moon with devouring intent; and their insatiable brother, the wolf-shaped Mänagarm, sought to fill his capacious maw with the blood of dying men.

At the time when the Lapps were accredited with magical powers it was believed that certain men of the race could at pleasure transform themselves, as well as others, into the shape of wolves and bears; and it has been asserted that hunters on flaying such vulpine or ursine semblances have found a Lapp belt under the skin.

What multitudes of werewolves during the Dark Ages, when light was dim, used to Rock together on Christmas eve to revel and do all manner of mischief, has been made known by Olaus Magnus; and it has also been believed that witches, among other fearful shapes, could assume that of the

wolf.

Even in later times the belief has prevailed that Lapps had the power either to infest a district with wolves or to draw them thence. In the Norske Bygdesagn of L. Daa, published at Christiania in 1870, it is said that for centuries wolves had been a great plague over all the bailiwick of Nyfylke, excepting a large peninsula which was connected with the mainland by a narrow isthmus called Sandied. Across this isthmus, from time immemorial, a straw-rope had been stretched from sea to sea, suspended on poles so high that the wolves could Rot leap over it; and under a rope thus extended, experience had shown that they would not go. The sheep, therefore, belonging to the peninsula could be allowed to run out both summer and winter, which was not the case with the numerous flocks on the mainland, notwithstanding some annual contributions by the farmers there to a man for endeavouring to keep the wolves aloof. But in 1777, "the year when men write three sevens," a Lapp came to Sandied, and learning the purpose of the rope, offered for a moderate sum to clear the wolves from the whole district, which, his terms being accepted, was accordingly done. On being asked by the farmers how long they might with certainty rely upon the freedom from wolves, he answered, For the good age of a man; but quite possibly when seven and seventy years had again elapsed, they might come again. Remarkably enough, in 1854, a multitude of wolves did again suddenly make their appearance in Nyfylke, doing great mischief, and causing great alarm among the people, to whom within man's memory they had been unknown. An inscribed silver tablet, bearing date 1777, hangs, or did hang, in Roldal church, to which it was presented by the parishioners of Hjelmaland, as a thank-offering for the freedom from wolves they had that year enjoyed.

In cominon with the former practice of the Scandinavian peasants, the Lapps refrain from speaking of the wolf by its proper name, using as Von Düben remarks, various designations, which were first given when he was believed to be an evil spirit, whom they could coax into good behaviour. In Swedish folk

lore they are the most unhallowed of all beasts of prey; their occult influence, or animus, most potent for evil of all. They can revenge attempted injuries: a man in Norway who had thus offended them shortly afterwards broke his leg. Everywhere it is known that the glance of a wolf, itself unseen, will cause the person against whom it is directed to become suddenly hoarse. Yet, if while living the wolf was altogether evil, he was of some use when dead. His skin formed, and continues to form, the warmest of winter robes; the Lapland näid when he used to journey in quest of information to the land of the dead, would probably never have come back if he had not, as a preparation for the journey, partaken of wolf's flesh; a dose of the same, wind-dried and pulverized, served to stimulate Norwegian appetites; and wolf's lung was a chief ingredient of the compound which Norwegian apothecaries formerly prepared as a remedy for consumption.

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

DR. ELKIN, the astronomer of Yale University, and formerly of the Cape of Good Hope, has, by a long series of observations on the parallel of the star Arcturus, arrived at the conclusion that it moves with the inconceivable velocity of 381 miles a second, that is to say, it would traverse the distance from London to Edinburgh between two ticks of a watch. This is twenty-one times faster than the speed of the earth in its orbit round the sun. Dr. Elkin also finds that. Arcturus is so far away from us that his light, travelling 190,000 miles a second, takes 181 years to reach us.

A LUMINOUS outburst in the sun was observed recently by M. Trouvelot, at Paris. First, a luminous spot appeared on the disc of the sun near its western limb. It was of a golden yellow tinge, and shortly afterwards a companion spot appeared a little above it. The spectroscope showed the first spot to consist of a central eruption, from which volcanic bombs were thrown to heights above the chromosphere, where they seemed to rest as dazzling balls. A few minutes later these were replaced by brilliant jets or filaments. On the next morning the eruption was seen to be diminishing, and it finally ceased in the afternoon. There was no corresponding magnetic perturbation observed at Kew.

A CURIOUS instance of one poison killing another is reported from Yackandandah, Victoria, where Dr. Mueller has recently administered strychnine in cases of snake-bite. A solution of nitrate of strychnine in 240 parts of water, mixed with a little glycerine, is prepared, and twenty minims injected hypodermically at intervals of ten to twenty minutes, according to the virulence of the attack. In some cases a grain

of strychnine has been given thus within a few hours. The two poisons are antagonistic, and the characteristic effects of the strychnine only show themselves after the venom has been neutralised. The first independent action of the drug is evinced by slight muscular spasms, and the injections must then be discontinued, unless after a time the snake poison reasserts itself. So long as the latter is active the strychnine can be applied in quantities which would be fatal in the absence of the virus. Out of the hundred patients treated this way, some of whom were at the point of death, there was only one failure, and that arose from the stoppage of the injections after one and a quarter grains of strychnine were administered. Any part of the body will serve for the injection, but Dr. Mueller chooses a part near the snake-bite.

A NEW patented process for producing photographs in natural colours has been brought out. No claim is put forward to the production of the colours on the negative, a feat which if not impossible has never yet been accomplished. What the negative does is to portray the colours of the original in their proper relative gradation of tone, which is a development of the "ortho-chromatic process, as photo. graphers term it. Having obtained the negative, the next step is to get a print. This print is made to undergo a special treatment, mechanical in its nature, by which it receives the required colours. Only the primary colours are used, every shade and gradation of tone being secured by the negative. No artistic skill is needed to apply the colours, but how it is done is not explained. The final step consists in the "fixing" of the prints, by which the colours are rendered absolutely permanent. The prints are made waterproof in the process, and can be mounted on paper, card, glass, opal, or other material. The process is the invention of a French photographer, M. Victor Mathieu. The means being mechanical, the cost is but slightly in excess of the ordinary monochrome prints.

MR. JOHN AITKEN has been investigating clouds from the summit of the Rigi and Pilatus. He now finds, as in former observations, that fog is intimately dependent on the presence of dust particles in the air, each of the invisible granules forming the nucleus of a tiny head of water, these vesicles constituting in the aggregate clouds, mists, and their kindred. At elevated situations the air is comparatively free from dust, while lower down it is full of it. But while clouds are passing over a peak the number of particles varies considerably. This, he discovers by a series of carefully compiled data, is due to the fact that the air entering into the clouds has forced itself up from the valley below. Hence the mountain air is pure or impure in exact accordance with the amount of this lower-world current which has reached

it. When the cloud vanishes the ether resumes its old composition. Another curious fact just dis-covered by the same indefatigable observer is that the moment a cloud forms it begins to discharge its contents in the shape of a steady shower of minute drops. These drops are not capable of being appreciated by the unassisted senses; but by the "fogcounter," an instrument of Mr. Aitken's invention, the exact number falling on a given space can be readily noted. What is still more curious is that though the air is in such circumstances saturated with damp, seats, stones, and other large objects near the earth are perfectly dry, the drops being evaporated by the radient heat of the ground; but a pin's head or other small object, not offering the same area, is in. these circumstances often covered with a minute globule of water. The fact of a cloud thus beginning. to rain small drops whenever it is formed may account for the disappearance of these vaporous masses without any change in the wind or temperature. They gradually exhaust themselves.

M. JANSSEN, the enterprising French astronomer, is not satisfied with the hope of building an astronomical observatory on the summit of Mont Blanc, for which the depth of snow is now being sounded by a horizontal tunnel; he aims at establishing another at Tashkend, in Russian Turkestan, where the skies are of a remarkable purity. The Governor of Turkestan has found the money, and is taking an intelligent interest in the work. Observations of the spectroscope will be one of the specialities of the place.

THE specific influence exerted by the eucalyptustree on fevers has long been well-known. Whole districts in Algeria and other countries which were formerly mere haunts of malaria are now, since the "blue-gum" has been planted, perfectly healthy. In Australia it has been found that green branches placed in a room act as a powerful disinfectant. In cases of scarlet fever, if the branches be placed under the bed, the bedding undergoes a thorough disinfec tion, the volatile vapour penetrating and saturating the mattress and every other article in the room.

HERR PRAUSNITZ has recently collected the dust in various compartments of trains, which often convey patients from Berlin to Meran, and inoculated a number of guinea-pigs with it. Two out of five compartments so examined were found to contain the phthisis bacillus; the dust of one rendered three out of four guinea-pigs tuberculous ; that of the other, two.

THE action of sea-water on cements has been investigated by M. Candlot with important practical results. He finds that the sulphate of lime derived from the decomposition of the sulphate of magnesia

'by the lime salts of the cement combines with aluminate of lime to give a double crystalline salt containing half its weight of water. The crystallisation of a salt so full of water-or so "hydrated," to use the chemical term-involves considerable swelling, which accounts for the breaking up of cements in marine work, such as piers, breakwaters, and the like.

A very suggestive paper has just been published by Mr. James Weir (read before the Institute of Marine Engineers) entitled "Steam Engine Efficiency: a comparison of Nature's Engine and Modern Practice."

ZOOLOGY.

ON THE BURROWING HABITS OF THE GENUS TESTACELLA (Cuvier).-Respecting Mr. Horsman's remarks on my paper published last March in the "Naturalist," "On the Burrowing Habits of Certain Land and Freshwater Mollusca," it appears very evident to me that his conclusions were drawn from insufficient observations. Mr. Horsman informs me that his observations extended over a period of five or six months, and were carried out under artificial conditions. Under these circumstances, it is hardly fair, I think, to criticise observations made from nature. "A fairly heavy soil" kept in a "large old tank in an outhouse "would soon become caked and very firm, and consequently it would be almost impossible for a mollusc to get below twelve inches, in fact I do not contend that in heavy soils molluscs do burrow to great depth. Where I saw T. haliotidea, it was in a light loamy soil. Mr. Horsman speaks of the average depth as five or six inches; now had he paid the slightest attention to the habits of our British slugs in their natural conditions he would know that most of them burrow to that depth when depositing their eggs, as has been described by Moquin Tandon; and other writers. I have not had the opportunity of studying T. scutulum, but from what I know of the habits of T. haliotidea, I cannot see any valid reason to doubt the accuracy of Mr. Quilter's observations, nor do I agree that Dr. Jeffrey's statement is open to question. The other records mentioned in my paper are all from wellknown conchologists and careful observers, and I fail to see any cause for doubting them.-W. E. Collinge.

EARLY BUTTERFLIES.-Mr. Lowe, a short time ago, stated that on the 3rd of June, he took a freshly emerged specimen of C. edusa, and he asked whether that is not very early for its appearance. If he thinks it was freshly emerged simply because it was fresh-looking, I think he may be mistaken, for as a rule edusa hybernates as an imago, though Newman

does speak of one that, contrary to the habit of the species, passed the winter as a chrysalis. I say I think Mr. Lowe may have been mistaken, for on referring to my note-book for the current year, I see it was on the 8th of June that I saw the first specimens of V. cardui, an insect which also hybernates in the perfect state, and I find I made the following note, "Saw four or five V. cardui, all looked remark. ably fresh and as if just out of the chrysalis." I have no reason, however, to suppose that these butterflies did not-as the species does-hybernate as imagos, nor do I think it likely that Mr. Lowe's edusa had not followed the usual habit of that species. Cardui and atalanta were very numerous here this year, especially in the larval condition. I found the former feeding on both the common nettles, also on Carduus arvensis, C. pycnocephalus, but I think it seemed to prefer the small nettle (U. urens) to any other food. Curiously enough I took one half-grown larva off the common mallow and reared it solely on that. It preferred blossoms to leaves and would not eat the latter when flowers were to be had. As I am on the subject of butterflies, I may mention that C. edusa has been scarce hereabouts this autumn. I have traversed the Downs in all directions almost daily since the beginning of September, and during my excursions I have visited most of the clover-fields within several miles of this place, the result being that I found this insect plentiful at only one spot. This was a small clover-field of about six acres, near the lighthouse W. of Beachy Head. Some six or eight visits to this resulted in my securing about 120. Twenty-two of these were females, the rest males. Of the former two were very fine examples of the variety Helice. Early in the month they were in very fine condition except that about one in six had a large notch in one or two of its wings. At first I could not account for this, but I soon discovered that the injuries were caused by wheatears, which frequented the field, and which poised on the top of a stalk of clover, or hovering kestrel-like about a foot above the level of the field, kept a sharp look-out for passing butterflies, and whenever edusa came near enough the bird darted at it like an arrow, and though I never saw any butterflies secured I could see plainly that that was how they got so damaged. On one occasion, the insect when attacked mounted like a heron pursued by a peregrine. It was most interesting to note the extremely rapid movements of edusa as it fled from and dodged its pursuer with a celerity that was marvellous. When they had mounted until they were almost invisible the bird suddenly relinquished the chase, and dropping quickly to the ground was instantly followed by the butterfly, which immediately resumed its rapid questing flight over the clover, just as if nothing had happened. I will only add one more note. About three weeks ago a very fine healthy caterpillar of D. gali (found on the Downs) was brought to

me, and it has since safely pupated.-R. B. P., Eastbourne.

NEW ROTIFERS.-" Distyla musicola," pages 205 and 206 should read "Distyla muscicola "—that is, the moss-dwelling Distyla. As printed, the name has no meaning, and in an original description the error is of some little importance. I must apologise for the trouble given you, and I fear I must have overlooked the error, so far as that one occurring in the text, in my revision of the proof.-D. Bryce.

APHIDES AND THEIR MONUMENTS.-Being but a poor entomologist-if indeed an entomologist at allI am not ashamed, after a diligent but fruitless search through the few books on the subject within my reach, to ask information from those of your correspondents who may be more advanced in the study, on a few points which have interested me greatly, and from the observation of which-thanks to my ignorance, I suppose-I have experienced, this summer, many a delightful thrill such as some lovers of nature are privileged to feel when a new light "beats" upon them. I was hunting very successfully for the so-called leaf-insect (fan-insect I think would be a better name), the beautiful "abnormal" larva of the Aphis aceris, and was led to the examination of sycamore leaves, which also supplied abundance of specimens. But besides these there were numerous full-winged aphides quite dead, and most of them perfect; with others in various stages of dry dilapidation, each seated on and firmly fixed to a flat, circular bag which under high magnifying power proved to be loosely woven of hair-like web. In some of these bags I found a living larva resembling a minute white nut-maggot. There was no discoverable hole in the bag by which it could have entered, and how it came there is as great a puzzle to me as the apple inside the dumpling was to his majesty George III., and possibly as easily explained by the initiated. Any way, this fairly-like aphis on her disc as she sits there a tiny monument to her tiny self, forms an exceedingly pretty object for the microscope under a two-inch objective. epitaph for her.

"Praises on tombs are trifles idly spent ;

A fly's own self is her best monument."

Here is an

Let me add that this is a true aphis, milk tubes and all, and not a coccus. I would ask one more question concerning some eggs which I find on the sycamore leaf. They resemble those of the lacewinged fly, but instead of occurring singly there are about a dozen on as many pedicels which combine into a single stem about of an inch in length, and this is again divided into as many rootlets, which are cunningly fastened to the leaf. To any kindlydisposed entomologist I would say R.S.V.P.-T. E. A., Diss.

BOTANY.

THE WHITE FLOWER QUESTION. Will Mr. Davy, the author of the delightfully impartial and non-faddist paper in the September number, page 211, kindly answer the following queries relative to the above subject:-1. In the Cornish districts which are inordinately, prolific in the way of white variations, does the heather bloom early or late as compared with that growing further north :-2. Is the atmosphere of the said regions unduly moist, or possibly charged with saline substances wafted invisibly over from the adjacent ocean.-P. Q Keegan.

EXTRAORDINARY GROWTH OF WILD ROSE HIPS.A short time ago a most interesting example was brought before my notice of a wild rose hip, the extraordinary size of which, together with its general appearance, not only beat that of any I had ever seen before, but completely astonished me. So strange did this fruit appear that I think it worth while to bring a brief description of it before the readers of SCIENCE-GOSSIP, in the hopes that some one may be

Fig. 197.-Abnormal growth of Rose Hip. able to give me some reason for such an unusually enormous structure. The hip in question was one of two that a gardener, belonging to the premises in which I was staying, brought me to see ifrom the estate of Lord Bramwell at Four Elms, Kent. Both of the hips were large, but the one the man gave me to keep was by far the better of the two; so of that one alone I mean to speak. In general appearance the fruit might easily have been likened to a ripe tomato, so far as its colour and texture, were concerned, for it was of the most brilliant orange red,

and of a very succulent texture. A closer look, however, showed that it was veritably and indeed a hip. From the centre of the fruit, on its upper surface, rose the remains of the five sepals (the length of which was an inch and a quarter),' within which lay a mass of dead stamens, some of which showed the last remnants of their anthers, shrivelled, and of a pale brown colour, still resting on the filaments. Below these calyx-remains lay the hip itself, the circumference of which measured four inches; the depth, three quarters of an inch, measuring from the base of the sepals to the point of juncture of the hip and the stalk. The shape was more that of an ellipse than anything else; the surface smooth and shiny, the colour an extremely rich orange red. Comparing this with an ordinarily large hip, its magnitude strikes one as being really marvellous, and I shall feel only too glad if any reader can afford me any reason for such an unusual growth. Can it be that soil causes it? That Nature plays no "freak with this rose-bush is proved by the fact that every year a few hips, of an equally large size, are found on it. The bloom of the plant is very large, single, and either white or very pale pink in colour, and the bush grows naturally close to the kitchen-garden on the above estate. I made all enquiries I could about the plant, and was told it was a genuine wild rose which had grown in that spot, and developed this great size of bloom and fruit naturally. This year there are but a few hips on the plant. Such a structure has interested me keenly, and I close this brief account of it with the express hope that others may be interested in hearing of it as well; and any information as to whether such hips have been seen before or not will be most gladly received.-K. E. Styan.

THE COMMON TEASEL.-Just outside the window of my sitting-room is a plant not often seen, I think, in a semi-suburban garden-bed. It is a tall and shapely common teasel. It came of its own sweet will, and has been left to grow as it liked, until some forty blossom-heads have girdled themselves with mauve flowers whose circles, starting midway round the dense spike, retreat upwards and downwards in the oddest fashion, giving an effect not easily described. I do not know whether anyone has explained this curious mode of flowering of the teasel. Nor is this the only problem the plant presents to the botanist. What special merit is there in the flowers which should cause them to be guarded like an eastern monarch's harem, or like the Emperor of China, or the Lama of Thibet? First, the whole plant is more or less covered with prickles, not very sharp, but quite sufficiently disagreeable to ward off the bite of a sheep or cow, one would think. Secondly, the spikes bristle with spiny bracts, projecting so far beyond the flowers that the only insects which dare to alight are humble-bees, of which at least two or three may be

seen travelling systematically round and round the flower circles. They are of two kinds. I am no entomologist, so cannot give their names, but one, the rarer, is small and brown, the other black with red tail. The large golden-banded humble-bee does not seem to visit the teasel at all, though I do not see why it should find more difficulty in getting honey from the flowers than its smaller relatives. Lastly, the conformation of the leaves offers an efficient protection against ants and other small insects which might scale the stem and rob the sweets reserved for the humble-bee. The pairs of opposite leaves are connate, i.e., their blades unite, base to base, forming little basins which contain rain-water even in dry weather. As a child, I always thought they were specially provided to give drink to the wee birds in summer-time; I do not think so now, but I am just as sure that they do not take this shape by accident, that these reservoirs benefit the plant in some way, probably by the exclusion of noxious insects. Possibly, like the sundew, the plant may also benefit by the death of drowned intruders, but I have made no observations on this point. A slight change in the shape of the plant's defensive armour, the curving of the bracts, has made one of its cultivated varieties of great use to cloth-weavers. Cloth-making, helped no doubt by the layers of fuller's-earth found beneath the soil of this district, was formerly a staple manufacture, but none is now made, and the fuller'steasel has disappeared from the neighbourhood, if, indeed, it was ever cultivated, and the common teasel seems to have no rival in the hedgerows and thickets, where it rears its spiny heads in defiance of wind and weather until autumn has withered their bracts and scattered their seeds, and then they find way into winter bouquets and bird-stuffers' "landscapes," and so renew, if not their youth, at least their usefulness, to some people's way of thinking. But the dead brown stalks and prickly heads will never, to my mind, do more than suggest the delicate tints and quaint conceits of the plant in full bloom.M. E. Pope.

VERONICA CHAMŒDRYS.—I find the upper leaves of the germander speedwell have been aborted and unnaturally developed by a small red grub. Will any correspondent interested in such matters let me know its scientific name and life-history. I enclose specimens, which I fear will be of very little use when they reach you.-E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, Cadney Vicarage, Brigg.

BACTERIA AS FEEDERS OF LEGUMINOUS PLANTS.-At a recent meeting of the Alford Field Club and Scientific Society, Mr. William Wilson, Alford, N.B., dwelt upon investigations on the above. After touching upon the investigations and opinions of Malpighi, Treviranus, A. P. De Candolle, Erikson, Frank and Ward, he entered into the conclusion of