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MICROSCOPY.

THE VERTICAL CAMERA.-I have very recently received a vertical camera from one of the leading London firms, and am working myself towards a solution of the difficulties it presents to me. I find that when the image is projected on paper laid on the table in front of the microscope there is consider. able distortion. The circular valve of a diatom (under a one-sixth objective) is projected as an ellipse (Fig. 5a). To remedy this, I have made a small sloping drawing-desk of deal wood, the upper surface of which is 10 inches square, and is fixed at an angle of 45°. The image of the same diatom projected on

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Fig. 6.

Fig 5. the inclined surface of the slope is, as it should be, a circle, Fig. 66. It is quite possible that this is the usual Iway in which the distortion I refer to is rectified; but as none of the illustrated descriptive catalogues and journals to which I have referred suggest the use of a slope, this little note may be useful to those who, like myself, have to think matters out for themselves. Will any of your readers who work with vertical cameras give a few "tips" in your columns on the best way of using this appliance ?-W. J. Simmons, Calcutta.

ZOOLOGY.

THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE.-I find there are no authentic instances of this bird breeding in this country. The last week in May, 1889, a great grey shrike was given to me that was shot at Brackley. The bird had all the appearance of being a broodingbird, and the fact of it being found so late in the season almost proves that it does occasionally breed in this country.-H. Blaby.

SHELLS IN BANFFSHIRE.-I append a short list of shells found during two rambles last October, at Aberlour, Banffshire. This granite country yields few shells, many only being found near walls and rubbish heaps, where more mortar has been used or

deposited. I was unable to make a thorough search for fresh-water specimens. Unio margaritifer, Anodonta cynæa, from the river Spey; Limnæa peregra, frequent; Vitrina pellucida, very common; Zonites parvus, var. margaritacea, scarce; Z. fulvus, moderately common; Z. nitidus, common; Helix lamellata, one only; H. hortensis, scarce; H. nemoralis, moderately common; Clausilia rugosa, scarce. These seem to approach the var. tumidula, being smaller and more ventricose. Vertigo edentata, more common than any of the above.-7. Chas. Smith, Penrith.

DISEASE IN ROOK.-On Sunday Nov. 16th I found a rook in a ditch near the Vicarage. Whenever it tried to walk it rolled over and over. I brought it home and put it in a room till after morning. service was over; then I took it some juicy beef cut in small pieces. Whenever it attempted to swallow it could only throw its head forward, and of course threw the meat out of its bill. I noticed that it could walk backward quite well, but whenever it tried to walk any other way it rolled over. I gave it over to a bird-stuffer next day, Nov. 17th, and he found that although dead less than twenty-four hours-for I wrung its neck-the liver was completely rotten. There were no marks of any wound or injury. The feathers were smooth and glossy, but the bird was very light in weight.-R. Ashington Bullen.

"PROCEEDINGS," ETC., OF COLONIAL AND PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES:

THE best token we could adduce of the scientific research and love thereof in our Australian colonies. will be best demonstrated by the following "Contents" of the last issued "Journal of the Royal Society of New South Wales ":"List of the Marine and Fresh-water Invertebrate Fauna of Port Jackson and the Neighbourhood," by Thos. Whitelegge; "The Analysis of the Prickly Pear," by W. H. Hamlet; "Notes on New South Wales Minerals," by C. H. Mingaye; "Notes on Goulbourn Lime," by E. C. Manfred; "The Australian Aborigines," by the Rev. John Mathew; "Aids to Sanitation in Unsewered Districts," by J. A. Thompson; "Well and River Waters of New South Wales," by W. A. Dixon; "The Aborigines of Australia," by Ed. Stephens; "New South Wales as a Health Resort in Phthisis Pulmonalis," by Dr. B. J. Newmarch; besides Reports of lectures, &c.

THE "Proceedings" of the Bristol Naturalists' Society are always full of good matter. The last part contains the following important papers among others :-"The Geology of Tytherington and Grovesend," by Prof. C. L. Morgan; "Flora of the Bristol Coal-Field," by J. W. White; "The Fungi of the Bristol District," by C. Bucknell, Mus. Bac.; "Talpa ; or, Remarks on the Habits of the Mole," by C. J. Trusted; "Mimicry among the Lepidoptera," by G. C. Griffiths; "Putrefactive Organisms," by Dr.

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CHLOROPHYLL IN PLANTS.-I have just seen in SCIENCE-GOSSIP an article by J. Ballantyne on the formation of chlorophyll in plants. As I had a similar instance some time ago, may mention it as appearing to contradict the accepted theory on the subject. I was cutting away some superfluous branches in my melon pit, and found I had cut off one on which was a partly grown fruit. I left it as it was in the frame. It grew (no root) to about twice its then size and ripened. No crack or hole in it to admit the light. Flesh of usual flavour. All the seeds in this fruit had germinated and showed full green cotyledons of such colour as they would have shown if growing in the ordinary way, and of about the size that usually show from the seed case. Is not the law laid down a little too absolutely by some of our (more or less) scientific men in some of these matters? Evidently here are instances in which light has not been instrumental in producing the green colour of vegetation.-Geo. C. Nervall.

THE FLORA OF KENT.-Can any reader of SCIENCE-GOSSIP give me information respecting a Flora for Kent, as all my inquiries hitherto have failed in discovering the existence of any such work? It seems very singular that a county so botanically rich as Kent should be so neglected. Does the London Flora take in this district? Also what is the price and when was the last edition published?-W. B., Plumstead.

THE EVOLUTION OF POISONS.-With reference to the note in SCIENCE-GOSSIP for December on the Evolution of Poisons, is it possible that they act in the economy of the plant by being reserves of food matter? Since substances in the seed are absorbed into the young plant, and as numbers of the poisons, etc., are found in the seeds, then why should not similar substance in the plant be reserves for it to use during its growth? Again, the plant might absorb from the soil more than it can use in its economy, and these substances might be a means of getting rid of the surplus. Either of these views would also account for substances which are not poisons, and therefore in that way cannot act as a defence to the plant. The number of these compounds in the vegetable kingdom must be enormous, and this fact might be accounted for by different plants requiring different amounts of elementary constituents, and that each substance is suited to the economy of the plant where it is found. The fact that some of these

act as poisons to the higher animals would thus seem to be incidental.-M. Farrant.

EUPHORBIA CYPARISSIAS IN KENT.-It was with great pleasure I saw recorded the finding of this plant by a visitor (?) to the neighbourhood. I fear, however, that from the description of the locality, one might search the "hillsides close to Dover" for a long time, and then not find it. However, the description is quite correct. The locality is known to most, if not all, of those interested in botanical matters living in Dover. There are five or six goodsized patches of it, if I remember right. They are so conspicuous when in flower, that they may be seen from the hills on the opposite side of the valley. I had noticed that the botanical books give "woods" as the habitat of this plant. I had also noticed that in Switzerland I have found it anywhere but in woods! Gremli, in his "Flora of Switzerland," gives as habitats, "gravelly places, road-sides, river banks"-and in such places I have found it. I wonder whether K. E. Styan knew, when he was gathering the beautiful little Cyprus spurge, that he was within a few yards of a host of rarities and muchsought-after plants? Sixteen or seventeen of our orchids may be found in their season close by−0. purpurea, O. ustulata, O. apifera, O. muscifera, H. bifolia and chlorantha, were all in bloom when K. E. Styan gathered the spurge! It is gratifying to know that a visitor may go into a strange place and find something that the inhabitants know nothing of; and this should encourage all to keep their eyes open. I know of three instances of strangers finding plants unknown to the botanists of the neighbourhood. In 1883 a visitor found near Dover Habenaria viridis. In 1888 another visitor found near Folkestone Ornithopus ebracteatus; and in 1890 a friend staying for his holidays in the neighbourhood of Dover found two patches of Phyteuma orbiculare, and those two patches half a mile apart! One thing to be learnt from this I think is the desirability of placing upon record all "finds" that strike the finder as good or exceptional, as K. E. Styan has done. One Saturday in June of 1890 I was walking from Sugar-loaf Hill across the fields towards Park Farm, Folkestone, when I was suddenly "brought to" by seeing on the footpath two specimens of the Cyprus spurge! How came they there has ever been a mystery to me; they were quite fresh. Does this note of K. E. Styan explain it ?-W. T. Haydon, Wouldham.

GEOLOGY, &c.

THE GEOLOGISTS' ASSOCIATION. The last issue of this ever welcome "Proceedings" contains the following papers :-"On the Pleistocene (non-marine) Mollusca of the London District," by B. B. Woodward; "An Account of the Excursion to the South Italian Volcanoes," by Dr. Johnston Lavis; "Con

cretion in a Yoredale Sand Quarry," by Dr. Hind; "Manufacture of Serpentine in Nature's Laboratory," by Gen McMahon; "A New Species of Capulus," by Professor Boulger; "An Erosion near Stirling," by H. W. Monckton; "The Auriferous Series of Nova Scotia," by Geoffry F. Monckton; "The Pebley Beds on and near the Addington Hills, Surrey," by H. M. Klaasseu; and "Pleistocene Sections in and near London," by W. F. Leevis Abbott.

A HUGE GOLD NUGGET.-At a recent meeting of the Geological Society, a model of the largest gold nugget yet found in Western Australia, known as the "Little Hero," weighing 330 oz. 8 dwts., found at Shaw's Fall, 200 miles from Koebourne, and 80 from Nullagine, at a depth of 8 inches, was exhibited by Mr. Harry Page Woodward, F.G.S.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

THE COLOURING OF BIRDS' EGGS.-Seeing Mr. Hewett's note on colouring of birds' eggs, though he especially wishes to hear from collectors about guillemots' and razorbills' eggs, I hope my note will not be out of place. In the April issue I sent a letter on a few varieties I had in my collection, and seeing this interesting subject has started again I hope to see other collectors give notes of their varieties, which will be very interesting. In looking over my collection I find three interesting varieties of the lapwing's egg; one a cream colour closely marked at the thick end with jet-black streaks which are very small, another one of a grey or stone colour with faint blotches of light-brown all over. Both specimens are of usual size, but nearer white than the typical colour, and both taken from different nests with full clutch of four. The other specimen is in size and colour similar to the black tern, if any difference a little darker, but really if it had been found in a nest by itself near a locality where the black tern breeds it would, I fear, have been put amongst the rest under the above name. It also was found in a nest with other three, making the usual number found in the lapwing's nest.W. D. Rae.

SMALL-END COLOURING OF SEA-BIRDS' EGGS.Referring to the notes and observations on this subject which have recently appeared in SCIENCE-Gossip, I have looked through my collection of over a hundred beautiful and interesting varieties of guillemot's eggs, and find that I have three specimens which are thickly marked at the points or small ends and very sparingly on the other portions. The first is of an almost white ground colour, with a blotch of black on the small end, which extends about an inch from the point all round the egg. There are also a few spots of black scattered over the other part of the egg. The ground colour of another is of a bluish tinge, with a dark zone of different shades of brown and black round the small end and speckled with the same colours on the other part. A third, the ground colour of which is not uniform; part of it is of a decidedly blue hue and the remainder of a bluish green; this egg has a zone of black round the small end. I may mention that I have obtained these varieties in a casual way, never having made a point of procuring" small end" marked specimens. If I have the opportunity next season I will note how many I see at the cliffs and in the climbers' possession of eggs so marked.-E. G. Potter, York.

THE following flowers have been found in bloom here in December: corn buttercup, hawkweed picris, red campion, common daisy, common mallow, red clover, procumbent speedwell, dark blue speedwell, common feverfew, furze, common nipplewort, creeping cinquefoil, common yarrow, lesser periwinkle, hedge woundwort, creeping crowfoot, upright meadow crowfoot, garlic, black horehound, common chickweed, yellow bedstraw, red dead-nettle, and groundsel.-H. G. Ward, Northmarston.

NATURAL HISTORY IN JANUARY.-January is by no means a dull month in the calendar of nature, for The many birds commence singing this month. song-thrush sings sweetly from the top of some tall tree, while the skylarks are singing joyously overhead. The hedge-sparrow, robin, and great-tit all charm us with their music, and sometimes, too, if the weather is mild, we may hear the long-drawn but pleasant notes of the chaffinch. In the gardens, snowdrops, primroses, garden daisies (red and white), hepaticas (red and blue), gillies, the yellow globe flower, and red and brown oxlips may be found in flower this month. In the corn-fields and meadows we may find red dead-nettle, procumbent speedwell, groundsel, pansy, shepherd's purse, dandelion, white dead-nettle, chickweed, and a few daisies. The bat comes stealing out in the dusk of evening as the days get longer. The fieldfares, redwings and starlings. frequent the meadows in large flocks, and in mild weather, when the ground is moist, they find an abundance of food.-H. G. Ward.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

TO CORRESPONDENTS AND EXCHANGERS.-As we now publish SCIENCE-GOSSIP earlier than formerly, we cannot undertake to insert in the following number any communications which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month

TO ANONYMOUS QUERISTS.-We must adhere to our rule of not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names.

TO DEALERS AND OTHERS.-We are always glad to treat dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are simply DISGUISED ADVERTISEMENTS, for the purpose of evading the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken of our gratuitous insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated.

WE request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or initials) and full address at the end.

SPECIAL NOTE.-There is a tendency on the part of some exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow this in the case of writers of papers.

TO OUR RECENT EXCHANGERS.-We are willing and helpful to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow disguised Exchanges like those which now come to us from Devonshire to appear unless as advertisements.

J. CAPELL.-The shells you sent are all rightly named except No. 2, which is Planorbis carinatus, not P. viviparathe latter is very much larger. The fungus on leaf of sweet William is Puccinia lychnidearum.

T. S. A.-Get Dr. Cooke's recently published work on "British Freshwater Algæ," price 5s.-one of the International Scientific Series.

A. T.-Richard Jefferies's books can be obtained of Messrs. Chatto and Windus.

R. S.-There is a capital little hand-book to the geology of Derbyshire, by the Rev. J. Mello, with geological map. Apply to some Derby bookseller.

P. F.-Yes, the "Young Collector" series is both cheap, well got-up, and trustworthy. You cannot do better.

EXCHANGES.

WANTED, an injecting syringe and a Valentin's knife.H. P., 103 Camden Street, London, N.W.

OFFERED, I golden-crested wren, 2 bullfinches, 2 chaffinches, 2 moorhens, 2 magpies, 1 long-tailed tit, all side-blown, one hole, in exchange for 1 coot, i common heron, I wild duck, I partridge. Will exchange singly.-C. D. Heginbothom, Patwell House, Bruton, Somerset.

Oldhamia antiqua and O. radatia, Cambrian rocks, Bray Head. What offers in minerals or fossils for the above?William Doyle, Seapoint Road, Bray, Ireland.

SHELLS.-Pecten maximus, P. tigrinus, P. opercularis, Lasaa rubra, Lucina spinifera, Cyprina islandica, Astarte triangularis, Venus exoleta, V. lincta, Tapes virgineus, Tectura testudinalis, Trochus montacuti, T. tumidus, T. milligranus, T. Ziziphinus, Rissoa membranacea, R. fulgida, R. cingillus, R. violacea, Hydrobia ulva, H. ventrosa, Natica montacuti, N. alder, Trichotropsis borealis, Cerithopsis tubercularis, Murex erinaceus, Defrancia linearis, and Pleurotoma turricula. Also land and freshwater shells in exchange for micro-slides, insects, shells not in collection, or books on any of the above subjects, or what offers ?-W. D. Rae, 9 Claremont Terrace, Alpha Road, Millwall, London, E. OFFERED, SCIENCE-GOSSIP for 1885, and January to April, 1886; "Entomological Magazine," June, 1885, to April, 1886; "The Entomologist," 1885 (bound). Wanted, birds' eggs.O. Weiss, 87 Hasborne Road, Birmingham.

WATER immersion of R. and J. Beck, cost 8/., nearly new (180° N.A. 10s); a splendid lens. What offers ?-E. Wagstaff, Waterworks Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham.

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AMERICAN lepidoptera, and cocoons and chrysalids of same. American birds' eggs and Indian relics offered for exotic lepidoptera other than European. S. American, African, and Australian especially desired.-Levi W. Mengel, Reading, Penna.

WANTED, any books relating to microscopy, also good unmounted material, in exchange for choice microscopic slides of every description.-R. Suter, 5 Highweek Road, Tottenham.

DUPLICATE Copy of Christy's "Birds of Essex" (just published, demy 8vo., price 15s.), offered in exchange for any other similar county ornithology.-W. W. Porteous, Saffron Walden.

TEXT-BOOKS for Intermediate Science (London), offered in exchange for magic-lantern, slides, or text-books on geology, mathematics, or mental and moral science. For list apply toMagister," 8 Venetia Road, Finsbury Park, N.

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Planorbis corneus, var. albida, Vertigo pygmæa, Balia perversa, &c., and first-class microscopic slides. Wanted, Vertigo alpestris, and other British and foreign land and freshwater shells.-William Moss, 13 Milton Place, Ashton-under-Lyne.

I HAVE numerous duplicates in carboniferous fossils, including lepidodendron, sigillaria, neuropteris, sphenopteris, ulodenron, calamites, annularia, posidonia, aviculopecten, and orthoceras. I shall be pleased to make exchanges for chalk or eocene fossils.-W. A. Parker, 634 Market Street, Facit, Rochdale.

FIFTY foreign stamps (no German or English), Playtime Naturalist" (5s. book, quite new), "Works of Mrs. Hemans" (5s. book, quite new). What offers in exchange for any of the above?-Richd. B. Corbishley, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancs.

FOR exchange, good fossils from millstone grit of following genus, all named and localized: productus, bakevellia, gerVillia, orthis, natica, bellerophon, schizodus. Also from Yoredale shales, Gonatites reticulatus. Wanted, fossils from Silurian, Ordovician, Cambrian. Send lists to-W. F. Holroyd, Greenfield, near Oldham.

WILL any collector of fossils, who has named duplicates to spare, kindly send them to a small local museum now being formed? Address-A. L. D., The Vicarage, Southboro, Tunbridge Wells.

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SCIENCE-GOSSIP for 1889, "Naturalists' Gazette," 1889-90, "Field Club," 1890. unbound, good condition. What offers in natural history?-W. Turnbull, 1 Horne Terrace, Edinburgh. HEADS of mummy cats, in very good preservation. Desiderata, foreign sponges, echinidæ, crustacea, or insects.-C. Walker, Mossy Bank, Egremont, Cheshire.

SEVEN hundred species of shells for exchange. Exotic land shells particularly desired. Lists exchanged.-W. Bendall, 28 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, W.

AUSTRALIAN plants, New Zealand ferns, mosses, lichens, shells, and packets of micro material, with references to published papers in which the deposits are described, offered in exchange for foreign land and freshwater shells not in collection, or works on conchology.-W. A. Gain, Tuxford, Newark. WANTED, side-blown eggs of sparrow-hawk, kestrel, landrail, and many others, in exchange for rare eggs.-Jas. Ellison, Stecton, Keighley.

WANTED, fossils from various localities; a large number of good duplicates offered in exchange.-Thomas W. Reader, 171 Hemingfoad Road, London, N.

OFFERED, "Science for All," 5 vols. (unbound), Fullom's "Marvels of Science," "Text-Book of Mineralogy," and Professor Geikie's "Text-Book of Geology," &c., in exchange for British land and freshwater mollusca not in collection. Send list to-E. H. J. Baldock, 67 Brewer Street, Woolwich. SHELLS from Red Crag.-Astartejomalii, Cardita planicosta, cardiums, Cyrena cunuformis, Natica clausa, pectens, Trophon clathratum, Fusus contrarius and antiquus, Nassa reticosa, Purpura reticosa. Wanted, fossils from chalk, gault, Weald clay, and Tunbridge Wells sands.-Curator, Oakfield, Southborough, Tunbridge Wells.

DUPLICATES.-Sophina calias, Streptaxis Blanfordi, S. Theobaldi, S. Burmanica, S. bombax, S. exacutus; Clausilia Waageni, C. Theobaldi, C. insignis, C. Gouldiana, C. cylin

drica; Helicarion Flemingii, Cataulus albescens, Raphaulus chrysalis, Hybocystis gravida, Cyclophorus Siamensis, C. speciosus. List of many others. Desiderata, Indian and South American land shells.-Miss Linter, Arragon Close, Twickenham.

WANTED, a good copy of Davidson's "Silurian Brachiopoda," ""Annals and Magazine of Natural History," series 5, vol. iii., and any papers on the graptolites.-J. Bickeston Morgan, Welshpool.

WANTED, about a tablespoonful of sand rich in microscopic shells, forams, &c., also dried leaves of Onosma taurica, and frond of Davallia canariensis showing fructification.-H. Ebbage, Framlingham, Suffolk.

OFFERS wanted for 13 vols. of SCIENCE-GOSSIP, 1875-1887, bound in publisher's blue cloth, in good condition. AddressH. Muller, Mottingham, Eltham, Kent.

SIDE-BLOWN eggs of whinchat, sedge, garden and willow warblers, tree and meadow pipits, skylark, reed bunting, great titmouse, bullfinch, rook, jackdaw, swallow, sandmartin, ringdove and lapwing for exchange. Offers to-R. Larder, 33 Mercer Row, Louth, Lincs.

SCIENCE-GOSSIP (1885-89) in exchange for perfect microslides or recent text-books-list first.-W. E. Watkins, 32 Huntingdon Street, Barnsbury, N.

WANTED, a petrological microscope, with or without acces sories, by Swift or Crouch. Particulars to-Micro, 8 Tothill Street, S.W.

WANTED, M. pellucida, incurva, H. ventrosa, P. fontinale, Pl. dilatus, A. lacustris, &c. Offered, P. contecta, P. corneus, and many other British land, freshwater and marine shells.-W. T. Pearce, 101 Mayfield Road, Seafield, Gosport.

"MAGAZINE of Natural History," conducted by Loudon and Charlesworth, 1829-1840, 13 vols., half-calf, Hooker's "Student's British Flora," "Naturalist," vol. v., 1879-1880, entomological collecting box, japanned tin, 11 inches by 8 inches, hardly used, in exchange for works on natural history, Herbert's "Amaryllidacea," or offers.-Rev. W. W. Flemyng, Clonegam Rectory, Portlaw, co. Waterford.

WANTED, foreign worms, living or in spirits, in exchange for British earthworms correctly named (including Allurus tetradrus, Allolobophora chlorotica, Lumbricus rubellus, the Brandling and others); sent alive or preserved.-Rev. Hilderic Friend, F.L.S., Idle, Bradford.

BOOKS, ETC., RECEIVED.

"The Autobiography of the Earth," by the Rev. H. N. Hutchinson (London: Edward Stanford). "Fresh-Water Aquaria," by the Rev. Gregory C. Bateman.-"Poems," by Nina F. Layard.-"Applied Geography," by J. Scott Kettie (London: Geo. Philip & Son).-"Soap Bubbles," by C. V. Boys; and "Spinning-Tops," by J. Perry (London: S.P.C.K.). -"Pasteur and Rabies," by T. M. Doulon (London: G. Bell & Sons).-"Sound, Light, and Heat," by J. Spencer (London: Percival & Co.).-"Electro-Motors," by S. R. Battone (London: Whittaker & Co.).-"Metal Turning," by a Foreman Pattern Maker (London: Whittaker & Co.).-"The Natural Food of Man," by Emmet Densmore (London: Pewtress & Co.). "The Electric Light Popularly Explained," by A. Bromley Holmes (London: Bemrose & Sons).-"Fathers of Biology," by Chas. McRae (London: Percival & Co.).-"The Canary Book," Part 8.-"British Cage Birds," Part 8."Researches on Micro-Organisms," by Dr. A. M. Griffiths (London: Bailliere, Tindal & Cox)." The Darwinian Theory of the Origin of Species," by F. P. Pascoe (London: Gurney & Jackson).The Geology of Barbadoes," by J. B. Harrison and A. J. Jukes-Brown.-"Ocular Symptons found in Paralysis of the Insane," by Dr. C. A. Otwer.-"The Essex Naturalist," July to September.-Wesley's "Nat. Hist. and Scientific Book Circular," No. 105.-" American Microscopical Journal." -"American Naturalist."-" Canadian Entomologist."-"The Naturalist."-"The Botanical Gazette."-"The Gentleman's Magazine."-"The Midland Naturalist."-"Feuille des Jeunes Naturalistes."-"The Microscope."-" Nature Notes." -"Proceedings of the Geologists' Association."-"The Philosophy of Cycling."-" Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists' Society."-"Transactions of the Penzance Nat. Hist. and Antiquarian Society."-"The Naturalist's Annual and Directory for 1891."-"Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales."-" British Cage Birds," Part 7. -"Electricity in Every-Day Life."-"Insect Life," Nos. 2 and 3.-"Revision of a Genus of Fossil Fishes, Dapedius.""The Geology of Sutton Coldfield," &c., &c.

COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED UP TO THE 14TH ULT. FROM: C. D. H.-F. A. L.-H. B.-J. E. L.-H. P.-E. W.O. A. W.-W. D. R.-W. D.-W. T.-Miss L.-E. H. J. B. -J. W. R.-J. B. M.-W. A. G.-W. J. S.-J. E.-E. G. P. -W. B.-E. B.-Dr. G. T. C. M.-C. W.-F. C. M.L. W. M.-J. C. S.-R. S.-H. D.-W. W. P.-W. M.W. A. P.-W. B.-R. A. B.-J. B. C.-A. B. G.-W. E. W. W. T. P.-G. H.-H. M.-H. G. W.-W. W. F.-W. T. H. -H. W.-Dr. A. O.-A. B. G.-A. E. S.-R. B. C.-V. A. L. -C. W. P.-&c., &c.

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N employing a metaphor drawn from common life to illustrate the curious tendency of the human mind to look only at one side of a question, I take refuge behind the great name of Mr. Herbert Spencer, who drives home some of his weightiest arguments by the help of familiar metaphors.

We will suppose a medal struck in memory of some

great event in the history of a nation. On the ene side is represented a figure of the country; on the other a fleet in full sail. What should we say if two opposing schools arose, one of whom vehemently maintained that the medal represented a female figure, whilst the other as stoutly contended that it represented a fleet? Should we not feel inclined to exclaim, "A plague o' both your houses!" and request the disputants to look at both sides of the [medal? Yet, notwithstanding the incredible progress attained by physical science through steady adherence to the principles of inductive reasoning, there seems some weakness of the human mind which leads it constantly into the old vicious methods of à priori argument. People do not now sit down and proceed to construct a scheme of the universe out of their own inner consciousness, and make all facts fit into a bed of Procrustes, as was the cheerful custom with philosophers of old. But, whilst appearing to follow the inductive method with sedulous No. 314. FEBRUARY 1891.

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care, there is too often a fatal bias in the thinker's mind, which places everything which makes for his theory in a bright light, and obscures, or wholly blots out, all evidence that goes against it. In many cases, perhaps in most, the thinker is not aware of his bias, but, as Darwin says in one of his letters, "Nearly all men past a moderate age, whether in years or in mind, are, I am firmly convinced, incapable of looking at facts from a new point of view.' And for this reason he "thinks it of importance" that intelligent men who are not naturalists should read his book, because he "thinks such men will drag after them those naturalists whose ideas are fixed." In reading Mr. Wallace's "Darwinism," I have been forcibly reminded again and again of the words just quoted. Mr. Wallace, one of the few still left to us of a generation of great men, has had the happy fortune to inspire, in those who only know him through his works, not only high esteem but affection. High esteem for the quiet magnanimity with which he accorded to Darwin the victor's wreath he might have aspired to wear himself; affection, for the kindness of heart his works constantly betray-a kindness of heart which shrinks from seeing that "Nature, red in tooth and claw," of whose existence most of us are painfully aware. But, notwithstanding the sentiments of affection and esteem which are inspired by the name of Mr. Wallace, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that his mind is hardly, if at all, influenced by the discoveries of the last quarter of a century. It is true that he alludes to some of these, but in a very cursory way, as though hardly worthy of attention or of argument. He believes in natural selection pure and simple, with its odd theory of constant variations occurring for no reason, and owing their origin to nothing in particular. Moreover, these erratic variations must occur of their own accord in successive generations, because he can find no satisfactory evidence of use or disuse of parts being inherited! Nor, though he admits that changes in

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