiving various testimonial honours from many learned and scientific associations.
The severe method pursued by M, Robert may appear at a first glance extremely rash, especially on taking into conside- ration that the system of ringing only—that is, taking off a narrow strip of bark all round the trunk—is a method used for killing trees in forest clearings. Yet, we shall see, allowing his results to be indisputable, that M. Robert’s process may be founded on sound botanical physiology. But let us first find the imsect enemies of the elm, and having acquired a just idea of the exact nature of their ravages, consider whether the process of M. Robert be likely to prove efficacious for their destruction.
Among the most fatal of the tiny enemies of the elm, and others of our largest forest trees, 1s the Cossonus linearis, a terrible foe, for fresh specimens of which I am indebted to Mr. K. A. Smith of the British Museum. The figure at page 30 will convey a good idea of the insect im its perfect state. It is, however, in its larva state that its devastations are committed. The larva is, as may be conceived from the size of the perfect insect, very minute, and is a soft smooth grub totally devoid of legs, but it is furnished with considerable muscular power, and with powerful mandibles, with which it at the same time takes its food and perforates its miniature tunnel. This tiny creature does not only feed between the bark and the solid wood, either on the delicate liber or inner bark, or on the alburnum, that is to say, the last formed layer of wood, still in a soft state, but eats its way right into the heart of the tree through the sound, hard wood; and for these deeply internal ravages M. Robert’s system offers no remedy. A colony of these creatures works upon the doomed tree, till it becomes perforated in all direc- tions, and through every part of its vital tissues. The symptoms of disease soon show themselves; it loses the power to put _ forth its leaves; and, deprived of the result of their important functions, rapidly perishes.
Another enemy which, as being exceedingly numerous, is per-
30 Insects Injurious to the Elm.
haps more fatal, is a small beetle known as Scolytus destructor, which is shown below. It is affirmed by some naturalists that this insect only appears upon a tree when a morbid or diseased
A. The tunnel of cossonus linearis. 3. Greatly magnified head of 8. B. Cossonus linearis. destructor. ~
1. Magnified larva of S. destructor. 4. 8. destructor magnified.
2. Larva of S. destructor. 5. Size of S. destructor.
growth has already taken place; but I have found small numbers under the bark of apparently healthy trees. The first ravages probably induce that morbid growth which renders the mul- tiplication of the insect more rapid, as softening the wood and bark, and rendering them more available as food. Scolytus destructor is one of a group of insects which the German naturalist, Ratzeburg, has minutely described in his Forst In- secten (forest insects), a great work which he produced at
the request, and under —, the immediate patron- aa ( mal uly yi . ) | | i y mt | VY cca /
age, of the Prussian government. He has fieured in that volume many species of this genus and several al- (ins lied genera, besides an a
other insects injurious to forest trees, exhibit- ing them, in many in- stances, in the larva, pupa, and _ perfect states, in order that foresters may recog-
No. 1.—Tracks of Scolyti on the wood of the : ; eas - elm. nize their enemies in
all their stages. The two engraved specimens of wood injured by the Scolytus and its congeners, will show the manner in which they eat their
immense number of .-
Insects Injuriows to the Elin. ol
way between the bark and the main trunk. Their food bemg
the alburnam, or soft white portions of newly formed wood, as
before stated, which lies between the liber or inner bark, and the already hardened wood or duramen. The insect leaves about an equally deep track in both bark and wood; though, in general, if a piece of bark be broken off, the larva of the Scolytus will come away with it. The specimen of wood, No. 1, page 30, shows the tracks of a colony of Scolyti. The perfect insect or beetle has the power of perforating the bark, say at A; 16 then com- mences a tunnel, till at B it forms a deeper cavity, which some de- scribe asa turn- § ing place to en- @ able the female to effect her re- Ry treat, should she @ survive the act % mr Il ramacaly | (Me of depositing her Weel Mia ea Ce AM AIAN UN ova. Lhave,how- ‘' ag elt Ae Aa
ever, found eggs deposited in such cavities which ap- pear to succeed each at certain distances, and in which, as it appears to me, suc- cessive batches of eges are placed. When the eggs are hatched the young larve depart to the right and left of this main channel, eating their way as they go. It will be seen that at their commencement these lateral channels are very narrow, the larve being still small; but, growing as they advance, the channel gradually widens, till at last it terminates, at its greatest degree of breadth, in a blunt cul-de-sac. In this extremity of the channel, the larva having attained its full growth, sinks into the dormant period of its existence, in which it undergoes its change to the perfect or winged state. This takes place with only the protection of a slight husk, which it constructs for itself, very inferior in structure to the elegantly formed case of the chrysalids of butterflies and moths. The larva gradually shortens and thickens, and the wings, legs, antenne, and other members belonging to the perfect state gradually develop themselves within this imperfect pupa case. The beetle, when the full metamorphosis has taken place, eats, or rather bores it way through the bark, and emerges from the dark chambers in which the earlier stages of its ex- istence have taken place, to the open daylight. Its daylight
ir ,
No. 2.—A piece ofelm wood showing the tracks of B. Chalcographus and B. Topographus.
32 Insects Tiywrious to the Hln.
existence, however, is a very short one, and the female, so soon as her instinct teaches her that the time has arrived for de- positing her eggs, bores again through the thick bark for that purpose, voluntarily quitting the daylight for ever, as she fre- quently dies almost immediately after depositing her last batch of eggs in the dark tunnel, which thus serves at the same time for the tomb of the parent and the cradle of the progeny.* The curiously branching tracks of insects of this class have in many cases suggested the name by which different species are distinguished—each having a peculiar method of progres- sion, which, of course, leaves a track of corresponding charac- ter. For istance, the insect of the genus Bostrichus, the larvze of which makes the little branching channels which look lke lines engraved on metal, and are marked « in the engraving of injured wood, No. 2, has received the specific name of chalco- graphus, from a term founded on Greek words meaning “ an engraver on brass.” Another, the one whose larva makes the
* T have just received the following additional details respecting the habits of the Scolytus, and the fatal nature of its ravages. These interesting particulars are from a paper recently read before the Entomological Society, by one of the most careful and accurate observers among our English entomologists :—“ When the first warmth of spring sets in the perfect msect makes its escape from beneath the bark, by eating its way out; the female soon after selects a tree for the pur- pose of depositing ‘her ova 3 : she commences her perforation always beneath a little projecting piece of bark, at the upper end of a crack; she bores onwards and upwards until on the surface of the alburnum, when she ascends direct. The tube thus formed is from two to three and a half inches in length, three-fourths of a line in diameter, and of equal size throughout, except ata short distance from its entrance, where a small cavity is usually found, sufficiently large to allow the perfect insect to turn; on each side, in small crenules, she deposits her eges as she advances. If the female insect live to effect her retreat, she closes the aperture by which she effected her entrance with some plastic material, to prevent the entrance of enemies; the number of eggs is in proportion to the length of the tube—there are generally sixty to seventy. On burstimg their shells the young larve immediately commence feeding on the last deposits of alburnum. They at first form parallel lines or tubes, which are seen gradually to enlarge and diverge, and are filled with exuvie. Here they continue to feed during the summer, autumn, and winter (if mild); when full-grown they form a case, in which they change to the pupa state, and then, at the end of May, or the begin- ning of June, bore their way out through the substance of the bark. . . When the insect greatly abounds, it will perforate the bark of fresh hewn timber ; but I have never found one specimen in an elm whose juices were dried up. Therefore, irrespective of the cause of disease, it must be unanimously granted that an insect which can destroy four square inches of bark by detaching it from the alburnum, must prove highly destructive, and whilst permitted to remain must frustrate any attempt to restore health. When we find a tree dead, with terminal branches profuse and perfect, we certainly, under ordinary circumstances, should not say tliat tree had died from defective nutrition in the soil; but that, from some cause or another, it had suddenly, as it were, come to an untimely end; and such a tree we had in the Gardens (Royal Botanic). I watched it in its beauty, and in three years saw it cut down and carried away dead. But what a sight met our view on removing the bark—the surface of the trunk, as many gentlemen will remember, for I exhibited a piece of it three feet long before this Society (Entomological), was beautifully scored by the lateral tubes of the Scolytus larva, and we reckoned that this solitary tree gaye birth to no less than the prodigious number of 280,000 perfect insects.”
a
Insects Injurious to the Elin. 30
channels figured at B in No. 2, has been styled topographus, or “map maker,” from a supposed resemblance in the chan- nels to the lines indicating rivers, etc., on engraved maps. It is a rather larger insect than chalcographus, as shown by the larva tracks, which may easily be compared, as the traces of both are frequently found in the same tree. The channel of another larva of this class has somewhat the ap- pearance of writmg, to which it is indebted for its specific title autographus, while others have received equally charac- teristic names.
Mr. Westwood states that he has often found Hylisinus Fraxini in the elm, though its name would indicate that its ravages were confined to the ash. It is a small beetle, very sunilar in form to the 8. destructor, but it is of lighter colour— the wing-cases being prettily variegated or clouded with a deeper tone. ‘The larva of Hylisinus Fraxini closely resembles that of the genus Scolytus, and is found in a state of activity in the elm during the month of August. The larvee of another little beetle, enemy of the elm, of the genus Hylargus, very closely resemble those of Scolytus.
We have hitherto described the enemies of the elm among the more minute representations of the beetle tribe. But the British giant of the race—the great stag-beetle, whose con- spicuous size and form soon make him well known to the merest tyro among young entomologists—is also, in its larva stage, a formidable enemy of this devoted tree. The larva of this large insect is of proportionate size; and whenever it does attack a tree of this kind, which is fortunately of not frequent occur- rence, as the insect is not very abundant, the dangerous nature of its inroads may be easily conceived, as it not only bores into the very heart of the wood, but also, with still more fatal effects, penetrates the main roots in a similar manner. <A tree-enemy upon fully as large a scale, is the Cossus Ligniperda—the wood- boring Cossus. This is a large moth, one of the handsomest our British kinds ; the caterpillar of which is large, and protected with strong scales, and also furnished with powerful mandibles, which enable it to eat its way into the core of the hardest woods. Jt prefers, however, the pear and the willow, but is frequently found m the elm and other large forest trees. The damage done by this powerful larva to the trees it attacks may be readily imagined, as it lives from two to three years in the tree before its transformation takes place; and at its full growth leaves a clear bore through the solid wood of from half an inch to three-quarters of an inch in diameter.
There are many interesting circumstances known regarding the habits of the Cossus Ligniperda; but the present paper has reached its extreme limits, which also prevents the description
VOL 1I.—NO. I. D
34, Insects Injurious to the Elm.
of many other insects injurious to the elm, both in its healthy and partially-decayed state.
Having examined the habits of certain xylophagous, or wood-eating insects, and having probably arrived at the con- clusion that the ravages of the Scolytus and his congeners have a more direct connection with the decay of elm-trees than increased drainage, or any other cause, it is time to consider the seemingly dangerous method of cure proposed and prac- tised by M. Robert, and to ascertain the principles upon which it must have been adopted, and upon the applicability of which its success must depend.
The sap, the basis of which is mere rain-water, that is to say water impregnated with carbonic acid, is taken up by the roots, and ascends between the solid wood and the bark, causing the formation of a coating of new wood all round the trunk, which coating, in its soft state, is termed alburnum. It is again through this alburnum that the surplus sap, vitiated by the functions 1t has performed, has to descend, eventually escap- ing through the spongeoles, or fine fibres of the roots, into the earth. Now, if the ascent of the nutritious moisture be im- peded by the scoring of the Scolyti, or still worse, if, in its vitiated state, its descent be impeded, and its escape prevented, the most fatal consequences must necessarily ensue in some of the forms caused by the morbid retention of a poison. If, therefore, M. Robert can remove the bark, and with it the Scolyti, giving to the alburnum (relieved by his process from the further injury of its enemies) the opportunity of exerting its reparatory functions, which he asserts that it is able to do even when deprived of its natural protection, the external bark, which, he assumes, it is able to restore, then M. Robert appears to have hit upon a mode of cure which, under favourable cir- cumstances, may prove successful. It is, of course, necessary that in removing the bark care be taken to spare in every way the alburnum. My neighbour Dr. Evans informs me that a goat in his garden had eaten all the bark from the lower part of the trunk of a tree to which it was attached, but that not having seriously injured the alburnwm the reparatory powers of that substance not only repaired its own injuries, but reclothed itself with a coating of bark. And thusit is seen, in “ rmging” operations, pursued for the purposes of destroy- ine trees, that the alburnum itself must be cut through, as well as the outer and inner bark, and then, no doubt, im the great majority of cases the tree invariably dies.
It may be stated, in support of M. Robert’s theory, that the bark is, speaking by analogy, the bone, rather the skin of the tree, and bone, as is well known, is the result of a kind of organic action which has to an unusual extent the power of
Insects Injurious to the Elin. SO
reproduction. A singular link between the forms of vegetable and animal bone, if one may be permitted the use of such fanciful terms, is to be found.in Crustaceee. The bone of the lobster, for instance, unlike that of the higher forms of animal life, is entirely external, that is to say, what would be the internal spine, etc., in a fish or a quadruped is the shell of the lobster. ‘This external casing of bone is not only capable of renewing itself in case of injury, but does so naturally every year, the creature shedding its external bone to allow of the . annual growth of the body, which it clothes and protects. The inner coating, analogous to the liber and alburnum of the tree, having not only an inherent power of protection when deprived for a time of their usual external covering, but having also the power of re-clothing themselves with a new one of the same kind, suited in dimension to the increased size of the body. So that we need not be altogether surprised at the reported success of M. Robert in doing for the tree that which the lobster does once a year for itself. It may be added that there is even a “tree lobster,” as one may term it, which also does for itself that which M. Robert pretends to do for diseased oaks or elms ; that tree, is the well-known oriental plane, which sheds its old bark every year, a circumstance which may partly account for its retaining its health in the very heart of smoky towns, where other trees perish, probably from the clogging of the pores of the bark, and so stopping that necessary expiration which trees earry on by them as well as the leaves. Just as im the human being, the pores of the skin allow of a continuous expiratory action supplemental to that of the lungs. The process of M. Robert, then, may possilly, should it be found practicable, be effectual, in permanently checking the ravages of the Scolytus family ; but it cannot touch the inroads of the Cossonus, and can- not repair suck damages as that effected by the larva of the stag-beetle and the Cossus Ligniperda.
I should add, in conclusion, that I have just received a letter from a botanical physiologist who has entered into direct correspondence with M. Robert, and who, after that corre- spondence (as before) is decidedly of opinion that the procédé flobert, as the French would say, is certain to be fatal to any tree upon which it is fairly put to the test. A series of careful experiments can alone decide the question; and if judiciously carried out, would, no doubt, lead to the elucidation of many facts with which we are at present but imperfectly acquainted.*
* The question raised in this paper is of great interest as a matter of vegetable physiology ; but whatever may be the result of further experiments, we cannot en- dorse the done theory.—ED.
36 Star Finding.
STAR FINDING.
THERE are few more delightful occupations than paying telesco- pic visits to the hundreds of beautiful objects which the heavens present, and which are accessible to the possessors of very moderate optical means. A beginner need not be discouraged by the difficulty incidental to the nature of the pursuit. Let him commence with such a work as Mrs. Ward’s elegant Tele- scope T'eachings,* and he will find himself insensibly prepared for the consideration of more complicated problems, and the prosecution of investigations of a more elaborate kind. Many interesting stars require instruments of considerable magnitude and power, but Mrs. Ward has shown much that may be accom- plished with a two-inch glass; and Mr. Webb has furnished a valuable guide to all the principal astronomical wonders that can be reached by objectives up to double that size.; The names of the principal stars in our hemisphere may be learnt from maps, globes, or the excellent planisphere published by Smith in the Strand; but as the constellations are among the most bungling contrivances of human ingenuity, it is by no means
* an easy task to trace their imaginary boundaries in the sky, or
to know exactly where to point the telescope to the less con- Spicuous members of their bewildering groups. In the papers for which our readers are indebted to Mr. Webb, very simple directions are given for finding, at a specified date the objects which he describes, but, inasmuch as the whole celestial framework appears to revolve about our earth, and each month —each hour—presents a different aspect of the firmament to our gaze, it is very desirable to possess accurate and scientific means adapted to any time, by which, if the weather permits,
_ the object we wish to examine may be infallibly found. Such
an aid the professional astronomer possesses in the equatorial, and several opticians have produced equatorial stands adapted for portable telescopes of moderate size. They are, however, from their price beyond the reach of many students, and even if they were cheaper and less cumbersome, they would not answer all the purposes that can be served by a small instru- ment readily carried from one room to another, or to any part of a garden or field from which a good view can be obtained, and the adjustment of which can be readily made. Such an instrument has been produced by Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite, and since we first alluded to it im the
* Telescope Teachings; a Sketch of Astronomical Discovery, containing a Special Notice of Objects coming within the Range of a Small Telescope. By the Hon. Mrs. Ward. Groombridge and Sons.
+ Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes. By the Rey. T. C. Webb, Incum- bent of Hardwick, Herefordshire. Longmans.
Star Finding.
“Notes and Memoranda” of our May number, we have given it repeated trials, and have likewise obtained an excellent report of its merits from a practical astronomer, to whose care we consigned it for several weeks. It consists of a steady bed, shown in the annexed sketch, furnished with two spirit-levels and three adjusting screws. The polar support, m, has the slope required by the latitude of the place in which it is to be used, and being fixed by the makers at the right angle, becomes free from error and always ready for work. a@ 1s the telescope, rotating on an axis and carrying the index e to any pomt of the declination circle d; h is the hour circle, and 7 its index, moving with the tele- scope and giving the right ascension in hours and de- grees.
If the student has a con- venient place commanding a sufficient sky view, he can if he pleases fix the instru- ment upon a pillar after hav- ing adjusted it according to the directions given in an excellent paper issued with it, but in many cases it will be convenient to preserve its portability, and then it must be brought to the right po- sition each time it is em- ployed. Ifrequired merely as a finder it will be sufficient to set the two circles for the right ascension, and declination of the pole star as given in the Nautical Almanack, or any other ephemeris; the polar support should then be approximately pointed to the star, and the bed accurately levelled by the adjusting screws. If this is properly done a very trifling movement will bring the star into the cen- tre of the field marked by the cross wires, and the instrument will be ready for use. In this way we obtained good results as a finder, and for measurements of position sufficiently near the mark to distinguish and ascertain the name of any star not easily confounded with its near neighbours. ‘This mode of pro- ceeding has certain obvious advantages, but every possessor of the instrument should accustom himself to use it from one par- ticular situation where he has obtained a good meridian line,
38 De La Rive on the Aurora Borealis.
and can adjust it so as to work with the greatest accuracy of which it is susceptible. The method of doing this is clearly explained in Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite’s paper of direc- tions, and many of our readers will remember the mformation furnished by Mr. Burder in the articles published in Recreative Science on a portable equatorial.
The student will gladly avail himself of this instrument (1) to find stars, or other objects he wants to look at; (2) to dis- cover the name cf any star by determining its exact position, and then ascertaining from an almanack or chart what body it must have been to have occupied such a position at such a time; (3) to obtain the time within a few seconds by watching the transit of any star convenient for such a purpose. It also possesses a high educational value, affording to teachers the means of giving their pupils an initiation into many processes of practical astronomy that ought not to be neglected in any civilized school.
The construction of the star-finder displays considerable skill. To render such an instrument generally useful, it was necessary to make it handy, cheap, and not easily deranged, and in these several particulars Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite have suc- ceeded extremely well. The telescope, although small, is of excellent quality, giving a good view of Jupiter’s moons, and clearly showing « Lyra as a double star, on a bright summer’s night. The movements are smooth and steady, the gradu- ation accurate, and every part firm and strong. ‘Thus the student will find it an excellent aid to his fascinating pursuit.
DE LA RIVE ON THE AURORA BOREALIS.*
M. pr 1A Rive conceives that two general facts relating to the aurora are established: 1st, “the comcidence between the ap- pearance of the Boreal and the Austral Auroras: 2nd, that auroras are atmospheric phenomena which take place within the limits of the atmosphere, but not beyond it.” He seeks to show that the positive electricity carried to high regions of the atmosphere by vapours from tropical seas, and which the trade winds accumulate near the polar regions, acts by mduction on the negative electricity with which the earth is charged. ‘There results, he says, “a condensation of contrary electricities in those portions of the earth and the atmosphere which are nearest each other, and in consequence a neutralization in the
* Comptes Rendus, June 9, 1862, p. 1171. A similar account is given in the
Archives des Sciences (Gentye), No. 54, and accompanied with a drawing of the apparatus.
De La Rive on the Aurora Borealis. 39
neighbourhood of the poles, which takes place under the form of more or less frequent discharges as soon as their tension has reached a limit which cannot be maintained. These discharges ought to take place simultaneously at both poles, since, as the conducting power of the earth is perfect, its electrical tension ought to be sensibly the same, with some shght differences arising solely from accidental variations in the stratum of air interposed between the two electricities. There are thus upon the earth during the appearance of the auroras two currents proceeding from the poles to the equator; but if the discharge only takes place at one pole—the southern for example—there is no longer in the northern hemisphere a current directed from north to south, but a weaker current directed from south to north. ‘This change gives an eastern declination to the compass-needle instead of the western declination which occurs when the boreal discharge takes place and the current 1s directed from north to south.”
“Tt is known that auroras are accompanied by more or less intense currents in telegraphic wires. Mr. Walker m England, and Mr. Loomis m America, have made them the subjects of special study, and they have found that they vary constantly not only in intensity but likewise in direction, coming alter- nately from north to south, and from south to north. If we remember that the currents propagated by telegraphic wires are derivative currents gathered by means of large metallic plates sunk in the moist soil, it will appear that these plates are not slow to polarize themselves under the chemical action of the current which they transmit, and that they ought to deter- mine in the wire which unites them an inverse current as soon as that which occasioned their polarization ceases or diminshes its force; and all observers know that the auroras exhibit a very variable and perpetually oscillating light.”
“The change which occurs in one terrestrial current when the discharge passes from one pole to another—from the north to the south, for example—determines also a change in the direction of the currents of the telegraphic wires, which im that case flow from south to north, instead of from north to south ; but the new current is much weaker than the old one, except when it unites with the secondary currents arismg from the plates.”
““There is, however, a great difference in the results obtained when, instead of observing the currents collected by telegraphic wires, we study the perturbations of the magnetic needle which accompany auroral manifestations, as in the latter case there are neither electrodes nor secondary currents, but only one direct action of the principal current. This current may vary in intensity, but it must always operate in the same way (méme
4G De La Rive on the Aurora Borealis.
sens) while the discharge takes place at the same pole, whether it be strong or weak, and it will not change its character until the discharge nearly ceases at the nearest pole, in order to operate almost exclusively at the other ; whilst by reason of the effect of secondary polarities a change in intensity suffices to produce a change of direction in the currents of telegraphic wires. ‘This difference is strikingly shown by comparing the graphic representations of purturbations in the magnetic needle observed by Mr. Balfour Stewart at Kew, during the auroras of the 2nd September, 1859, with the results of Mr. Walker’s observations of the currents exhibited by telegraph wires at the same time. I have succeeded in experimentally verifying these observations by transmitting the discharge of a Ruhmkorff’s coil through rarefied air, placing in the circuit some water holding a little salt in solution, and in which two plates of metal were immersed. As soon as the principal current was weakened or stopped the inverse current was exhibited by the plates.”
“Tn order to reproduce all the details of the natural pheno- mena, I caused an apparatus to be constructed composed of a sphere of wood about ten inches in diameter, which represented the earth, and carried at each pole a bar of soft iron about two inches long, and about one inch in diameter. Hach bar rested on a vertical cylinder of soft iron to which it was united, and thus the sphere was supported. So arranged, the sphere had a horizontal axis terminating in two appendages of soft iron which could be magnetized by bringing the two cylinders on which they rested in contact with the poles of an electro-mag- net, or by surrounding the cylinders with coils of wire traversed by electric currents. Hach of the iron bars was surrounded by a glass cylinder (manchon) between five and six inches in dia- meter, and about seven inches long, and in which it occupied an axial position projecting into the middle of the glass. The two vessels were hermetically sealed by two metallic caps, one of which was traversed by the iron bar, while the other carried a metal rig upon two arms, the centre of the ring coinciding with the end of the iron bar, and having its plane perpendicular to the axis of one bar. The diameter of the ring is a little less than that of the glass. Stopcocks were conveniently placed to allow of a vacuum being formed in the glass vessels, and any kind of gas introduced.
“To use this apparatus, the wooden ball is covered with two strong bands of bibulous paper, one occupying its equator and the other crossing it from pole to pole, and making contact with the two bars of iron. On this last band, pieces of copper about one or two-thirds of an inch square are fixed at equal intervals with copper tacks that penetrate the wood. All the
se
De La Rive on the Aurora Borealis. 41
copper Squares are arranged in the same meridian. Between two of the squares a metallic communication is established with the thread of a galvanometer placed about twelve yards off, so that its needle shall not be directly influenced by the electro-magnet. Having thus arranged the apparatus, the paper bands are moistened with salt and water, and the equa- torial band is connected with the negative electrode of a Ruhm- korff’s coil, which has its positive electrode brought into com- munication, by means of a bifurcated wire, with the two metallic rmegs which are inside the glass vessels, and in highly rarefied air. The discharge is soon seen as a luminous jet between the rings and the extremity of the iron bar, sometimes im one vessel, sometimes in the other, but rarely in both at once, although both are placed under apparently the same circumstances.”
“ As soonas the soft iron is magnetized, the jet spreads and forms an arc round the central wire, animated by a rotary movement, the direction of which depends on the character of the magnetization. It is evident that it depends also on the direction of the discharge, but we have supposed this direction constant, and resembling that of nature, that is to say, directed from the circumference towards the centre. It is important to notice that if the air be not too rarefied, a moment is observed in which, when the iron bars are magnetized, the rotation begins, and the jet not only expands into an arc, but darts brilliant rays that remain quite distinct from each other, and turn round with greater or less velocity like the spokes of a wheel. In this we see an exact representation of what occurs in the aurora borealis, when the luminous arcs being all im- pressed with a movement of rotation from west to east, dart luminous jets in the ligher regions of the atmosphere. These jets do not occur unless the iron is magnetized, and they may be stopped if the air is highly rarefied, by imtroducing a vapor- izable liquid, such as a drop of water. It is impossible to pro- duce them if the discharge, instead of being directed, as in nature, from the circumference to the centre, passes in an opposite direction.”
M. de la Rive adds, that on examining the galvanometer with which the two wires previously mentioned are in com- munication, a secondary current will be indicated, its character and direction bemg determined by whether the discharge takes place at one pole or the other; and he states that he can im1- tate the disturbances which the magnetic needle experiences
when the auroras occur.
Ad
CURIOUS ILLUSTRATION OF VEGETABLE MORPHOLOGY.
fr is not uncommon for natural objects to assume somewhat extraordinary forms, but perhaps few are more curious than the one which I have endeavoured to represent in the accompany- ing sketch. This smgular freak of nature was shown to me at the house of some friends with whom I have been recently staying, and was cut from an ash-tree in a wood near Reculver, in Kent. The branch suddenly assumes a flattened form, and shortly after separates into two branches, which bear at first sight a curious resemblance to the antlers of a stag. Buds appear at short intervals, some of them with an approach to regularity in their arrangement, others in clusters. The two arms, after division, are not exactly in the same plane, the small one being slightly foreshortened when the large one is in full view. My drawing, though somewhat rough, is, I believe, accurate, being made from a pencil sketch and description which I took from the object itself. I neglected at the time to take the actual measurements, but the length of the large arm is scarcely less than eighteen inches. As an example of the curious in nature you may possibly deem it worthy of a notice in the InrELLEcTUAL OBSERVER. Rozert GavsBy.
A ee ee
: : ¥ z
The New Metal Thallium. AS
THE NEW METAL THALLIUM.
On the 19th June Mr. Crookes read a paper on the new metal thallium, before the Royal Society, and on the 25th of the same month M. Lamy made a similar communication to the French Academy. It 1s from these sources that we are able to lay before our readers the followimg particulars :—In March 1861, Mr. Crookes announced that a brilliant green line, exhibited by some selenium residues, in the spectroscope method of analysis, was an intimation of the existence of a new element. In the following May he gave a further account of his discovery, and named it thalliwm from our Greek @adAos, on account of its coloured line resembling the hue of vigorous vegetation. M. Lamy, who was not aware of Mr. Crookes’s investigations, made a subsequent but mdependent discovery of the same green ray, which he noticed in the spectrum of a specimen of selenium extracted by M. F. Kuhlmann from the refuse of chambers in which sulphuric acid had been prepared by the combustion of pyrites. Both chemists set to work to isolate the new metal ; Mr. Crookes operating with crude sulphur distilled from Spanish pyrites, and containing thallium to the extent of one or two grains in the pound; while M. Lamy used the selenium pre- viously mentioned, from which he obtained salts of thallium that gave up that metal by voltaic action. Mr. Crookes’s process will be found in the Chemical News, July 5th. In substance it consists in dissolving the metals out of crude sulphur or pyrites by strong hydrochloric acid, to which nitric acid is gradually added. The solution is evaporated to drive off the nitric acid, and a little sulphuric added if required. It is neces- sary to stop the evaporation before the solution becomes pasty. It is then diluted, gently heated, filtered, rendered alkaline with carbonate of soda, treated with an excess of cyanide of potassium free from sulphide of potassium, heated once more, and filtered again. It is in the solution left after these pro- cesses that the thallium remains, which is precipitated by sul- phuretted hydrogen. If cadmium and mercury are present, warm dilute sulphuric acid will remove the former, and the sulphides of thallium and mercury are separable by dilute nitric acid, which dissolves the first, and leaves the last. The nitric acid solution is evaporated to dryness, the residue dis- solved in hot sulphuric acid, and the thallium precipitated by a piece of pure zinc. ‘Thus obtamed, the new metal looks first like a deep brown powder, which soon changes to a heavy black granular precipitate, to which fusion in hydrogen gives a co- herent form.
Thallium bears a strong physical resemblance to lead. Its
4,4, The New Metal Thallium.
specific gravity is about 12, that of lead being 11°36. Mr. Crookes says it is not so blue as lead, and M. Lamy describes it as less white than silver, and resembling aluminium in hue. A fresh cut surface has a brilliant lustre, which tarnishes quicker than lead. It is soft enough to be scratched with the nail, and very malleable, but possessed of little tenacity. It readily marks paper, leaving a trace “‘ with yellow reflexions.” M. Lamy also states that it becomes yellowish if rubbed with a hard substance, a change which he attributes to oxydation. It is SO sensitive in the spectroscope that the last named authority affirms that it may be discovered in one fifty milhonth of a gramme of one of its compounds. Mr. Crookes describes two oxides of thallium, and thinks that a third is probably formed. To one he ascribes basic properties, and we presume it is that which is formed when the metal tarnishes, and which M. Lamy states to be alkaline, with an odour like that of potash. The next oxide, containing more oxygen, Mr. Crookes names thallic acid, which may be obtained in a crystalline form.
Todine, bromine, sulphur, and phosphorus can unite with the new metal, and it combines with sulphuric, carbonic, chro- mic, phosphoric, and other acids.
.M. Lamy exhibited to the French Academy an ingot of thal- hum weighing fourteen grammes, obtained by a Bunsen battery from chlorides which he formed by chemical means. The new metal is far from rare, and is very likely to be extracted im sufficient quantities to serve some economic use. Its spectro- scope properties are highly important. In the words of Mr. Crookes, “‘The green line of the thallium spectrum appears to be unaccompanied by any line or band in other parts of the spectrum. A flame of sufficient temperature to bring the orange line of lithium into view produces no addition to the one thallium line; and an application of telescopic power strong enough to separate the two sodium lines a considerable distance apart, still shows the thallium line single. I consider, there- fore, that I am justified in stating that thallium produces the simplest spectrum of any known element. ‘Theoretical inquiries into the cause of the spectrum lines, and their relation to other constants of an element may be facilitated when we know a metal which gives rise to luminous vibrations of only one degree of refrangibility. The remarkable simplicity of the thallium spectrum offers a strong contrast to the complicated spectra given by mercury, bismuth, and lead, the metals to which it has most chemical resemblance.”
Artificial Halos. AS
ARTIFICIAL HALOS.
Everyone who has used an air-pump has noticed the clouds of vapour which form in the receiver after a few strokes of the piston, and which arise from the air yielding up a portion of its moisture as the pressure is diminished. If these vapours are viewed by light transmitted from a candle, prismatic colours will appear ; but to sure a distinct and fine halo Mr. Slack recom- mends the following plan: Place a large receiver on the princi- pal plate of an air-pump, and a small one, holding about a quarter as much as the former, on the smaller plate. Turn the stopcock so that when the pumps are worked the small receiver only shall be exhausted, the large one remaining full. When a vacuum has been made, place a taper on one side of the large receiver, and stand on the other, keeping the eye on a level with its hg¢ht, and suffermg no other illumination in the room. Now, suddenly turn the stopcock so that a portion of the air from the large receiver shall rush to the exhausted smaller one. At this moment a splendid halo will appear, and it is an inter- esting and by no means an easy task to notice the exact order im which the colours are exhibited. The average decision arrived at m one set of experiments was as follows: A yellow light seemed to rush from a circumference to a centre, forming a luminous disk, which passed instantly to a red-orange hue, and then to a brilhant emerald-green. At this point the green central disk appeared to expand outwardly and take the form of an external ring, the centre resuming an orange tint. The changes in the phenomenon are exceedingly rapid, and their duration so infinitesimal that itis impossible to note and describe all the chrematic effects, among which some rich purple rings will be observed, before the luminous circles disappear. Thoss who wish to perform the experiment with an air-pump that has only a single plate should connect its receiver by a pipe and stopcock with a larger closed vessel full of air, and then proceed in the manner described. A large amount of light is injurious to the results, as it overpowers the coloured rays. If the expe- -ximent were performed on a large scale it would probably be effective in a lecture-room.
Under ordinary circumstances there is enough moisture in the air to give rise to pleasing effects; but they will become more striking if a few drops of water are sprinkled on the inner surface of the large receiver. -It is also interesting to notice the variations that occur if alcohol or liquid ammonia be substituted for the water. In the latter case, the clouds formed are denser and less evanescent.
46 Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory.
RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE KEW OBSERVATORY.
LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w.
1862. Reduced to mean of day. Temperature of Air. At 9°30 a.m.; 2p.m.3; and5 p.m. rai respectively. - Calculated. Be 2 Bea Ke Vp leeele | S| a 2) eee |e) | eee eens |e & Sua eect Wein Werte le eames Ot deve Masi cles a EE Hen mesa lime gilfe outers sesh NE ao sens : ee By clesed | Se (eee) | NS eae car |) es es Direction of Wind. 9° oa ay PY fy Se 268 & ei) 3, 5 iy Bo |8 ze | o | ° | Hes 18 fa os A ee iti) tarspoi eel cle hala : a\3 : i inches. & A inch, 2 x - inched April 1 | 29°854) 46°9) 43°5) -89/-298) 53:2 | 41:2) 12-010, 10,10) SW by W,SW by S, SSW. 3 2 | 29°629) 48:0) 49-9/ 1:00) °372) 54°9 | 49:4) 5-5/10, 10, 10 SSW, S by W, 8. s 3 | 29°672| 49°6) 43-6) -81) 299) 58°3 | 48°1/10-2) 3, 7, 4| SW by W, WSW, WSW. > & | 80:074| 44:4) 39°6) -84)-260) 53:2 | 45:0) 8 2/10, 9, 6 N, W, — » 5 | 80000} 45-2) 45:0) -99/ -314) 54:3 | 44-2) 10-1} 8, 10,10} S by W, SSW, SW by 8. | AG ane Boo Wi boot pecas Ml odo. || aia). een esa a8 ecules » 7 | 80°171| 44:5) 45-4) 1-00) -319} 51:5 | 47-6] 3°:9/10, 10, 10 NNE, NN, N. » 8 | 80°237| 40:3) 40:5) 1:00) 269; 46°0 | 426] 3°4/10, 10, 10] NE by N, NE by N, ENE. » 9 | 80:048] 40°5| 41-1; 1-00) °275) 47°0 | 41:1) 5°9)10 10,10 NNH, N, N by W. » 10 | 29:946) 43°1) 43-0) 1-00) °293) 51:5 |42°3) 9:2/10, 10, 10 NW, NE by #, N. | » L1 | 30:173| 36:9) 33-6) -89)-211) 45°0 | 41-1; 3°9/10, 10,10 NE, NE, N by E. yy) 12 | 80°253) 344,186} -57| 123) 42°2 | 30°7|11°5) 2, 7, 4 N by E, N by W, NW. | malieS a Cone hone ilk cane nop lth Ziostes) AS er ULI Ale) abe Besar » 14 | 30:098 37°8) 24°8| -63)°154) 45:2 | 29-2) 16:0] 6,10, 10INWbyW,WNW,NW byW,| - 3, Ld | 80:128) 38:3} 30°8) -75)-185) 46:1 | 33°6)12:5,10, 7, 7 NH, NNE, NE by N. yy 16 | 30-080) 42°7| 34-5) -75}°218| 49°8 | 29-0) 20°8| 8, 10, 10 W by 8S, WSW, SW by W.
Month) } Means. {| 29:980| 47-5] 40°5| -80| -278 127]... ae 2575
17 | 29:855| 46:4] 31-4) -59|-195| 54-7 |44-1/10°6) 2, 7, 3 NW, WSw, W. . SS tose He aoe TM nes sr Aid AME STATE Ghia dat ha », 19 | 29:822| 49°6) 44°8| -85]}-312) 56:1 | 48:0] 8-1] 9,10, 9 SW, SW, Sw. Bee ho edie sills don litetes Uy baer dense (MSE OMe Oph WEB ye ies te: on », 21 | 29:973] 53:3) 46-5] -79]-331) 61-1 | 45-7|15-4| 6, 9, 9| SW by W, SW, SW by S. 35 22 | 29:628] 50-8} 43-6} -78|-299, 59-5 | 46:3] 13-2) 9,10, 4) SW by 8, SW byS, SSW. 35 28 | 29°756| 50°7/ 38:1] -65|-247; 58:9 | 46°7/12:2| 7, 6, 6 WSW, WSW, W. 6 y 24 | 29:967| 53-7] 41:6] -66|-279| 61:6 | 44°3/17:3] 8, 3, 3} SSE,SbyE,SbyE. | - , 25 | 29-838] 61:0) 53-6] -78]-422) 705 | 45:6} 24-9] 9, 9, 2 SSW, SW,SW. . » 26 | 29°886/57°4' 50-4) -79|°378) 64:8 |51:2/13-610, 7, 8} SH by 8S, WSW, WSW. | - Be LR IMS SHIP se llth 205 GD Aia AES ING ells! an on 012 » 28 | 80:150)57-7| 45°4| - 66) 319] 65:7 | 41-4) 24-3] 2, 3, 1 E by 8, —, NNW. -000 » 29 |80°243) 55:0) 41-0) -62/-274| 62:9 | 39-1/ 23-8] 0, 0, 0 E by 8, E, E. -000 | >, 30 | 30:028] 58:6] 43°8) -60}-302} 66°3 | 44-9| 21-4! 0, 0, 2) SEbyS, NEby E,E. | -000
47.
rew Observatory.
Meteorological Observations at the
Hour.
= bo
A. M. a COONAN E ODE
- tt RPDe
Pp. M.
oo
Pee NFOOGSTH Tf why
SG GO G06 OH Mat bo ING
418|609
| WORD Whey Se ONTO OONTONC ODE OLW OUNT
210/112
MDOONDAAB
—_
OH |) 16) 5] 11) 12 19; 4 9 10 19} 4) 14; 9 19} 3) 18) 12 23} O} 13) 12 21} 2) 15] 15 23) 6] 19] 15 24) 9} 15) 17 19, 11) 17) 18 21) 11) 16!) 13 22) 8] 15] 15 TH eA alte all 18} 9} 16) 14 16; 8) 15) 14 16) 9} 16) 12 19} 8) 15) 9 15] 10} 15) 10 16} 9} 14) 8 14; 9} 16] 10 10} 10} 13) 12 9} 9} 13) 10 7 Lh 15) 9 1) 2 AIBN ty Gl eee LO |S 398)182/344284
OAMNMWNWNWHEOWWEE FHS orb Ow
Aprit 1862,
10/11) 12) 13) 14
Mow Saou
15
us
Or Ot Or Or
O32 Or O1cs bo C bo
229
ewok bp WOSe eb He
17
340
HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THE WIND (IN MILES) AS RECORDED BY ROBINSON’S ANEMOMNTER,
18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24.) 25 9} 14) 16) 4) 5) 18) 12) 4 8} 12) 13) 5) 7} 18) Tl) 2 7| 11) 18} 4] 8) 16) 7 2 CG\ MGS eS BS 0a | eter A Woe ALE ata toy aM] ey ZA SAY ata fey lsh ats} a] 9} 15) 12) 8] 14; 18) 6 38
11} 20) 13} 14) 18) 19) 10) 8
12) 19} 14) 15) 25; 19) 18, 3
15] 21) 17] 16) 21; 24) 15] 6
15] 28) 17| 14) 26) 20) 17] 7
20] 25] 19] 12) 24) 22) 21) 47 17| 25) 16) 18) 25) 27) 21) 8 18] 26) 18) 18] 27| 27) 21) 7
21| 24) 18] 17) 27) 26) 20) 8
24) 25) 16] 16] 26) 24) 17] 9
22| 380) 17] 16] 27) 26) 17) 14
21) 25) 16] 14} 24) 22) 11) 12
18) 25; 12) 10} 238) 18) 6) 10
19] 25) 8] 9] 22) 14) 7 10
16] 21) 10} 7} 20; 10) 4| 6
15| 22) 14; 7 20; 7 5 6
14) 21) 9} 10) 19; | 4) 6
15] 19) 5) 7] 16) i) Sie 4
3471501 326 255)452/440|268/148
© NT Oo OF O13 ST OF C9 OUD
213
a WORE WNN UTD OOCOHISG How AAW pow
123
30
PWOrFNOEOAEDERDMDANTNEWWNWHENH EO bo
rary SOMMMDe BwoTwor
82 |892/385
48
Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory.
RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE
Reduced to mean of day.
KEW OBSERVATORY.
LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w.
Temperature of Air. At 9°30 4.m., 2 P.m., and 5 P.M.,
Barometer corrected _ to Temp. 32.
inches.
29°936 30°193 30°067 29°961 30°010 29°748 29°904 29°612 29°618 29°610 29°891 29:°867 29°879 29°898 36°132
30-015
Temperature of Air, Dew. Point.
|
62:3) 537
51:4) 42°1
42-7) 41°0 (i's 539
65:1) 53°8 523] 51-1 53°6) 46°2
48:5) 46°8
49°8)| 43°9
sia] aad
48°6, 409 47-0, 42:0 4.4°3) 44-2
52°6| 509 60:1| 476
630] 661)
29°716) 55°9| 44-1
29-493
29°770
29°761 29°949
30-074 29:880
29°886 29°795 29°445 29°937
}| 29-854
43°3| 39°7
514) 346 53°7| 52°3 64:2) 45°7
57-0] 42-5)
53°9) 62°7
57°4| 55°5
60:0] 55:3 57°3| 55:7 553| 49:9
——
53:9} 47°5
Calculated.
& y
Tension of Vapour. Maximum, read at 9:30
A.M. on the followin
day.
Minimun, read at 9°30 a.m. Daily Range. clouded,
Relative Humidity. Proportion of Sk
respectively.
Direction of Wind.
ar .
NN Go Or SK a
oN He
ORE
v v
=
ie) ny
N by E, NNW, NW by W.
Sy:
1 e
. ce
~T
~ v
lee)
.
s vy
S O71 ©
és
=I
ue ~)
be . S
v v
et TWO OO sTeO OM Oe
See : SISSON S:
== SSO MOM
. v
v ~~
s v
=
.) v
eS
~~ )
be |: Oqod | =
Pe
os
a Ceeoonk CONOR
== RSS SSNSHS
.
. v
tO ~T:
. L
Neko)
~~
v v
Bee
.
S, SSW, S by W. W, N, N. ENE, B, E by N.
WSW, SSE, S by E.
WNW, SW by W, SW. SW, SSW, SSW. SW, SW, SW by S. WSW, SW by W,—.
N, —, EbyS. NE by N, NNE, N. NE} ENE, NE. NNE, N, N by W NNW, NW, W. WSW, W, NW,
W by 8,—, 8 S by E, SW by 8, SW by W. SSW, W, WSW, W, W, W.
SW, SW by S, SSW. W by 8, SW by W, SW by S. W, WSW, SW.
SW, SW by 8, W. SW, WSW, SW. ENE, SE by 5, E.
E by N, SSE, SSE.
W by N, W by 8, W by N.
HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THE WIND (IN MILES) AS RECORDED BY ROBINSON'S ANEMOMETER—Muay 1869. (or) = x | Hourly Day. |1)2/3)4)5/6/ 7) 8/9/10) 11/12/13} 14/15 | 16] 17/18] 19] 20] 21 | 22/23 | 24| 95/26/27] 98 29] 30/41 Nena > Ss Hour. | S EA 8| 16) 12} 20 6| 18/16) 4) V7) 18] 5) ab) 12) 7] 5] 8) a a] S| 6) alan! ¢, 4] 10) 9 Gl Vlog “en = 2 4| 13] 13] 20 8 6) 17) 2) 12; 5) 2 8 4% 18} 8 3) 1) OF 2 &| 5) 13) 9} 5] El | aol 4} fF 75 8 q | 6| 12| 9) 18 Bie) b2) Bi 1S) 7) 2 7) 15) 4 5) 20) al ell 5) 2) eh Fl Flees) tlio sl ae “ice S At Gl Lee a 22 7 6) 12) 1) 13; 8) 3 6 5) Is} 6] 5] a! 1! 8] 120) 8] 15] 11) 5] 9 11] 12; 5) < 7-9 Z = | 9 12| 9| 18 6} 7) V7} 2) 14] 6) 8] 12} 4| 14) 5] 5] of 3| 2] g| 12] 2x) of 6] al q4l dol si er ral 9 S |i) @ | 4] 12) 20 17 3} 8/13) 7) 14) 4} 1) 11] ) 18] 5| 2 1] | 2] 6] 10] 20, 8| x] 4] 10] al 4) / 74 hol 7 2| 11| 10| 20 2} 10) 15) 7) 17) % 1) 14) 10) 17) 7 3] 2) 1) 2 10] 15) 20) 8} 9] El 14] 11) 4! 9g 9-4 ® g | 7| 11| 20| 20 6| 5] 23) 6 14) 9) 2) 15) 13) 18] 6} 5] 38] 1| 5] 11) 16] 22] 10] 19) 5] 15] 91 6 95 11-0 Seles g | 8| 14) 21) 15 3| 7 22) 10) 13; 8} 2) 17) 15) 22) 7 1) 2| 1) 6| 18] 20] 20] 10) a0! §| 36] 10, 5] 97119) 41-2 = 10 | 1) 14) 23; 16) ) 3) 8] 25) 12) 15) 8} | 16) 15] 20; 7 3] 3] 8) 12] 11) 17| 20| 9) 9) 11] 15| 11) 4 asl iol 41-7 S az | 2 14) 22) Wo) 7) 4) 4) 22) 13) 13) 9) 5) 15) 15] 15) 6] 5] 38] 5] 16) 5] 21) 20] 10! 10] 10) 17| 101 4] 4:| | 419 2 12 | _“| 18| 26) 10) 7 6 4) 24) 21) 20) 12] 6| 15) 18) 15) 6] 6} 4) 8] 17] 17| 14) 23] 10) qo| 11/ 181 11, g0| 9] 8| 95 Ss y_| 10) 10) 27) 17 11) 8) 7] 27) 26) 15, 9 2 13) 17) 13] 5] 4) 5) 5] 18] 15] 18| 23) 11| 31/ 10] 18) 101 13] a2] 9| Jo-8 3 9 | 16) 11) 30 12 6} 15) 25) 23) 15) 12; 1) 11) 16) 18; 9) 38] 4) 6| 21| 19) 20) 22) 12) yo] 14] 15) 7] 13/41) ol 13-9 > 3 | 19| 14) 30 15) 3) 14) 25) 24) 12) 12) 1) 14) 14) 15] 9} 5] 5] 4) 23) 11] 19] 19| 12) 8] 18] 15] 5] 17/431 6| 13-0 ® 4 | 17| 12) 82 17) 7] 13) 22) 23) 11) 12) 3) 15) 13) 14) 8| 5] 4} 9) 21) 1(| 16] 19) 11) g| 15] 15] 5] q4la3l | 13-0 nS | 6 | 16| 10) 31 15; 9/ 18) 18] 18) 14) 11) 5) 16] 14) 12) 9} 5) ¥ 7 20) 20] 14) 24) 12) g| 11/18] 8! 21 4| 18:4 2 #4 g | 12) 11) 30 10} 10 18) 15} 15; 13; 9) 7 16] 16] 10} 9] 5) 3) 11) 20] 10] 16] 17| 13) 7 9) 14] 10) 90 5] 19-4) TS |* | » | 19) 9] 80 10) 12) 17/ 10; 15) 12) 6| 3) 13) 14) 14) 6) 5] 4] 7| 14) 14] 14| 18] 10| 4/ 10) 18] 11] 99 4\ 115 2 g | 11) 10) 35 8) 10) 10; 8) 15) 8 4} 2 14) 16) 17) 5) 3] 38] 5] 18] 9) 18] 15] 5) 3) 4 10] 11) a6| 7¥\ 1) 100 S 9 | 12| 9) 82 “| 13| 13) 7| 12) 7 5) 8] 10) 14) 14) 3) 4| 2) 4) gs} 19) si 10l 7 9] 6 9| 8) 27 3, 9:3 3 190 | 10) 7| 32)118/ 12) 9| 12) 7/18; 8 5) 9} 8] 11) 11) 5) 3] i) 93} 143i del a4ia9al 7] 9] 7 a0! 7 a8 6| 9-6 S laa | 14] 11) 31 14; 8) 18; 5] 15} 8 4) 6 11) 12) 10; 5] 2] 1) 38/13] 8/13/12] 6] 3/10/13! 7 a 9°5 = 12 | 18] 13] 22 8) 12) 15; 2) 15) 7 4) 7 7 10) 5) 5] 5] 1) Oj] 18] 4] 12/16] 6 4) 10! 7| 5l 73h 9 4] 93 a= —__—— | | ry | | | | | | SS | RE CUI Total yay 239/281/544) 499 |166 246/389 /303/305|184) 90)291/290 338|152] 97| 63| 82/267/249/333/483|223/1661192/312\217, 645 |179| 9-7 ove- ment. |
VOL. II.—NO. I.
50° Meteorological Observations at the Kew. Observatory.
RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE KEW OBSERVATORY.
LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w.
}
1862. Reduced to mean of day. Temperature of Air. At 930 a.0.,2P.M., and5?.m.,
respectively.
| | Calculated.
3 Ss Saaaar nana een IS
| Be i ue Hele 3 a Rain—
| pay of Bo : | ts eh bi Soe 3d 2, Se read
ee aed Selle teeth el |S Bee Direetion of Wind. AM,
| 2) Pea MN v@icee el) Naa) os
i) oO
| a a a A 7)
} inches.| i }ineh. Bi N k 2 inches. |
| June 1 ah 508! Lopate) aeobr ene lh <axeeelen SOS UGG na ee oe “003
| ,, 2 |80:043|575|48:6| -74/:356| 72:0 | 47-0| 25-0] 0, 1, 7) W by N, W by N, W. -000 |
| ,, 8 | 80:019)54-1/51-3| -91|390| 63-7 |54-5| 9-2] 9,10, 9 SSW, SW, SSW. -000 » 4 | 80112) 57-9) 44°47] -64/-311) 680 | 45:9] 22-1] 4, 3, 1] WSW, SSW, S by B. ‘O15 » 5 | 29 '719] 50-7| 47-3) -89| 340] 61-9 | 47-2] 14-7] 9,10,10| SW, W by 8. SW by 8S. | 000 », 6 | 29°638) 56-2) 53°5) -91/-420] 64:8 | 53-5] 11-3] 6, 10, 10| S by W, 8 by W, S by W.| -302)) » 7 | 29°768| 57°8| 46:4} -68,-330| 66-7 |36:6]30:1| 3, 3,10) SW,SW by 8, SW by S. | -026)) POM ice dale \iseea tl lace licee coal MORO Me hese MICE Tire nae 390 = "056 | » 9 | 29:973] 53:2] 44-7} -75|-311) 61-9 | 44-2] 17-7] 6, 7, 3) SW by W, WSW, SW. 04:7 | » 10 | 29°894! 52-3] 41:4) -69|-277] 63-0 | 42:1] 20-9] 6, 10, 10 8, SSE, S by E. "098 | », 11 | 29°377| 54:8] 49°9| -85|-372] 64-6 |50-7/ 13-9] 3, 9, 5| SSE, S by B, 8 by W. 070 5, 12 | 29-293] 50-8] 51:8] 1-00] -397| 60-1 |52°0| 8-1/10,10,10, SE by S, S by E, S. "213
|» 18 | 29°564| 51-4) 50-0] -95| 373] 62:5 | 52:2) 10-3) 8, 9, 7| SW, SW by 8, SW by 8. | 445]
5, 14 | 29°658) 49-5) 51-3) 1-00) -390| 60-1 | 49:9/ 10-2) 8, 8, 10 SW, SSW, S by W. ‘076 sy ss PMB eal ae Nice | OOS i Aare WLS oleae. 202 see “408 | » 16 | 29:976) 51:2| 46:3) .85) 329] 64:6 | 49:6] 15-0] 7, 9, 10 WNW, Nw, —. 246
3, 17 |80-009| 56:0) 46 9| -73|-336| 65-7 | 47°8| 17-9| 5,10, 10) WSW, W, NW by W. .040
| 3, 18 | 29:969| 50'8| 43:8] -79|°302| 61:5 | 50:3] 112) 3,9, 8) N by B, N, N by W. "093 | », 19 |30-050| 52:3] 42°5| -71)-288] 61:4 | 48:4) 13-0] 9,10,10) - NW, WNW, SW, 047 | 55 20 | 29°900| 49-9) 44-3] -82|-307| 58-4 |50°2| 8:2] 7,10 10) NW by W, WNW, W. -037 », 21 | 29°756| 52-2/ 46-1] -81|-326) 60:4 |50°5| 9-9/10, 10, 10 W by S, SW, W. -000 OOM cot ous Hee il, Ors NOL Oth eee iin "001 | » 23 | 29872) 54-4] 44-91 79) -313) 65-4 |526/196I10, 6, 3/SWbr S, NNW, NW by W.| -076],
4, 24 | 29 9281 57-1/51-5| -83|-393| 68-0 | 47-8] 20-2|10, 9, 8| WSW, SW, NW by W. | -000
|, 25 | 80°185| 53-5 47-4] -81| 341) 63°3 |49°8]13-5|10,10, 7) NW by N, NNE, NE. -000
|» 26 | 30-003] 57-4) 49-6| -77|-368) 67-4 | 50-4) 17-0) 8, 8, 10 W, NW, W by 8.. ‘000 |
|» 27 | 29°769|51-1| 40-1] -69] 265| 67°3 |51-7| 15-6] 9,10, 7) W hy 8, W by §, W. -000 » 28 | 29905] 52°6| 43-4} -73/-297| 61-9 |44°6]17°3] 7, 8, 8| NW, WSW, NW. -010 |
M20 A | leelecon h @e0 Waereiaoel.., -000) , 30 |29°910| 53-7| 39-21 ‘61/257, 64-3 5331110 8, 7, 8) NW by N, NW, W. 057
Mea} | 29-850] 58:5|46-7| -80| -336 151 2:366
I
———
HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THE WIND (IN MILES) AS RECORDED BY ROBINSON'S ANEMOMETER.—Jonz 1862. Howl
Day. |1|2)/8/4|5|6 | 7/8 | 9 10/11) 12/18)14|15/16]17/ 18/19/20} 21) 22] 23] 24/95/26 | 27128 /29|/s0| yoy = PI Y|—OO aS — ss Oe OS Oe re ees ss) | OO | | | | SS = Hour. = 12 5 y , : iS ri | 3 2 7 4 7 5 27 a1) 5] 6} 14] 14] 21) 16 7 3) 2] 7 5) 5 5] 9} 7 5) 2] 2] 4! ol 5] 9 78 g 3 | 3 6 7 8 4) 4) 24) 11) 2 5) 14] 17] 20] 18) 7 5] 3] 8| 412] 6] 10/11] 6] 5) 3| 5] 8] 6 111 8s S 3 | 3 6 7 7 4) 4 24) 7 3) | 15/ 16] 48] 14) 9| 3] 3] 5| 7 10| 5] 9| si gl si al 4| iol 5| 9] Bo
4 | 4 4 8 6| 2| 10) 24) 6| 9] 9] 14] 14] 18] 15] 10] 2| 9] 4 6] 6| 7 ol iol 5| 7 4] sl vl alaol 75
S |.| 5 | 8 5] 6-5) 4) 10] 23| 8| 5| 3) 15| 13| 20] 17] 9] 2] 2 10] 5] 8| 8)'11/ 101 5| 6] Gl sl si Gl gi ga bd -j2 4 6 | 10 4 4) 6 2] 10) 21) 7 5] 5] 18] 16| 22| 15] 11) 4| 4/15) 5| 9) 91 14] 10] 7 tol. 6] 7 sl sl 6 o4 2 |4| 7 | 12 3 6 6 3 13) 22] 9] 6] 3] 18) 19] 23) 16] 14) 2] 4] 15) 5] 19] 11] 14/ 13] 6| 19) 7] 91191 5| 91 aod s g | 18 3) 7 9} 4 15] 24) 11| 8] 5] 17] 18| 22] 17] 15] 7 5] 20) 9] 14| 10] 16] 19] 7| 19] 5| 191 15] 6| 10] ya-7 x g | 14) 2] 10 8) 10] 19| 25) 16, 7 9) 22] 17| 23] 15] 18| 6| 8) 20] 18| 15] 19] 15] 18| 101 15| 7] 12, 14] | 14] 49-4 S 10 | 13 3} 10) 10] 10] 18) 25) 17| _7| 11) 18) 20| 24] 12] 12] 6| 5| 20] 10) 15) 15] 17| 12) 10] 11/ 10] 131 13] 7] 131 q9-9 % (a1 | 16| 3] 14) 12] 6} 18) 80} 29] 10] 15] 18) 18) 28] 13] 17] 8] 7| 20] 10] 12| 14] 13} 14) 10/ 10| 10] 151 14] 11) 131 33-9 & 12 | 14} 3] 18] 13] 4/ 22) 28) 24) 7| 13) 21) 20| 35] 11) 16] 7 §8| 20) 8] 1 | 19] 15) ©] 10| 13] 12) 17| 18| 101 131 qa-a S ¢ 1 | 12| 3) 19] 15] 11) 25) 28] 27| 8] 14) 24] 22] 32) 14] 19| 3] 10] 19] ¢| as) 11] 13) 20/ 13] 13) 11) 11] 15) 12] 151 ag 5 3 | 13) 4| 20| 13] 16| 21] 30] 23) 9) 14| 20| 23/ 81] 12] 12] 12] 101 19] 7 1 | 32] 12] | 10| 11) 1o| 18] 16) 10| 141 ya-g S g | 18| 4 17| 13) 16) 25] 29| 18] 13/ 17| 22| 23] 29) 19] 11| 11] 10] 19) 9] +| 11] 12) «| 9| 13] 13] 17] Jel lol 181 q4-7 3 4 | 18} 3| 17| 14} 15) 27] 27| 13| 15] 15] 26] 22] 28) 16] 7) 16| 8] 13} 8] ‘| 11] 18] 7 1a] 8] 19) 17] 18| 15] 11) q4-4 S |. {8 | 15 4% 20) 20} 9] 29) 26] 17] 13) 14) 24) 25] 22| 19] 5] %| 10| 17| 4] 1c} 3] 12 9] a1] 8] 12] 14| 44] 18] 11| ya. "S |#4 6 | 15] 8 12) 17 6] 81) 20] 17| 12] 8) 23) 20] 20| 10 11) 6| 7 18) 8| %| G13} 7 9| ¥% 8] 13) 10| 13) 101 qo-9 -S fei {7 | 12} 5) 11) 15] 2| 82] 19] 13] 10 7| 28] 23] 25] 12) | 9| 13] 11) 3] <| | 11] 2} 10] 4} 7 13| 8] 15] 11) 416 S g | 13) 7 12] 9 3] 25/18] 8) 7 8) 18| 29/ 21) 1o| 6| 5] 7 9| to] €| §/ 11) a/ 5| 4] @| 7 siidl Zao 3 9 | 9 6 12) 7 2) 83] 15] 7 7 5] 15] 27| 20] 9] 7 s| 3] G| 5) 7 7 8] 2140] a] 6 7 8] 13| 8 go = 10 | 4) 7% 6 10) 4/ 34) 12} 7 6} 10} 14) 24] 19) 7 5] 2] 5] 8] 7 1c) 6] tol 5] 10] 9] 5| 6) 3112] 7| gx 8 kaa | 7 7) 12) 12) 5] 84} 11} 4%] 6] 13] 17] 27/17) 7] 5] 1) Bi al 7 | | ae] 5 7] 5 a] 7 4|18| 71 64 S 12 | 2 6 8| 5] 5| 25] 12) 6| 6} 10] 16) 23| 18; 8| 4 3) 7 3] 4) 8| 9] 9] 5] 8] 4] 6] 6) el 10] «| vo
Total
MELIY. |, [240|11.4)267 247 154/492 544 307 179 217|441|498 556 308|284/127|151/302 170|236/214|288|199|198|185 180/238) 248/225|246) 11-1
Ove- :
ment.
52 Transit of the Shadow of Titan.
TRANSIT OF THE SHADOW OF TITAN—DOUBLE STARS—THE MOON—OCCULTATIONS.
BY THE REV. T. W. WEBB, F.R.A.S.
- TRANSIT OF THE SHADOW OF TITAN.
A totaL eclipse of the sun to the inhabitants of the earth of —
course infers the passage of the shadow of the moon over the face of our globe. In consequence, however, of our comparative nearness to the sun, and the resulting breadth of his disc, the cone which this shadow forms tapers so rapidly that its point frequently fails to reach the earth: in annular eclipses it falls short of it; and even in the largest total ones it is but of small dimensions, its section at right angles to the axis seldom at- taining a breadth of 180 miles, though it may be greatly drawn out in length if it falls among the shadows cast by the rismg or setting sun. The case is very different with the projection of the shadows of the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. The sun’s diameter is so much lessened to them from their greater distance, that the cone of shadow is always prolonged far beyond the surface of the primary, and a dark spot is formed there every time that a solar eclipse takes place ; and while the shadow of our satellite upon the earth would be barely visible from the nearest planets with powerful telescopes, and from the remoter ones would be quite imperceptible, the corresponding phenomenon in the system of Jupiter, and, as it now appears, in that of Saturn also as far as the largest satellite is concerned, is sufficiently conspicuous to be witnessed by us with com- parative ease.
In the case of Jupiter, these shadow-spots have been famiharly known, since Campani, the celebrated Italian maker of refractors of long focus, first observed one in 1658 ;* but as regards Saturn, they have been hitherto little noticed. This has been owing in part to the exceeding distance and minute- ness of the object; for it is certainly something extraordinary to contemplate the effect of a solar eclipse at a distance never less, often much more, than 760 millions of miles; but it is quite as much due to the different arrangement of that planet’s system. The general plane of the orbits of Jupiter’s satellites differs so little from that of his own path, that the shadow of three of the satellites invariably, and that of the fourth for the most part, falls on his globe once in every revolution, and every “new moon” there brings a total solar eclipse ; but the inclina- tion of the whole system of Saturn to the plane of his orbit 1s
* Cycle of Celestial Objects, I. 171. Arago erroneously gives the discovery to Cassini I. in 1664.
Transit of the Shadow of Titan. 59
so great, that, excepting about the time when the ring presents its edge to the sun—once in fifteen years—the apparent paths of the more distant satellites are ellipses open enough to carry them and their shadows clear above and below the ball, while the specks cast by the nearer ones would be imperceptibly minute. Consequently, the records of such’ phenomena are very few, and will naturally relate to the shadow of Titan, the 6th (reckoned outwards) and largest satellite, whose diameter, about three-fourths of a second, according to Struve, con- siderably surpasses that of the others. Sir W. Herschel was the first to perceive a transit of this shadow, 1789, Nov. 2, and notwithstanding his gigantic mstrumental means, he does not appear to have repeated the observation. 1833, May 7, Gruithuisen, who had been watching the ring from March 27 ‘with a 4-inch Frauenhofer achromatic, and had found the knots of ight gradually decrease, and at length disappear together with it, says, ‘I saw, almost in the position where Schroter placed his two knots in the eastern, now not visible, ansa, two satellites, of which the nearest cast its shadow close upon the shadow of the ring, which I at first was inclined to hold as the shadow of a knot in the ring. I saw besides, at a greater distance, the 6th and 7th satellites, to the W. of the former ones.” This last expression seems not very intelligible; however, there can be little doubt from his aperture that he mistook the names of these two latter; and as little, thatit was Titan whose shadow hesaw. 1848, Sept. 20, Schwabe, the great observer of the sun, says that he perceived with the same kind of instrument, upon the very narrow line of the shadow of the rmg, between the centre aud the W. limb of Saturn, an excessively minute black point; but he does not refer it to the shadow of a satellite; and possibly this, and even Gruithuisen’s observation, may have related to one of those curious irregularities in the shadow of the rmg which have been remarked by Schréter, Lassell, and Dela Rue. If so, Herschel’s observation must have stood alone till the present year, for Dawes sought in vain to recover the phenomenon at the last disappearance of the ring in 1848 and 1849. During the present season, however, several persons, led on, as was fittme, by that most clear-sighted and accurate observer, have been more successful. He saw it first, April 15th, with his magnificent 8j-inch Alvan Clark achromatic. Mr. Lockyer, of Wimbledon, caught the next transit on May Ist. The following one, on May 17th, was witnessed by several ob- servers, and as I was fortunate enough to be one of the number, I have thought that a brief account of its appearance might not be without some interest.. I had entirely lost sight of Dawes’s announcement of the transit for that evening, and turned my telescope on Saturn, solely with a view of ascertaining whether
54 Double Stars.
any trace of the ansze might still be perceptible; they had, however, entirely vanished, leaving only a narrow black band, where the ring presented its unenlightened side to the eye. On this band | instantly perceived a spot, which a moment’s reflection convinced me must be the shadow of Titan, then preceding at a short distance the N. pole of Saturn; at first I imagined that it projected on each side, like a knot in a black thread ; but a little consideration—especially as at the time Thad a mistaken impression as to the breadth of the rmge— showed that this would give it an exorbitant magnitude, and I speedily satisfied myself, as far as the light of 5} inches of aperture, and an atmosphere not particularly favourable, would permit, that it stood out only from the N. edge, along which I watched its progress from about + to 4 of its path across the ball. Four satellites were unquestionably visible; it was doubtful whether a small object at a short distance sp, was Japetus, or a star; probably the latter. Two belts were readily made out. ‘The following diagram will give a general idea of the phenomenon, but it will be borne in mind that it has no pretension to accuracy.
The unexpected size of the shadow on April 15th was noticed by Dawes, and it is very singular that this strange ano- maly, detected some time back in the system of Jupiter (see IntetiucruaL Ozserver, No. III. p- 232), should thus seem to be repeated in that of Saturn. The °° | same observer was highly suc- cessful in watching the transit of | May 17th, and on the 25th he was probably the first to witness an immersion of Titan into the shadow of Saturn.
The subsequent transits on June 2nd and 18th were invi- sible from the state of the atmosphere, at least in many places, and I am not aware that any account of them has appeared.
DOUBLE STARS.
The evenings are now beginning to close in, and our time for study is proportionally extending. Wega, the lovely gem of the zenith, must be postponed, from her inconvenient eleva- tion ; but we shall use her as a pointer to other objects. We will draw a long line from Arcturus, our pointer of last month, towards the H., sloping somewhat downwards, and a shorter line from Wega to the 8., tending towards the W. These two lines will intersect each other at right angles near a 2nd mag’.
Double Stars. 55
star, which though not a brilliant object, takes the first rank in _ a dull neighbourhood. This is Al Ra, alias Ras-al-hangue, in the head of the large though inconspicuous constellation Ophiuchus, whose legs reach below the serpent which he is carrying, a long way towards the 8. horizon. A few degrees W. and slightly N. of this star, is a much smaller one, Ras-al- Gjathi, marking the head of Hercules, another widely extended constellation in an unaccountably undignified posture, kneeling on one knee with his feet uppermost. ‘The heads of these two singular figures thus awkwardly “laid together”? for thousands of years, ought to be familiar to the student as guides in a neighbourhood barren to the eye, but full of telescopic interest ; the head of Hercules itself giving us a grand object ;—
24. a Herculis. Ras-al Gjdtla., 4°5. 118°7. 3% and 53. Orange and emerald or bluish-green; intense ccerulea, according to Struve. Sir W. Herschel considered that the principal star was variable from 3 to 4 mag. in 603 days: Struve has not confirmed it, but has seen the companion some- times 5, at others 7 mag. Argelander, who doubts this, fixes the period of the large star at 664 days; Baxendell at 83:5 days. This “lovely object,’ as Smyth calls it, ‘one of the finest in the heavens,” though looking so much like a system, has not as yet been proved to be in motion. A power of 80 will draw it out and show its colours in a good glass, though of course it will gain in beauty by magnifying.
Doyrovlerculis: .25°°9. 1739) (1830-71). 245. W757 (1839-62). 4 and 83. Greenish white and grape-red. Struve durmg 7 years marked the companion “albacinerea.””? I thought it bluish-green in 1850. Fletcher made them yellow and red, 1851°67; Dembowski, yellow and blue, 1854, 1855; white and blue, 1855, 1856. ‘This is probably a binary system, and if so, is a fair instance of a very remarkable fact, which, however, does not depend upon such slender proof as this single example, but is evident in other cases and ways, that the brightness of stars 1s, at least in many cases, no indication of their real distance. Here we have an 8} mag. star in all pro- bability as near to us as its very much largercompanion. ‘This conclusion once admitted—and how it can be resisted, it is diffi- cult to see—very remarkable consequences follow ; speculations, however ingenious and beautiful, which assume anything like a general distribution of stars throughout space according to apparent magnitude, fall away of themselves; and but for the modern improvement in instruments, which renders the deter- mination of parallax no longer impossible, we should be left in entire uncertainty as to the real marshalling of the starry host; and even that ‘‘longior scala astronomorum,” as Kepler calls it, while it confirms the overthrow of all arrangements based
| | | |
56 Double Stars.
on apparent brightness, is applicable, from the extreme minute- ness of the measures required, and their rapid decrease and disappearance with increasing distance, to so few cases, that we still feel bewildered as at the entrance of a mighty labyrinth; so very few are the known points, the unknown, practically infinite.
To find 6, run a line N. from a, which will strike it at 10° distance ; it will be the first conspicuous star in that direction, and, though not large, the brightest in a considerable region.
26. 6 Serpentis, 28. 196°2. 3 and 5. Bright-white and bluish-white; under the very best vision, both bluish. Dembowski gives yellow tints, probably from his telescope. Motion is suspected in this very fine pair, which may be found by drawing a line through the two stars called Yed (see No. 15) towards the right, and bending it a little upwards; this will pass, at some distance, through three stars, of the 3rd, 2nd, and 3rd mags. the centre one, which is by far the brightest, 1s a Serpentis; the furthest is our object, 6.
27. « Herculis. 314, 9°7. 53 and 7. Pale-yellow and reddish-yellow. Probably stationary. To find it, run a line through the ‘two heads,’ a Ophiuchi and a Herculis, and bend it a little upwards; ata considerable distance it will strike upon $ Herculis, 3 mag., the brightest star in a wide region ; a little s p from 8 lies a smaller star, y, in the wnbent line through the “two heads.” Another line through 6 and y, bent aslittle upwards, falls upon several minute stars close together, rather further from y than y is from 8: « isthe most to the W. of these. It is also nearly ina line from y Herculis to 6 Ser- pentis (No. 26).
28. 53 Ophiucht. 41°:3. 192°5. 6 and 8. Greyish and pale blue. This beautiful object, which seems only optical, is rather minute for the naked eye in twilight, but it is not diffi- cult to find, as it lies due s of a, only 3° distant; the space between a Ophiucht and a Herculis being about 5%’.
The number by which this and other stars are designated, is that assigned by Flamsteed, and denotes the place in his catalogue, in the order, not of brighiness, but of Right Ascension.
Before it sinks too far towards the horizon, we had better turn to—
29. 12 Canuwm Venaticorum. Cor Carol. 198. 227°. 25 and 63. Flushed white and pale lilac, 1837-4. There is some doubt about these tints. Herschel II. says, in 1880 or 1831, ‘with all attention, I could perceive no contrast of colours in the two stars.” His father calls them white, m- chning to red; Struve, in 1830, made them white ; Sestini, in 1844°5, yellow and blue; Smyth, again in 1850°5, full white
The Moon. od
and very pale; in 1855, pale reddish-white and lilac; Dem- bowski, in 1856, white and pale olive-blue. [found them, about 1850°5, with a ou jinch object-glass, white or a little yellowish and tawny or lilac ; 1862°2, with 53 inches, the same colours, but with very little contrast ; 63 seemed rather orange-tawny, but became bluish when its light was materially reduced by the passage of a thin cloud illuminated by the Moon. These variations are probably due to instrumental and personal dif- ferences ; but as this may not be the case in some other pairs, an imstance like the present deserves to be studied, with a view of deciding between real and apparent changes of colour.
This fine pair has been relatively fixed for 57 years, but has a common proper motion. It is easily pointed out, in the middle of a vacant space below the Great Bear’s tail, by a lone line from Polaris through Alioth, or « Urse Majoris, the 5th star of that-constellation, counting from right to left.
For a reason the reverse of the last, we will take a fine object in Cassiopea before it attains an inconvenient altitude. This constellation, ‘‘ the Lady in her Chair,” is generally known from its resemblance to the letter W, the top being towards the Pole; the student will find it about the beginning of August in the evening, bearmg N.H., at some distsnce to the right of the Pole Star, but at a somewhat lower elevation.
30. 7 ESSE GEOR Si som (hesOOh yet dade eh Sms (1854-17). 4 and 74. Dull white and lilac. Herschel II. and South gave red and green. Sestini, yellow and orange ; Struve, flava and purpurea: so Fletcher. Smyth calls this a
“superb physical object,” with a period of about 700 years, and a considerable proper motion of nearly 2” in R.A., and x in Declination annually. Hyre Powell reduces the period to 18] years. We have here a striking instance of the fact re- ferred to under No. 25, the equal distance from our eye of stars of very different magnitude. It is readily found by learning the letters of the five conspicuous stars, which, beginning at the right-hand end of the W, and reckoning backwards, are £, a, y, 6, e. Our object is nearly ina line between a and ¥, nearer to a. Smyth could see it with two inches of aperture.
THE MOON.
The surface of our satellite is at once a very easy and a very interesting object of telescopic research. As not merely the general arrangements of its lighter and darker portions, but even the greater irregularities of its ‘“ terminator,’ or boundary of light and darkness, are visible to the naked eye, it is evident that the smallest telescope will suffice to give us some curious information ; while instruments of moderate size,
58 The Moon.
such as are now becoming both cheap and common, will bring out details enough to occupy, in their close study and careful deli- neation, the leisure hours of many along year. This branch of astronomy will be found peculiarly within the reach of the numerous class of amateurs whose telescopes are furnished neither with micrometers nor clockwork motions; and it is one in which they may do good service, provided only the judgment of the eye is good in estimating proportions, and the hand fairly practised in the most desirable acquirement of drawing. This latter is, indeed, an acquirement—accomplish- ment, in the ordinary sense, seems too trivial a name for it— of more value than the inexperienced may be aware of; for it is found that the habit of representing what is seen reacts upon the mode of seeing, and the accuracy of the hand in- creases the discrimination of the eye, so that a practised draughtsman distinguishes more, especially in a complex object, than. one ignorant of design, even with a naturally keener sight. The micrometer is by no means so necessary in this pursuit as in the observation of double stars, since, however desirable it may be to fix the principal pomts in a lunar survey by actual measurement, the details may be quite as well filled in by hand; while, should a micrometer be employed, the trouble of arranging an artificial ilumimation is avoided. Schroter employed, in his numerous delineations, a contrivance called a “projection machine,” which consisted merely of a white surface, divided by parallel lines into numerous small squares, placed at a convenient distance from the eye, and exposed to a suitable illumination. His telescope being of the Newtonian construction, this surface was supported by a bar fixed perpen- dicularly to the tube at its mouth, and thus he was enabled to view at the same time any lunar region with the right eye in the eye-piece, and the divided ‘surface with the left eye, unaided, across the open end of the telescope, so that, by means of a paper similarly divided into squares, he could make drawings with greater accuracy than could be attaimed by the eye alone, though inferior to that resultmg from the use of the micrometer. ‘his method of projecting the image on a divided scale (whence the name of the apparatus) is now found useful for microscopic purposes: it would be difficult to attach it to an achromatic telescope ; and if measurement is desired, the object might be more conveniently attained by inserting in the focus of the eye-piece a little divided glass scale, which may be obtained of Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite, 121, Newgate Street; or the photographic image of a scale, which I had tried by a friend some time ago with a very fair prospect of success, and which has since, 1 understand, been advertised for sale. However, a practised eye, capable of estimating pretty sharply
| r
The Moon. 59
multiples or fractions of any assumed distance, as well as bear- ings or angles of position, will leave little to be desired by an amateur in this matter, as our details are relatively fixed, and in subsequent comparisons it is easy to leave a margin for the differences of eyes, or of the same eye at various times, without the risk of mistakes in identification.
The intention of the papers, of which this is the commence- ment, will be to pomt out to such of our readers as may feel disposed to take up this interesting pursuit, some of the most remarkable features of the moon, more especially with the hope that those who possess sufficient optical means and leisure may be induced to study them and delineate them with care, and thus assist in accumulating a body of evidence which may, by ultimate comparison, be found to possess much value. Not- withstanding the worthy labours of our predecessors, there is plenty of room here for the diligent co-operation of many eyes and hands. Schrdéter’s exemplary fidelity in observing and recording was not well seconded by his pencil: his designs are coarse and rough, and contain little of the finer details. Rus- sell’s lunar globe and maps are beautiful and mgenious, but not accurate enough to possess much value as standards of refer- ence: a globe of the moon wu relief, by the same observer, may be seen at the South Kensington Museum, but, unlike the mar- vellous production of Madame Witte described in Herschel’s Outlines, can only be regarded as a curiosity. Lohrmann’s accu- rate and ugly ‘‘ sections”? comprise, like the views of Schréoter, only a portion of the moon. The continuation of his work by Schmidt, the present Director of the Athens Observatory, if completed, seems to be unknown in this country. Beer and Madler’s great map speaks for itself as a noble production of industry and skill, and, especially as illustrated by the corresponding two volumes entitled Der Mond [The Moon], makes the nearest approach to a complete Selenography ; yet the little attention I have been able to give has convinced me— and my opinion is fully borne out by that of a very diligent observer, Mr. Birt,—that, in some regions, at least, the minuter details are less carefully entered than might have been expected from the general style of the work. 'The drawings and models of Nasmyth are of very limited extent, and the promised publi- cation of Dr. D’Orsan has not yet appeared. On the whole, we are quite justified in saying, that after all that previous ob- servers have done, there are many desiderata in the state of our lunar knowledge. It is pleasant to be able to add, that
the deficiency is, in a’ great measure, such as may be supplied
by amateur cbservation. Not only are the general outlines satisfactorily settled, but many of the minuter configurations. The details which are wanted are chiefly such as are calculated
60 Proceedings of Learned Societies.
to throw light upon the mode of formation of the surface, upon the existence of continued eruptive action, and upon the presence or absence of atmospheric variations indicated by illusory ap- pearances of change. An attempt will be made, in a future paper, to poimt out the conditions under which such inves- tigations may be attended with success.
OCCULTATIONS.
These, during the present month, are few. The moon, as viewed from Greenwich, makes a near approach to 39 Ophiuchi, 6 mag. on the 5th, at 9h. 4m.; to & Arietis, 44 mag. on the 16th, at 10h. 34m.; A’ Tauri, 44 mag. immerges, Aug. 17th, Ith. 26m., and reappears at 12h. 18m., followed by A’, 6 mag., at Ih. 88m. and 12h. 35m. respectively. These two stars le a little s f from the Pleiades, in the direction of Aldebaran.
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.
BY W. B. TEGETMEIER.
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—Juine 18.
Ratsen Beaches or Scortanp.—In reference to a paper of Mr. Geikie, an account of which appeared in the InreLrLEectUAL OBSERVER, vol. I. page 319, Mr. W. Carruthers made a communication in which he stated that in the section of clay, sand, and gravel near Leith, described by Mr. Geikie as part of a raised beach elevated since the period of the Roman occupation, not only have medieval pottery and tobacco-pipes been found as described by Mr. Geikie, but a medizeval jar has been met with in the sand beneath. The so-called “Roman” pottery was stated by Mr. Carruthers to be of medizva! age, on the independent authority of Messrs. Birch and Franks of the British Museum; and he believes that the beds in question are mainly of late and artificial formation; he does not, however, argue from this that there is no evidence of a late upheaval of the central part of Scotland.
On tHE Suppen Destruction or Fisnes in THE SeA.—The for- mation of deposits contaiming the remains of fish in vast numbers was illustrated in a very interesting manner by Sir William Denison, Governor of Madras, who, in a letter read before the Society, stated that when steaming between Mangalore and Cananore, on the west coast of India, he found that for some time after the south-west mon- soon the sea was offensive with dead fish, killed by the great mass of fresh water poured into the sea during the season of the monsoon.
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 61
CHEMICAL SOCIETY .—June 26.
ARTIFICIAL Propuction or OrGaxic Compounps rrom Boguerap Napursa.—At the last meeting of the Chemical Society Mr. Greville Williams, F.R.S., read a paper, in which he stated that he had suc- ceeded in obtaining the iodides of several alcohol radicals from Bog- head naphtha. When we consider the almost infinite variety of metamorphoses which these iodides may be made to undergo, it is evident that an almost inexhaustible mine of research has thus been opened. Acids, alcohols, ethers, aldehydes, alkaloids, etc., may now be produced from Boghead naphtha almost to infinity. Mr. Williams has already procured the iodides of amyle, cenanthyle, capryle, and pelargonyle; he has also obtained the new alkaloids cnanthylamine and pelargonamine.
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—July 8.
Tue red-letter day of every London entomologist is that one on which Mr. Wilson Saunders of Reigate invites the members and a select number of scientific men to meet the President and Council of the Entomological Society. The day is always commenced by an excursion to some neighbouring district; the locality selected this year bemg Betchworth Park, Deepdene, and Brockham. The day was one of the most brilliant of this uncertain summer, and en- abled the visitor to enjoy to the utmost the beauty of the Wealden
district, that has been so appropriately named the Garden of England. —
It could be wished, but is hardly to be expected, that each of these scientific explorations should be rewarded by the discovery of some new species. Though not so fortunate on this occasion, the members were gratified by the capture of several rare and interest- ing insects, among which may be mentioned Myrmidonia Haworthir, one of the rarest of the Staphylinide, also Calomicrus cireumfusus, which was found in tolerable abundance on the furze, and Ilobates propinqua. At Mr. Bennett’s, at Brockham, the members had the pleasure of seeing several young emeus, about three months old, reared in this country. These birds may be said to have been suc- cessfully acclimatized by Mr. Bennett. The particular species is the Dromius irroratus.
On the return to Reigate, the members assembled at the New Hall—an elegant and convenient building, erected for scientific and literary meetings—and there partook of a sumptuous repast. After dinner, Mr. Saunders made some observations on the exact scientific value of entomological collections, stating that study of the habits and mode of life of an insect was necessary to render collecting of any real value; that collectors were not necessarily entomologists ; and that collections, however great, were only the means to, and not the end of, entomological science. He also stated that the in-
62 Proceedings of Learned Socteties.
ternal anatomy of insects was almost entirely neglected in this ecuntry, and that the field was open to thousands of investigators, each of whom could do good service to the cause of science. Speeches were also made by Mr. Smith and Mr. Dunning, president and secretary of the Society; Dr. Gray, General Sir John Hearsey, who has shown that devotion and service to science, is compatible with the most active discharge of arduous military duties; Dr. Wallace, to whom we are indebted for the living specimens of the birds of paradise, and several other gentlemen.
ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY.
Mr. T. W. Burr exhibited and described a new eye-piece for tele- scopes, which had recently been constructed for him by Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite of Newgate Street. It is an improvement on the form of eye-piece much used in microscopes, and known as the “ Kellner,” or “ Orthoscopic,” which consists of a double convex lens for field-glass, and a meniscus for eye-glass. This combination requires no stop, and gives a much larger field than a Huyghenian eye-piece of thesame power. ‘The alteration made in the new form, which has been named the “ Aplanatic,” consists in replacing the meniscus by a plano-convex achromatic eye-glass, made up of a double convex crown lens and a plano-concave flint oue, similar to one of the pairs of a microscope objective. This preserves the ad- vantage of the large and flat field with better definition and freedom from colour than the “ Kellner,” and is equally applicable to both microscopes and telescopes.
Mr. Burr stated that he had, during several months past, com- pared an “aplanatic ” eye-piece, giving a power on his telescope of. 125, with a Huyghenian of 123, and found that upon the sun and
- moon the field was one-third larger, taking in nearly, or sometimes
quite, the whole disc of those luminaries, while the increased light rendered the eye-piece most valuable in observations of the planets, nebule, and double stars.
In the diseussion which ensued, Mr. Pritchard remarked that he thought it unwise to depart from the Huyghenian form, which was theoretically and practically perfect, but Mr. Burr replied that the practical difference in definition and colour of the new form was so slight that the increased field and light rendered the experiment worthy of trial, and that all improvement would be stopped if we refused to depart from an established construction. Mr. Carrington also stated that he had found the “‘ Kellner” eye-piece in constant use in Germany, especially on comet seekers, where it was much valued for its large field, and that he thought the proposed modifi- cation now shown very likely to be an improvement, as nearly effecting a perfect balancing of chromatic aberration.
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 63
ROYAL INSTITUTION.
Gas Guass Fournaces.—At the last Friday evening meeting of the Members of the Royal Institution, Professor Faraday delivered a lecture, explanatory of the construction and mode of action of Mr. Siemen’s gas glass furnaces. In these furnaces the gaseous fuel is produced by the combustion of coal in a limited amount of air; the products of the combustion which takes place at the lower part of the furnace having to passa layer of unignited coal are decomposed ; the carbonic acid is reduced to a state of carbonic oxide by taking up an additional quantity of carbon; various gaseous hydrocarbons are also liberated by the heat acting on the coal, and by the intro- duction of water into the burning fuel steam is produced, which is decomposed by the heated carbon yielding carbonic oxide and hydrogen. ‘The mixed gaseous fuel thus produced passes off from this furnace; it consists of the nitrogen derived from the air; this constitutes about one third of its bulk, and is a useless ingredient as possessing no calorific power whatever; the remaining two con- sist of a somewhat varying admixture of hydrogen, carbonic oxide, and gaseous hydrocarbons. This gaseous fuel is allowed to ascend a vertical tube, and may be conveyed to any required distance before itis mingled with air and allowed to burn. Such is the general principle of the action. In the furnaces of Mr. Siemen there are, however, certain contrivances, termed by him regenerators, by the aid of which the heat produced is encouraged in its distribution, so that but little of it escapes being utilized. Hence the economy of fuel is estimated, practically, at one half.
The explanation of the value of this process depends on the calorific or heat-giving power of the substances burnt. One part of carbon, if perfectly oxidized, unites with two aud two-thirds of oxygen to form carbonic acid CO,, and evolves sufficient heat to raise the temperature of 8000 parts of water one degree centigrade. If it burns in a limited supply of oxygen so as to produce carbonic oxide, the CO, the amount of heat evolved, would only raise the temperature of 2473 parts of water one degree; but when this amount of carbonic oxide is allowed to burn in a fresh access of air, it evolves the remaining units of heat (viz. 5607) required to make up the 8000 produced by the perfect combustion of carbon.
The calorific power of the hydrogen is very high—being 34,000 as compared with carbon 8000, and that of the hydrocarbon pro- duced may be taken in round numbers at over 12,000; hence the heating power of the whole mixed gaseous fuel is equal to that of an equal weight of carbon; and as it is capable of being applied so much more advantageously, owing to its gaseous form, its practical value is in reality much greater.
64 Gleanings from the International Hxulibition.
GLEANINGS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.
Propuction or ALCOHOL AND OTHER ORGANIC SUBSTANCES BY SYNTHESIS. —IJn an obscure corner of a case in the French department may be found a bottle of alcohol, differing in no respect from that obtained by the usual process of fermentation, except in its mode of origin, it having ‘been formed synthetically. The credit of the exceedingly interesting discovery of the possibility of forming this and analagous compounds, that have so long been regarded as belonging exclusively to organic chemistry, is due to M. Berthelot, who ascertamed that when olefiant gas (C,H,) is agitated for a long time with many thousand concussions with sulphuric acid (SO,,HO), that sulph- ethylic acid is produced as indicated by the following formula :-— C,H, + 2(HO,S8O,) = C,H;0,SO,,H0,SO;. When sulphethylic acid is heated with water, alcohol distils over, and sulphuric acid remains behind. In connection with the artificial productions of alcohol, M. Berthelot’s researches on the formation of acetylene are very im- portant, as tending still further to break down the distinction be- tween organic and inorganic chemistry. Acetylene is one of the most permanent of the hydrocarbons; its composition is expressed by the formula C,H,. It is produced by the action of the induced electric spark, or by the aid of heat from olefiant gas, and is also developed by the action of heat on the hydrocarbons benzole and naphthaline. Berthelot has succeeded in preparing acetylene by the direct union of its elements, carbon and hydrogen. The carbon is first purified by the action of chlorine at a high temperature. This removes sulphur and metallic impurities in the form of volatile chlo- rides. The carbon thus obtained in a perfectly pure state may be submitted to the action of hydrogen, aided by the highest tempera- ture that it is possible to obtaim, but no union will take.place. In the hike manner the inductive spark is equally powerless to effect their union. If, however, an electric arc is caused to pass between two charcoal poles or electrodes surrounded by an atmosphere of hydrogen, union takes place as soon as the spark commences to pass. Acetylene being produced, and its production continued as long as the electric arc 1s maintained, the acetylene produced around the poles may be carried away by a current of hydrogen, and condensed by passing through an ammoniacal solution of protochloride of copper. In this manner it is easy to obtain large quantities of ace- tylene, which is readily liberated in a free state by the action of hydrochloric acid. Acetylene is very important, as it presents a basis from which other bodies may be obtained ; thus Berthelot has demonstrated that by the simple addition of hydrogen it can be changed into olefiant gas, and that from olefiant gas alcohol can be formed, from alcohol ether, and thus the commencement be made of a chain of compounds, all of which have been hitherto regarded as belonging exclusively to the domain of organic chemistry.
Anxcienr EHayprran JeweLLery.—In the gallery of the Turkish court there is a case of ancient Egyptian jewellery, taken from an
§ 7
Gleamngs from the International Exhibition. 65
Egyptian tomb, the date of 1900 years B.c., the time of the patriarch Abraham. The collection comprises earrings, necklaces, seal rings, and amulets; the workmanship of which is of the most beautiful description. The most interesting object in this case, however, is a model of what was termed the Boat of Death, in which is represented the carrying away of the soul of the departed. A small silver image of the deceased queen is placed in the boat, and the rowers sit on either side. [In cases near this there are beautiful specimens of extremely delicate modern filagree ornaments, both gold and silver, from Nubia. It is interesting to contrast this work with that exe- cuted by the same race nearly 4000 years ago. |
Rarip GrowrH or VeGerasxes In Hicu Latitoupes.—In a valuable treatise on the vegetable productions of Norway, which has been published by Dr. Mueller, in connection with the Norwegian de- partment of the Exhibition, some extraordinary facts are related respecting the influence of the long duration of light, during the summer months, on the growth of vegetables in the higher latitudes in Norway. Atseventy degrees N. it was found that ordinary peas grew at the rate of three and a half English inches in twenty-four hours for many days in summer, and that some of the cereals also grew as much as two and a half inches in the same time. Not only is the rapidity of growth affected by the constant presence of light, but those vegetable secretions which owe their existence to the in- fluence of actinic force on the leaves, are also produced in far greater quantity than in more southern climates; hence the colouring matter and pigment cells are found in much greater quantity, and the tint of the coloured parts of vegetables is consequently deeper. The same remark applies to the flavouring and odoriferous matters, so that the fruits of the north of Norway, though not equal in saccharine properties, are far more intense in flavour than those of the south.
Utitization or Waste Tix Prate.—tThe utilization of waste pro- ducts is now a subject attracting much attention. Among the more remarkable of these processes we may specially direct notice to that shown by Kuhn, in the Austrian court, by which the tin from the useless scraps of tinned iron plate is obtained in a pure form. It is stated by the discoverer that the labour of four men can produce yearly from perfectly valueless tin cuttings three hundred weight
of pure tin, with a large proportion of malleable iron and other pro- ducts.
DistnteGRateD Buack Leap.—The chemically-disintegrated gra- phite of Mr. Brodie is a subject of great interest, as it’ affords a ready means of obtaining a chemically pure black lead, that by mechanical pressure can be aggregated into a solid mass, and employed for those purposes for which the best and most expensive plumbago has hitherto alone been applicable. The outline of the process may be thus stated: the impure plumbago is mingled with chlorate of potash, and then acted upon by a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids ; these not only give rise to the evolution of gaseous chlorine compounds, but also dissolve up and remove many of the impuri-
VOL. II.—NO. I. R
66 Notes and Memoranda.
ties. The plumbago, thus obtained m a pure form, is washed and heated, the result of the combined mechanical and chemical action of these operations is, that the plumbago is so perfectly dismtegrated as to be formed into light floculi, which are capable of bemg blown away by the slightest current of air. In this condition they are readily condensed into solid blocks by pressure.
PHOSPHORIZED COPPER AND Brass.—The peculiar effects of the presence of small portions of phosphorus on the properties of metallic copper have been studied carefully by Mr. Parkes, who has taken outa patent for the application of phosphorus to the improvement of the working properties of metallic copper. Phosphorized copper, as it is termed, possesses an extreme degree of malleability and may be forged readily even when heated to redness; it is so ductile that it is capable of being drawn out into tubes which can be flattened in various directions, or even tied into close knots without showimg any evidence of cracking; these tubes are made, in the first mstance, by casting them of a large size, and the diameter is then reduced by drawing them in the same manner as wire. The extreme ductility of phosphorized copper is shown by the production of a long tube with a bore as fine as a needle, which has been reduced down by drawing from a nine inch casting. Brass manufactured from phos- phorized copper also retains many of its valuable properties.
InsEect-pEsTroyinc Powprr.—The exact nature of the preparation so well known as the Persian insecticide powder, has not been gene- rally known. Itis produced by the Pyrethrwm roseum caucasicum, a composite flower growing wild in the Caucasus. The central or tubular florets of the disc are alone employed, and when ground furnish the powder known in commerce. The plant belongs to the same genus as the common feverfew of our hedgerows; several species of Pyrethrum the natives of England and other temperate climates; and.it would be interesting to ascertain whether those florets possess the same destructive influence on insect life. Speci- mens of the plant and its flowers in the various stages of manufac- ture, are shown in the Austrian and in the Russian courts.
NOTES AND MEMORANDA.
Topacco SmMoxine anp AwnGiInA Prcroris.—In a communication to the French Academy on the 9th of June, M. Beau connects the practice of tobacco- smoking with that very painful and dangerous disorder, angina pectoris. In one case a gentleman of sixty passed the greater part of one day in smoking, and during a month he suffered violent palpitations at night, accompanied by oppression and shooting pains in the shoulders. On leaving off smoking, the symptoms dis- appeared. ‘lhree months afterwards he betook himself again to tobacco, and brought back the complaint, which finally left him when the narcotic weed was definitively abandoned. In the second case a physician about fifty smoked cigarettes all his spare time, his digestion was bad, and he suffered nightly attacks of angina. He gave up smoking, and the disease subsided, but sitting in a room filled with tobacco smoke was enough to cause a return of the pains on the fol- lowing night. In the third instance a physician of thirty-five smoked as he went his rounds in the country, and for a long time suffered loss of appetite. One
Notes and for ivamilen 67
morning, while smoking upon an empty stomach, he was seized with frightful pains in the region of the heart with constriction of the chest. He could neither walk nor speak, his pulse became insensible, his hands cold. The attack lasted half an hour. By M. Beau’s advice he left off smoking, promising to let him know if the disorder returned, which does not appear to have been the case. Iu a fourth instance a young Spaniard continually smoked cigarettes. His appetite vanished and his digestion became difficult. One evening, while smoking, he felt a sudden and violent pain in the chest, as if he had been squeezed in a vice, and his pulse became insensible. ‘The attack lasted ten minutes, and being frightened he consented to forego smoking, and sufferedno more. In a fifth case a physician was subject, while a smoker, to constriction of the thorax and neuralgic pains. Ina sixth case a merchant suffered similar attacks, but stuck to his cigar, and his disease. In a seventh a hearty man of seventy-five smoked desperately to get rid of his cares, and had three attacks of angina, the last of which killed him. An eighth illustration was afforded by a smoking diplomatist who died suddenly under similar influence. M. Beau observes that M. Bernard produced in various animals a dis- order resembling angina pectoris, by introducing nicotine into the thorax. He adds, that for tobacco-smoking to produce this disease the practice must be in excess, the individual endowed with a peculiar susceptibility, and likewise suffer from some debilitating circumstance, such as grief, fatigue, or indigestion. Then he considers that the system cannot expel the matter absorbed from the tobacco, and nicotine can accumulate sufficiently to exert a poisonous action on the heart.
THe Ova or Enromostraca.—Dr. Baird described in former numbers of the Annals of Natural History some new species of entomostraca obtained from mud brought in a dry state from the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and which he placed in pure water, and allowed to stand during the spring and summer. He cbtained six species, and the individuals of two or three species increased rapidly as the weather became warmer. He now adverts to the extraordinary way in which the ova of these creatures can resist continued drought, and mentions his success in rearing specimens from dry mud brought from the neighbourhood of Port Eliza- beth, Cape Colony: they afforded several new species.
New Group oF Parasitic Crustacea.—Dr. Fritz Miiller describes parasites of crabs, to which he gives the name Rhizocephala (root-headed). He says: “The head of these apparent worms, which is inserted into the body of the host, emits roots like those of plants—hollow tubes, which, being much ramified, cling round its intestines, and their brood holds a middle place between that of the Lernee and the Cirrepedes.” The parasite of the Porcellana he calls Lern@odiscus Por- cellane, and that of the Hermit Crab, Sacculina purpurea. Further details will be found in Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1862, or Annals Nat. Hist. for June.
Nervous Systzm or Potyzoa.—The Bulletin Universel (No. liv. p. 179) gives the following account, taken from the Archiv fur Naturgeschichte (1860, p. 312), of the “Colonial Nervous System,” as Dr. Fritz Miller calls it, of the Polyzoa. “Among those animals which live united in an intimate family or colonial life, such as the bryozoa or polyzoa, we often witness movements either of individuals or of the entire family, and which are evidently voluntary, but resulting less from the volition of individuals than from an impulse of an superior order, appearing to emanate from the entire family. Dr. Fritz Miller, at Des- terro, has observed among the Pedicellina, that when individuals have been violently torn away, their peduncles remain adherent to the family, and continue their movements through whole days. In another species he noticed energetic movements of peduncles only bearing individuals in the condition of buds. Con- sidering the relatively high organization of the polyzoa, he was led to believe that, in addition to an individual nerveus system, they also possessed a colonial one belonging to the whole family, and presiding over its movements. ‘The dis- covery in the sea of Santa Catharina of an exceedingly transparent Serialiaria, has enabled him to confirm this view. These polyzoa form trichotomously rami- fied colonies, having the branches laden with individuals. These branches are permeated by a nervous trunk, which swells out at the origin of each branch into a basal ganglion. This nervous trunk is in intimate relation with a nervous plexus which sends branches to a basal ganglion of each individual, and which conse-
68 Notes and Memoranda.
quently establishes a communication between the colonial and the individual nerve systems.”
Trst FOR OXYGENIZED WATER.—M. Schonbein finds iodized starch, to which has been added a little acetate of lead, and a little acetic or nitric acid, the most sensitive test for oxygenized water. Peroxide of lead is formed, and this substance evolves the blue colour in the iodized starch, especially in the presence of free acids. Water containing a three millionth part of oxygenized water gives a sen- sible blue colour with this reagent.— Archives des Sciences.
Propvuction oF NITRATE OF AMMONIA BY AIR AND WatEeR.—M. Schonbein has shown that nitrate of ammonia is formed at the expense of air and water, during the slow combination of phosphorus ; he has likewise proved that this salt is present in metoric waters, and has thence concluded that its formation must be due to a very general cause. He now announces that this cause is found in the simple fact of the volatilization of water in free air, and he cites many experiments which confirm this belief. The process which succeeds the best is to cause water to fall drop by drop in a metallic vessel heated above 100° C., without, however, reaching the point at which the liquid passes into the spheroidal state. By hold- ing a cold flask above the vapours which are produced, he condenses enough water to recognize the presence of nitric acid and ammonia. M.Schénbein has remarked that the quantity of nitrate of ammonia condensed with the yapour of the water is very variable, sometimes almost nz/, and he is disposed, in the absence of any positive determination, to attribute these variations to changes of temperature. It is not, however, necessary that the water should boil, as the salt is produced during all evaporation, and its presence may be shown in the water that remains after a portion has been evaporated. A sheet of filtering paper dipped in pure water, and dried in the air, becomes impregnated with sufficient nitrate of ammonia to be distinguished in the water with which the paper is washed, and it can be discovered in linen that has been washed and hung up to dry. In all these cases the production of nitric acid may be rendered more evident by adding to the water which is evaporated a little potash, to fix the acid. Wet sand dried in the air becomes impregnated with nitrate of ammonia.’ The editor of the Archives des Sciences, from which the above account is taken, regrets that M. Schénbein did not ascertain whether the salt was produced by evaporation of water in a limited quantity of air, as, if so, the objection to the conclusiveness of his investigations, arising from the possible wide diffusion of the salt, and its mere condensation, under the circumstances he mentions, might be removed.
SHELL OF THE CurTLE Fisu.—In our third number we called the attention of microscopists to the beautiful character of the shell of the cuttle fish as a polarized object, and we indicated the way in which its structure should be examined. We have since received from Mr. Baker of Holborn an exquisitely prepared slide, con- taining a thin section of the shell, showing the floors and the corrugated sheets of crystalline carbonate of lime by which they are supported, and separated, so as to make the shell at once firm and light.
New Powariscopr OxssEct.—Pleasing results may be obtained with the Platinocyanide of ammonia, a very striking salt, exhibiting the phenomenon of dichroism. It is red in one view, and green in another. With the polariscope the beauty depends on the condition of the crystals. A few experiments will show what is required.
Tue Comet oF 1861.—We learn from Cosmos that the astronomers at Pul- kova saw this object as late as the Ist of May, after which the nights became too bright to permit their following its course. Towards the end of May, the light in the sky was so strong at midnight that they were able to read in a room facing the north.
Marxinas on Dratoms.—On this interminable controversy the President of the Hull Microphilosophical Society, George Norman, Hsq., remarks that, “after duly considering the cellular or areolar theory, that such structures, though at first view appearing cellular, yet after more careful study and observation, are evidently granular, the granules being in some species isolated and round, in others more closely crowded and compressed, causing an appearance of hexagonal cel-
lulation.” SP SOIR LFS
(Fo Po
————
THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER.
SEPTEMBER, 1862.
BIRDS OF PARADISE. BY T. W. WOOD, F.Z.S.
THose exquisitely beautiful creatures, the Birds of Paradise, have long attracted attention among the stuffed specimens in our museums, and now, through the energy and enthusiasm of Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, the public can make the acquaintance of one of the finest species in a living state. I am also person- ally indebted to that gentleman’s kindness in allowing me to make copious use of his papers on the subject.
Describing more particularly the Great Bird of Paradise, Paradisea apoda, he tells us that no one can traverse the forests of Aru, without hearing “a loud, harsh, and oft-repeated cry, wawk, wawk, wok, wok, wok.” ‘This is the note of the Para- disea, constituting his morning and even song, and frequently sounded throughout the day. So far from being, as was once supposed, a very rare bird, Mr. Wallace assures us it is plen- tiful all over Aru, and is, in fact, a common species. It is, however, most frequently met with ma young and immature state, and our enterprizing traveller shot more than a dozen in that condition before he even saw a perfect male. It is in the loftier trees that the full grown males live, flying from branch to branch and from tree to tree in constant activity ; but keep- ing a wary eye on all intruders, and being so tenacious of life as not to fall an easy prey before the naturalist’s or the sports- man’s gun. Before sunrise the Great Bird of Paradise is on the wing, seeking his food, but, unlike many other fruit-eaters, he is moderate in his appetite, and preserves his activity through the day, instead of following their example of gorging until repletion produces torpor, and compels repose. Such being the character of this interesting denizen of the dense and secluded forests, we look for a corresponding development in physical organization, and are not surprised to learn that—
“‘On examining a freshly killed bird, we see the great muscular
strength of the legs and wings, and find the skin to be remarkably VOL. II.—NO,. II. G
70 Birds of Paradise.
thick and tough, and the skull, as well as the bones all very hard and strong. The whole neck is lined with a thick muscular fat, exactly similar to that of the Cephalopterus ornatus, in the same position, and probably serving in both cases to nourish the highly developed plumage of the adjacent parts. This causes the throat to appear externally very wide, and as if swollen, which displays to
great advantage the dense, scaly, metallic plumage. The flesh, as’
might be expected, is dry, tasteless, and very tough—to be eaten only in necessity. By far the greater number of birds I have opened have had their stomachs full of fruit, and this seems to be their usual and favourite food. At times, however, they seek after insects, principally Orthoptera; and I have found one of the largest of the Phasmide almost entire in the stomach of a full plumaged bunds;
The natives of Aru only obtain these birds during the Hast monsoon, and hence invented theories of their migration which do not correspond with the fact. It is—
“About April, when the change from the west to the east monsoon occurs, the Paradiseas begin to show the ornamental side feathers, and in May and June they have mostly arrived at their full perfec- tion. This is probably the season of pairing. They are in a state of excitement and incessant activity, and the males assemble together to exercise, dress, and display their magnificent plumage. Tor this purpose they prefer certain lofty, large leaved forest trees (which at this time have no fruit), and on these, early in the morning, from ten to twenty full-plumaged birds assemble, as the natives express it, ‘to play and dance.’ They open their wings, stretch out their necks, shake their bodies and keep the long golden plumes opened and vibrating—constantly changing their positions, flymg across and across each other from branch to branch, and appearing proud of their activity and beauty. The long, downy, golden feathers are, however, displayed in a manner which has, I believe, been hitherto quite unknown, but in which alone the bird can be seen to full advantage, and claim our admiration as the most beautiful of all the beautiful winged forms which adorn the earth. Instead of hanging down on each side of the bird, and being almost con- founded with the tail (as I believe always hitherto represented, and as they are, in fact, carried during repose and flight), they are erected vertically, over the back from under and behind the wing, and then opened and spread out in a fan-like mass, completely overshadowing the whole bird. ‘The effect of this is inexpressibly beautiful. The long ungainly lees are no longer a deformity, as the bird crouches upon them, the dark brown body and wings form but a central support to the splendour above, from which more brilliant colours would distract our attention; while the pale yellow head, swelling throat of rich metallic green, and bright golden eye, give vivacity and life to the whole figure. Above, rise the intensely shining, orange-coloured plumes, richly marked with a stripe of
* Annals of Natural History, 1857.
o- ss
Birds of Paradise. ral
deep red, and opening out with the most perfect regularity into broad, waving feathers of airy down; every filament which ter- minates them distinct, yet waving and curving and closing upon each other with the vibratory motion the bird gives them; while the two immensely long filaments of the tail hang in graceful curves below.”
After mentioning the manner in which the natives procure this bird by building a small inartificial looking hut in the tree while the birds are absent, and shooting them with arrows when a sufficient number have arrived, by concealing them- selves in the hut, Mr. Wallace continues :—
“Of the geographical distribution of the Bird of Paradise many erroneous statements have been published. Its supposed migration have by some been extended to Banda, by others to Ceram and all the eastern islands of the Molucca