expected to rise in price. Locusts multiplied in 1812 and 13, 1822, 1834, 1843 and 44, 1865, 1868 and 69, 1877-79, that is at the period of fewest sun-spots, a rule that appears to hold good for the entire Northern Hemisphere. I once endeavoured to ascertain the destructive species, but could meet with no corresponding enthusiasm in the matter. According to Toaldo, the price of wheat in Lombardy was highest in 1685, 1690, 1693, 1696 and 1700, 1709 and 1715, 1722, 1729, 1735, 1739, 1743 and 47, 1756, 1759 and 63, 1766, 1773, 1778; dates which will serve to show how a general law locally varies.

Horace hears the winter breakers pounding the sea cliffs, and scolds Leuconoe for trying the Babylonian numbers, and chaunteclere has been known to twit Madame Pertelote as being at the root of the matter. But when the air grows soft on the springing corn we need no longer sigh over the hidden fate of Romulus, Tullus, or Ancus, for these dire numbers stand in the margin of everybody's Bible, could anyone suggest how to consult them to any profit. Certainly if we commence B.C. 588 and add eight and three alternately we may calculate out a very perfect table of destiny for the kings of Judah and Israel, so that like some warning prophet we might have loomed on each in turn and propounded the alternative of a seven years' war, a famine, a distemper or an abdication ; or we may if desirable begin B.C. 1014 and compute by adding the sevens, but in this case the dates will be less nearly approximated. Proceeding by either method, we infallibly arrive at one or the other of the cardinal dates of the Prophet Daniel employed in astrological predictions, and continuing down to our own times, it will become self evident that the Jubilee dates of the Bible, taken as they stand, represent the mean series of most and fewest sun-spots. Possessing such a table, we shall awake to the same dark shadows playing everywhere over the open page of history, notably embodied in the rush of the barbarians over the rustling corn-lands of the west at the decline of the Roman Empire, a battle-cry of famine, nowhere so photophoned as in the burden of the valley of Jehosaphat, when the earthquake roars and the sun dons its noontide sackcloth; Hamonim, harmonim, bemek hacharutz,' whose refrain as the moon arises red we catch in 'canes ululare per umbram.'

'We are seven,' said Wordsworth's smart schoolgirl; they are seven, was then the dark song of fate; the child sneezed its seven times. But there must have been room for a range of opinion, for on one of the Assyrian signets the king stands before his burning tree crowned with the seven-rayed sun, which has the adjunct of eight pomegranate-like side cressets, and so very confident is he in his arrangement, that he holds what looks like a bell-rope communicating with the Deity, in apparent disregard of a priest opposite, who tugs just such another; the reverse is seen in the resourceless monarch who weeps over the face of the prophet exclaiming, 'O thou chariot of

Israel and horseman thereof.' Two arrows fly to glitter in the sun, five or six blows are struck on the land of milk and honey, though the medieval alchemist would have transmuted all to gold from spirits four and bodies seven, and Josephus thinks that the arrows were necessarily three. Is this thy place, sad city, this thy throne, where the wild desert rears its craggy stone, while suns unblest their angry lustre fling? we feel ever ready to exclaim, inured to the smooth, uneven, star and planetary stops of a brilliant millennium, that warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees; though even in our green native lanes, far remote from throne or senate, we do all unawares encounter the white-winged angel as our destiny, in the shape of a barking cough, bronchitis, rack of nerve or muscle, prelusive of the end. On the 29th of April, 1882, it was truly painful to behold the seared and blooming cheeks of nature, the greenwood scorched and withered on its southern aspect, as though scathed with flames, or languishing in the breath of autumn that benumbs the bumbles on the thistle tufts. The aristocratic elms stood like ragged foresters rayed half green, half umber; the horse chestnuts and hawthorns showed piteously their white china flowers from among sienna leaves; the oaks in flower and leaf looked as though hung on the sunnier side with charred paper, leprous with an orange fungus; the limes and sycamores had their leaves. shrivelled. In the neighbourhood of the tropics these stormy winds whirl the dust-storms over hot sands, in their furnace breath the top of Carmel withers, there is a galloping in the trees, the locusts teem, and the five-and-twenty prophets come forth to gaze at the sun arising on Olivet, and exclaim, 'This is the cauldron and we are the flesh.' The Indian statistics show that behind a drought does not necessarily stalk a famine, but Mallet's tables render it perfectly clear that eruptions and earthquakes occur in spells at the epochs of most and fewest sun spots. In vain was Catherine mangled and borne through mid-air to saint a Sinai that does not glow, for the gentler sex remain. of opinion that a blazing mountain admonishes the earth; Proserpina has left us a nosegay, and Agatha her veil, such were ever the resort of the prophet and the seer in evil times. According to an author quoted, Julianus states that in the reign of king. Theodoric, when his wife's grandfather was returning by sea from Sicily to Italy, the ship stopped at one of the Lipari islands, where a hermit told him that Theodoric was dead. The hermit knew the fact from having seen the king, on the previous day, dragged between John the Pope and Symmachus the patrician, ungirt, unshod, and in chains, and thrown into the crater of the volcano. The kinsman of Julianus made a note of the day, and found, on his arrival in Italy, that Theodoric had died at the time of the appearance described by the hermit. It may be remarked that John and Symmachus had been put to death by

Theodoric; albeit the date 526 A.D. is fatal, and the coincidence certainly striking. It is a little singular that Professor Sayce, in translating the allegory of Bel and the Dragon, should not have recognised in it a base version of the Jewish lawgiving, the Assyrian tables being of moral import and not of moral weight, the shadow and fruit of that golden tree whose gay visions of the earth's childhood are still the bane and perdition of our modern culture. The meteorology and geology patched together infallibly outlines in barbarous hauruspid style the ruddy clouds, the lightnings, the belching, the red lava, and the terrific reflexion of the volcano. 'None among the gods surpasses thy power; as an adornment he has founded the shrine of the Gods, which is become thy home, O thou that avengest us. May thy destiny, O Lord, go before the gods, and may they confirm the destruction and the creation of all that is said. Set thy anouth, may it destroy the plan; turn, speak to him, and let him produce again his plan. Go, they said, and cut off the life of Tiamet; let the winds carry her blood to secret places. They showed his path and they bade him listen and take the road. He made the club to swing, the bow and the quiver he hung at his side; he set the lightning before him, with a glance of swiftness he filled his body. She recites an ancantation, she casts a spell. Bel made an evil wind to enter, so that she could not close her lips. The violence of the winds tortured her stomach, and her heart was prostrated and her mouth twisted. He swung his club, he shattered her stomach, he cut out her entrails; he mastered her heart. The elevenfold offspring are troubled through fear. And he took from him the tables of destiny. He lit up the sky, the sanctuary rejoiced. Bel measured the offspring of the deep, he established the upper firmament as This image.' In Syria during a famine when a change of dynasty was contemplated, a prophet, we are told, resorted to a cave in Mount Horeb. A strong wind rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks before Jehovah ; after the wind came an earthquake and after the earthquake a fire; when Moses ascended Sinai at the delivery of the law, 'the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.' It is the precedent to cast dates from an Astronomical canon: that of the Alexandrine astronomers gives the following dates for the kings of Assyria, commencing at Cyrus, B.C. 538, 555, 559, 561, 604, 625, 647, 667, 680, 688, 692, 693, 699, 722, 724, and 729; the one enclosed will cast with but small deviation and error those of

Israel and Judah. If winds and earthquakes are regarded, then, as an expression of the Divine will, and these are found to be in turn caused by the sun; it is difficult to see how the sun and stars can be excluded, save there exist some incomprehensible distinction between judicial cosmology and judicial astronomy.

A. H. SWINTON.

SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

We would draw the special attention of our readers to an article in the last number of the "Annals and Magazine of Natural History," by Professor Rukenthal, “On the Adaptation of Mammalia to Aquatic Life." He believes the toothed whales and the whalebone whales have each had a separate origin and development.

THE last number of the Feuille des Jeunes Naturalistes has a capital and comprehensive article by M. Billet on "Notions Élémentaires de Bacteriologie."

WE are pleased to announce that the valuable notes and memoranda of the veteran Norfolk geologist, the late Mr. John Gunn, will shortly be published, under the title of "Memorials of John Gunn." It cannot fail to be a deeply interesting book.

PART IO of "The Canary Book," by R. L. Wallace, and part 10 of "British Cage Birds," by the same author, are to hand (London: L. Upcott Gill), Both parts are well up to their high mark.

We have received number 106 of Wesley's "Natural History and Scientific Book Circular,” containing 48 pp., all of which are devoted to works on Botany..

A WORK of much labour as well as of love is the Rev. E. N. Blomfield's brochure on "The Lepidoptera of Suffolk," published by W. Wesley & Son. It runs to 60 pp., and is a model of careful exactness, due to vast painstaking.

AT a meeting of the Institut de France (Académie des Sciences), Paris, held on December 29th, Dr. A. B. Griffiths, F.R.S.E., F.C.S. (an old contributor to SCIENCE-GOSSIP), was awarded an "honourable mention" in connection with the Prix Montyon which is given annually for researches in experimental physiology and physiological chemistry.

AN interesting addition has just been made to our British Pleistocene fauna by Doctor Leeson's discovery of a portion of the skull of the Saiga antelope (Saiga tartarica) in the Thames graves at Twickenham. Its remains had previously been found in the caverns of France and Belgium.

A NEW fossil wading bird has been found in the cretaceous rocks of Sweden, and named Scaniornis Ludgreni.

THE next International Congress of Geologists will assemble at Washington, U.S.A., on the 26th of August, after the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which will be held the week before. It is expected that the committee will be able to obtain from the ocean steamship lines very favourable terms for foreign

members. The secretaries are Messrs. H. S. Williams and S. F. Emmons, Washington.

MR. E. H. HANKIN, of St. John's College, Cambridge, is said to have discovered a cure for anthrax, to the study of which disease he has devoted himself many years. He based his investigations upon the principle of lymph inoculation, which Dr. Koch has so successfully applied in the case of tuberculosis. The glycerine extract in Mr. Hankin's process is precipitated with alcohol and re-dissolved in water. The experiment has been repeated on a number of subjects with gratifying success. This discovery derives additional interest from the fact that anthrax is not the only disease from which rats (the spleen of which animal produces the protective proteid) enjoy immunity.

A FRENCH chemist, according to the "Daily News" of February 11th, claims to have discovered the true process of photographing in correct colours.

WE are glad to see that the "Oological Expedition" to the Shetland Isles, projected in Birmingham, will not be allowed to take place. The question came up in Parliament on February 17th. Vandalism of this kind ought to have no mercy shown it.

We are sorry to record the death of an old contributor to our columns in Dr. H. B. Brady, F.R.S., &c., of Newcastle. Dr. Brady was distinguished for his large and specialistic knowledge of the Foraminifera, and Fossil and recent, on which he wrote several monographs, including the two superb quarto vols. on the Foraminifera of the 66 Challenger' expedition. He died at the comparatively early age of 55.

MICROSCOPY.

THE VERTICAL CAMERA. --Referring to a note I sent you about the use of the Vertical camera, I have received a letter from Messrs. Beck giving me full instructions. It only came to hand by last mail, and I see from it that the use of a slope is what they recommend. This I did not know when I wrote to you, and a notice in an old number of the "American Monthly Microscopical Journal" (on the distortion, apparently irremediable, incidental to one of the American forms of camera) rather served to mislead me. There is nothing new in the slope, and if you have not already consigned my note to the waste paper basket, pray do so.-W. J. Simmons, Calcutta.

THE QUEKETT MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. - The January number of the Journal of this well-known club contains the following papers :-"On the Vibratile Tags of Asplanchna,” by C. Rousselet; "On the Stridulating Organs of Cystocalia Florida," by R. T. Lewis ; "On the Reproductive Organs of some of

the Florida," by T. H. Buffham; "On Lacinularia, and a New Rotifer from Guildford," by G. Western; "On a New Diatom from the Estuary of the Thames,” by W. H. Shrubsole; "Note on Dinops longipes," by C. Rousselet; "On the Human Spermatozoa," by E. M. Nelson, &c. The plates are numerous and good.

ZOOLOGY.

THE MIMICRY OF MANTIS.-An insect which is not uncommon in India is a medium-sized mantis, between three and four inches in total length. It is one of those mantises which have a long slender thorax, and which, owing to the second and third pairs of legs being very long, carry their thorax and head very high. In this insect the thorax is about half its entire length, and is of a bright grassgreen colour without any markings, and it obviously mimics a grass stem. The abdomen is also some. what slender, the wing-covers are of a grass-green colour, without markings, and it obviously mimics a grass blade. But in both these cases the mimicry is obvious, as also the reason for it, and it is not what I wish to call attention to. The first joint of the fore-legs is widened and flattened; it is also green, and the posterior surface is marked with a large ocellus. When the insect is undisturbed it remains generally in one place, but is not perfectly motionless; it sways perpetually and uniformly from side to side. In this position it looks very harmless, but if it is startled or alarmed its aspect instantly changes; it partly opens the wings, turns its head and thorax so as to face the terrifying object, makes a noise like a sudden, sharp puff of wind, very like the noise made by a startled snake, and raises its fore-legs so that the first joint lies along the thorax, and the inside margin of the expansion being nearly straight, it looks as if the fore-legs and thorax were connected. In this position the ocelli are very con. spicuous, and with the small, triangular head, and the slender thorax, the effect is to produce a ludicrous resemblance to a diminutive cobra. Now, what puzzles me is this exact resemblance. The insect could not possibly be taken for a cobra on account of its small size and green colour; while if the object is only to appear formidable it could have been obtained without imitating a cobra so exactly. It may be suggested that there is no direct imitation, but that the same causes which have led to the development of the eye-spots in the cobra have also led to the development of ocelli in this insect, viz., that the apparent possession of a large head gives the animal more formidable appearance; but this explanation is apparently negatived by the pecular noise made by the insect, which certainly seems to indicate that a snake is imitated. Possibly the object of the noise is to suggest that it is some kind of snake, and then the

ocelli may suggest that it is one of the cobra kind. May be, some of your readers may be able to suggest a better explanation. Anyhow, the thing is curious, and I think worthy of note.-J. R. Holt.

66

HERTFORDSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY.We have received the May, July, September, and December parts of the Transactions of this well-known society, containing the Anniversary Address by the President Lord Clarendon, on "Field Sports and their bearing on National Character," and the following original papers—“Seeds and Fruits, their Structure and Migrations," by A. E. Gibbs, Meteorological Observations," by John Hopkinson; "Record of Water Level in a Deep Chalk Well at the Grange, St. Albans," by H. G. Fordham; "Local Scientific Investigation in Connection with Committee of the British Association," by John Hopkinson ; "Geological Photography in Hertfordshire," by John Hopkinson; "Some Hertfordshire Well Sections," by Wm. Whitaker; "Report on the Rainfall in Hertfordshire in 1889," by John Hopkinson; "Climatological Observations in Hertfordshire in 1889; " "Half-a-century Rainfall in Hertfordshire ;"" Notes on Birds observed in Hertfordshire in 1889," by George Rooper, &c.

INFLUENCE Of the Late Severe Winter On SMALL BIRDS.-The feathered tribes, especially the insectivorous species, suffered terribly during the inclement weather of December and January. Hedge accentors, tits, thrushes and blackbirds tried to keep life in their poor little famished bodies by 'coming round houses and disputing for stray crumbs with the sparrows. The want of food and water seemed to affect birds more even than the cold. In my outdoor aviary where the birds had abundance of food and water to drink, but little special protection against the cold, greenfinches seemed quite indifferent to the weather, but I had a few casualties among the other birds, especially the linnets. On the whole, however, they bore the severe cold very well indeed; a tame moor-hen I have in an out-door aviary seemed absolutely indifferent to it.-Albert H. Waters, B.A., Cambridge.

LOVERS of Natural History are invited to join the Practical Naturalist's Society. Beginners may join as Associates. Prospectus for stamp from the Secretary, Willoughby House, Mill Road, Cambridge.

BOTANY.

ORNITHOPUS Ebracteatus.—Mr. Haydon, in his note about the Cyprus Spurge, which was published in your January number, mentioned that the Ornithopus ebracteatus was found at Folkestone by a visitor in 1888. As I was fortunate enough to discover it there in the same year, perhaps he would kindly let

me know to whom he refers; amongst my own books I could find no reference to it, except as growing in the Scilly islands. I therefore sent it to the Secretary of the Natural History Society at Folkestone, but for this and other specimens I have sent him I have had no acknowledgment. I presumed it was not considered of sufficient value to be mentioned. In future I will record all my findsțin your columns as Mr. Haydon suggests.-G. Abbott, Tunbridge Wells.

PLANTS FOUND IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF OXSHOTT, SURREY, SEPTEMBER 27TH, 1890.The following is a short general description of the district of Oxshott Heath, Surrey, and a list of plants observed there on the afternoon of September 27th, 1890, when the writer formed one of the members of a natural history excursion-party. The plants have all been recorded for the county, and so, scientifically, their present mention is of little value; but to those among whom this magazine circulates, who are little accustomed to moorland scenery, they may give some idea of flowers likely to occur in such districts. Oxshott Heath is about seventeen miles from the centre of London-I say centre because the metropolis is only too rapidly pushing out one of its arms in that direction, and the speculative builder is busy at work not many miles off. For so near London some of the plants are by no means of frequent occurrence, and the writer would urge upon collectors to gather their specimens with a sparing hand. Nearly all this district is in the Bagshot sand formation; and close to Oxshott railway station there is a curious sandy knoll or hill of considerable height; these sand-hills, many of them clad with Scotch fir, are quite a characteristic of this district. The St. George's Hills, near Weybridge, not many miles from Oxshott, are another good example. Although much of the Heath is elevated, covered with ling, furze, and clumps of fir-trees, there are peat-bogs abounding in sphagnum-moss, and in these most of the rarer plants are to be found. The plants noted were as follows:-Ulex nanus, Forst., very abundant on the sandy open parts; Scabiosa succisa, L., abundant ; Sonchus arvensis, L., abundant; Calluna vulgaris, Salisb., in large masses, and still in full bloom; Erica Tetralix, L., fairly abundant in the moister parts; the flowers of some plants were very pale, almost white, in fact. E. cinerea, L., very frequent ; Drosera rotundifolia, L., in fair quantity, growing amongst sphagnum-moss. D. intermedia is known also to occur, but none was noted on this occasion, and it is fortunate for its own sake that it is not easy to find in this locality. Teucrium Scorodonia, L., very common; Mentha Pulegium, this plant, which is rare elsewhere, was found in considerable quantity in the bog. Scutellaria minor, L., found very sparingly; Verbena officinalis, L., one patch found by roadside. Narthecium ossifragum, Huds. (Lancashire bog-asphodell), in large quantity in the bog, but only

in seed. These plants were growing in a sheltered position; but on Sept. 3, 1890, I found plants of N. ossifragum on Ashdown Forest, Sussex, in an equally advanced condition, but these were growing in a bog in an open wind-swept gulley. Can any reader inform me whether an exposed situation causes such plants to flower and mature earlier than those growing more or less under the shade of trees? Lastrea dilatata; Lomaria spicant (immature), on banks; Lucobrium glaucum, in clumps, abundantly under the fir-trees. Sphagnum squarosum, S. cymbifolium, and S. acutum, in bogs. Marchantia polymorpha, abundant on the banks of ditches. In the case of identification of some of the plants my best thanks are due for help kindly given by some members of the excursion-party.—Archibald Clarke.

GEOLOGY, &c.

COAL SECTIONS.-What is the best and simplest method to make sections of coal, fossils, rocks, other than by the grinding process? Such as those made by Professor Williamson or Boyd Dawkins, of Manchester, and in the Museum (? The transparent). I do not know the acid or bleaching agent.-V. A. Latham, F.R.M.S., F.G.S.

BOULDERS IN THE MIDLANDS.-One of the best and cleanest finished bits of original work we have seen for some time is Mr. F. W. Martin's paper on "The Boulders of the Midland District " (a second report), reprinted from the "Proceedings of the Birmingham Philosophical Society." It is illustrated by a vigorously drawn map, showing the distribution of Midland boulders and the parent rocks from which they have travelled. Mr. Martin's paper is the most valuable contribution to local geology we have seen for some time.

THE GEOLOGY OF BARBADOES.-Very few nooks and corners of the globe are more geologically interesting than the West Indian Islands. Mr. J. B. Harrison, and Mr. A. J. Jukes-Browne have just issued a pamphlet on the subject published by the Barbadoes Legislature. The chapters relating to the Physical Geology of the Island are extremely interesting. The sections are instructive. Barbadoes is a typical "Oceanic Island," and is therefore worth double study. Messrs. Harrison and Jukes-Browne have here turned out good, and well concentrated work.

THE CORAL ROCKS OF BARBADOES.-Messrs. Jukes-Brown and Professor Harrison recently read an interesting paper on this subject before the Geological Society. They first discussed the coral reef growing round Barbadoes, and described a submarine reef, the origin of which was considered. It was pointed out that there is no sign of any subsidence having

taken place, but every sign of very recent elevation. They then described the raised reefs of the island, extending to a height of nearly 1100 feet above sea level in a series of terraces. The thickness of the coral rock in these is seldom above 200 feet, and the rock does not always consist of coal debris. At the base of the reefs there is generally a certain thickness of detrital rock in which perfect reef-corals never occur. The collections of fossils made by the authors have been examined by Messrs. E. A. Smith and J. W. Gregory. Of the corals, five out of ten species identified still live in the Caribbean Sea, and one is closely allied to a known species, whilst the other four are only known from Professor Duncan's descriptions of fossil Antiguan corals. The authors are of opinion that the whole of the terraces of Barbadoes, the so-called "marl" of Antigua, and the fossiliferous rocks of Barbuda are of Pleistocene age. The authors proceeded to notice the formations in other West Indian islands which appear to be raised reefs comparable with those of Barbadoes, and showed that these reefs occur through the whole length of the Antillean Chain, and indicate a recent elevation of at least 1300 feet, and in all probability of nearly 2000 feet. It appears improbable that each island was a region of separate uplift, and as a plateau of recent marine limestone also occurs in Yucatan, this carries the region of elevation into Central America, and it is reported that there are raised reefs in Colombia. The authors concluded that there has been contemporaneous elevation of the whole Andean Chain from Cape Horn to Tehuantepec and of the Antillean Chain from Cuba to Barbadoes. Before this there must have been free communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, which is confirmed by the large number of Pacific forms in the Caribbean Sea. Under such geographical conditions the great equatorial current would pass into the Pacific, and there would be no Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic.

THE GLACIAL PERIOD.-We have received a copy of Mr. Dugald Bell's paper, republished from the Transactions of the Glasgow Geological Society, on the "Phenomena of the Glacial Period," dealing especially with "the great submergence." It is one of the most exhaustive papers on the subject we have come across, and is well illustrated by maps, etc.. This is Part ii. and we should be pleased if the author would send us Part i.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

RABBIT DYING OF OLD AGE.-In December a male rabbit, which has been in my possession from the age of three months, died, to all appearance of old age; he would have been ten years old in March next, the claws were considerably over an inch in length. A female of the same litter was so vicious,. though always kindly treated, that it was necessary