When Cowper wrote in his "Invitation into the Country," addressed to the Rev. Mr. Newton, the lines

"The swallows in their torpid state
Compose their useless wing,
And bees in hives as idly wait
The call of early spring,"

he undoubtedly expressed an opinion which has been held by all nations from the remotest antiquity. The Jesuit missionary Huc quotes an old Chinese naturalist named Luchi to this effect: "The ancients thought that swallows changed their climate, but it is difficult to imagine how they should have done so, since no one has ever seen them set out in the direction of southern countries, nor proceed in troops, like the migratory birds that come every year from Tartary, and return thither in the spring. These draw themselves up into regular armies, and their passage lasts several days; whilst the swallows when they disappear from one province are not seen in any greater numbers, in the other, even in the provinces nearest the sea ;" and he concludes by saying that the swallows do not emigrate, but remain always about the same country, and during the winter merely hide themselves in holes and caverns. The naturalist Spallanzani saw swallows in October on the island of Lipari (near Sicily), and was told that when a warm south wind blew, they were frequently seen skimming about the streets. He thence concluded that the swallows did not all go over to Africa, but remained in the island, issuing from their warm retreats in quest of food on hot days. The Dutch naturalist Jonston says, "It is certain that in hollow trees, lying many close together, they (the swallows) preserve themselves by mutual warmth ;" and the old ornithologists Albertus Magnus, Gaspar Heldelin, Augustine Niphus, and others held this idea also. In England, White of Selborne held the hybernation of swallows as an indisputable fact, and the Rev. W. T. Bree, who turned his attention to the subject, corroborated him. He says, after reviewing the circumstances of the case, "However far they may fall short of positive proof, they undoubtedly afford much probability to White's opinion, that the hirundines do not all leave this island in winter." Linnæus expressly asserts that "the chimney-swallow, together with the window-swallow, demerges, and in spring emerges." Baron Cuvier asserts of the bank-swallow as "well authenticated, that it falls into a lethargic state during winter, and even that it passes that season at the bottom of marshy waters." The objections to this theory of the torpidity of swallows are numerous; probably the most weighty are, firstly, that they are physiologically unsuited for the process, and, secondly, that experiments have failed to prove their powers of endurance either of cold, hunger, or submersion.

With regard to the first objection, it may be replied that in the bat, dormouse, bear, and other hybernating animals there are no such structural peculiarities as would lead us to expect them to become torpid in winter; and with regard to the second, it must be remembered that it is impossible for us to simulate the exact conditions by which nature induces torpidity, and that in all probability if these experiments had been tried upon the bear or other creatures known to become torpid, they would have resulted in failure, and yet not have disproved the facts of the case.

I now come to the consideration of the all-important question, Have swallows ever been discovered during winter in this state by competent witnesses? This, Mr. Gould, Professor Owen, and others who discredit the old theory deny; and it is but just to confess that there is much difficulty in getting reliable evidence about it. To recur to China, M. Huc tells us: "It is recorded in the annals of China that the people being overwhelmed by the misfortunes that afflicted them during the reign of the Emperor Ngan-ty, more than a thousand families deserted their villages, and went to seek a refuge in the wildest mountain solitudes, in order to escape the horrors of insurrection and famine. As there were no vegetable crops, they were reduced to feed on rats and swallows, which they found collected in masses in the caverns and hollows of the rocks." Another historian reports an analogous fact: "The Emperor Yang-ty having ordered some repairs on the banks of the Yellow River, there were found immense multitudes of swallows collected in the holes and caves of the rocks, and wherever the shore was steep and solitary." These extracts are taken from a work entitled "The Chinese Empire," by M. Huc.

In one of Knight's Educational Series the following is recorded: "The Hon. Daines Barrington told Mr. Pennant, on the authority of Lord Belhaven, that numbers of swallows had been found in old dry walls and in sandhills near his lordship's seat in East Lothian; not once only, but from year to year; and that when they were exposed to the warmth of the fire they revived. We have also, he adds, heard of the same annual discoveries near Morpeth, in Northumberland, but cannot speak of them with the same assurance as the two former; neither in these instances are we certain of the particular species. In other places," he continues, "they have been found, but I will not vouch for the truth of it; as, first, in a decayed hollow tree that was cut down near Dolgelly, in Merionethshire; secondly, in a cliff near Whitby, in Yorkshire, where, in digging out a fox, whole bushels of swallows were found in a torpid condition; thirdly, the Rev. Mr. Conway, of Lychton, Flintshire, a few years ago, between All Saints and Christmas, on looking down an old lead mine in that country, observed numbers

of swallows clinging to the timbers of the shaft, seemingly asleep, and on flinging some gravel on them, they just moved, but never attempted to fly or change their place." The proverb "One swallow does not make a summer," which is common to almost every language, confirms the theory, since it is more reasonable to consider the isolated swallows seen on warm winter days to be members of the

do not accord with their preconceived and arbitrary ideas of the laws which govern nature? F. A. ALLEN.

PROCESSES AND INFLATIONS IN DIATOMS.

weather from their retreats, rather than as the forerunners of an immigration which often does not occur for weeks or months afterwards. Numerous cases have been adduced of lumps of torpid swallows having been found under ice, and in the mud-beds of lakes. Olaus Magnus, a Swedish Archbishop, says, in a work published in 1555: "From the northern waters swallows are often dragged up by fishermen in the form of clustered masses, mouth to mouth, wing to wing, and foot to foot, these having at the beginning of autumn collected amongst the reeds previous to submersion." And he goes on to say: "When young and inexperienced fishermen find such clusters of swallows, they will by thawing the birds at the fire bring them indeed to the use of their wings, which will continue but a very short time, as it is a premature and forced revival." Etmuller, a professor at Leipsic, a century after, asserts that he found more than a bushel measure of swallows closely clustered under the reeds of a fish-pond, under the ice, all of them, to appearance, dead, but the heart still pulsating." The English naturalist Derham also cited in 1713, at a meeting of the Royal Society, the personal testimony of a Dr. Colas, who asserted just the same facts. Allowing for exaggeration, it is quite possible that the swallows which become torpid upon river banks should fall upon the ice or amongst the reeds, and that the fact of their being discovered, occasionally, in these positions, should have given rise to wild and visionary tales.

But it may be said, All these are old wives' fables; have you no modern testimony to adduce? In the third volume of "Kingston's Magazine for Boys," now defunct, on pages 267-8 will be found a very interesting communication from an anonymous correspondent signing himself M. K., stating that a friend of his father once found a bird-ball upon the banks of the Ribble, which sprang into life upon being placed near the fire. The pages of SCIENCEGOSSIP itself will also afford confirmatory evidence of a very late date; for this I beg to refer my readers to pages 118 and 160 of vol. ii. In these very recent statements of eye-witnesses almost every one of the assertions of the old writers is reiterated. On which side, then, I ask, lie the credulity and ignorance? On the side of those who adapt science to suit facts, or with those who disregard facts because they are old-fashioned, and

that the double valves of those that have processes have these processes situated alternately on the valves. Thus in a double valve of Auliscus Peruvianus, if, upon focusing for upper valve, the two processes appear, one to the right and the other to the left, then, upon focusing for the lower valve, the processes of that valve will be seen, one at the top, and the other at the bottom.

This rule will be found to be of general application, no matter what may be the number of the processes. Again, in the diatoms that have inflations, the same rule applies. For example, in the Aulacodiscus formosus, of Upper Bolivian Guano, the four large inflations of the upper valve are alternate in position to those of the lower valve. It follows, therefore, that in the multiplication of these diatoms by duplicative subdivision, the raised processes and inflations of one valve fall into the hollows and depressions of the valve with which they are in contact; and thus there is an example of that economy of space so frequently to be observed in natural productions, and there is less likelihood of the processes and inflations being injured by the abrasion of their raised surfaces against each other.

As the above facts may have escaped the observation of some who are interested in the study of diatoms, I have considered them worthy of a note in SCIENCE-GOSSIP. Armagh.

LEWIS G. MILLS, LL.B.

A LEAP FOR LIFE.-I remember on one occasion, how I saved myself, by a desperate manœuvre, from the jaws of a hungry trout. The savage brute singled me out from among all the rest of the shoal, and, hunting me round and round until I was well nigh exhausted, was on the point of making me his prey, when a bold and happy idea occurred to me: springing out of the water, six inches or more upon the dry shingle, I lay gasping and half dead with fear, but out of reach of my enemy. The refraction of the water enabled me to see him, though he could not see me; he beat up and down the spot at which I had disappeared, with much the air of a retriever puppy, when the squirrel he has chased for the first time takes refuge in a tree. His search being in vain, he retired, and I had just strength left to squatter into the water again, and soon regained my accustomed haunt beneath the stone.-Autobiography of a Salmon.

A

ACTINOPHRYS.

SPECIES of Actinophrys, which is not described in the "Micrographic Dictionary," occurs abundantly in some of the pools in this neighbourhood. It differs from 4. sol in being of a deep orange colour; but perhaps it may be only some peculiar condition of that creature. The body of this Actinophrys sometimes appears as a simply granulated mass, contained in a colourless envelope. At other times, the contents of the envelope are gathered into irregularly rounded masses of a darker colour, as at fig. 73, a. The tentacles are of various lengths, seldom exceeding the diameter of the body. Upon each tentacle there frequently occurs one or two very small globules of sarcode. These run rapidly from the body to the extremity of the tentacle, and after a little while

process. When one of the creatures had escaped, it assumed the usual round form, and then slowly moved away to a little distance. After a short time, it returned towards the other, which was in a similar manner passing out of the cyst. In a few moments more, a fusion or conjugation of the two took place (d), and the whole finally left the cyst, as at e. I have not noticed any further developments, though it is quite possible that the rounded bodies represented at a may be germs.

This may possibly be a new species, as it does not agree with any of the species given in the "Micrographic Dictionary." If so, perhaps Actinophrys aurea would describe it sufficiently. Markington, Ripley, Yorkshire. J. S. TUTE.

Τ

SALAMANDRINE.

means the creature is enabled to capture its food, and to draw it into itself. I have, however, never noticed any foreign body in it. During the winter months, it becomes encysted, and attached to the filaments of Spirogyra, and other similar floating plants; and in this manner becomes exposed to the influences of the sun and air.

d

QWR

Fig. 73. Actinophrys x 300.

The cyst consists of a tough, colourless, oval case, in which at last the creature becomes divided into two (6), the escape of which from the cyst I had an opportunity of observing.

From the ruptured side, apparently from a round hole, first one passed out (b, c), leaving the other in the cyst, with certain chocolate-coloured particles, some of which escaped at the same time with the Actinophrys, and were cast off into the surrounding water. These particles seem to be merely dead matter, thrown off during the encysting

as other writers of more recent times, relate extraordinary stories respecting certain Batrachians; and although a good deal of the more mysterious and extravagant of these statements has worn off in the course of time, the belief that toads, newts, and salamanders are highly poisonous animals was quite general down to our own times, when this

notion was altogether discarded as unworthy of our enlightened age. Many a modern work on natural history draws particular attention to this subject, and declares the suspicion with which these animals are still regarded by the uneducated to be wholly without foundation, and indeed a mere superstition.

Nevertheless, in this matter naturalists have clearly gone from one extreme to another, and this is only another instance proving how reluctant and, careful we ought to be in disregarding or denying altogether such statements of the ancient writers as may at first appear either untrustworthy or fabulous; for, though often distorted and exaggerated, they generally contain some foundation in fact.

During the last ten years several physiologists have paid attention to this subject, and have brought to light sufficient facts to re-establish the old belief in the poisonous nature of the toad, the newt, and the salamander; but the educated public seem to be still disinclined to recognize the results of their inquiries-relying no doubt on the fact that these harmless and inoffensive creatures have hardly ever an opportunity of bringing their venomous propensities into action.

In addition to the observations made by Gradiolet and Cloëz (Compt. rend. xxxii. p. 592; et xxxv. p.

729), and those by Vulpian (Etude physiologique des Venins Crapauds, du Triton et de la Salamandre terrestre, Mem. de la Soc. de Biologie, 1856, p. 122), there has recently been published a paper on the poison of the Salamandra maculata" by Dr. Zalesky, who has isolated and examined the poisonous principle of the secretion of this animal. This investigation has been carried out in the wellknown laboratory of Professor Hoppe-Seyler, at Tübingen, and is especially interesting on account of its being the first accurate chemical examination of an animal poison.

The poison was obtained by scraping the head and back of the animal with a teaspoon, and collecting thereby the whitish secretion, which is of a viscid consistency, possessing a strong alkaline reaction, an acrid bitter taste, and a faint but not unpleasant odour. From this secretion, the poisonous principle was isolated by a somewhat lengthened chemical process, and found to be a true alkaloid, possessing all the characteristic properties of this class of substances. That this alkaloid (Samandrine) is in reality the poisonous principle of the secretion of the salamander has been proved by direct experiments, which show that it belongs to the most potent poisons. A fish, a duck, and a dog to whom it had been administered, died of its effect.

There are a few instances on record in which cases of poisoning are ascribed to the salamander; but they are perhaps on the whole not well enough authenticated to be accepted as facts; it would therefore be interesting if this subject should receive some attention from those of your readers who may have an opportunity of making observations or collecting trustworthy evidence.

IN

H. M.

CLIP FOR ZOOPHYTE TROUGH.

N the ordinary zoophyte trough used for examining under the microscope animal or vegetable objects in water in a free, unconfined condition, the position of the inclined glass plate is regulated by an ivory wedge in front, supported by a whalebone spring at the back inside the trough; but this construction has the objection that the spring is liable to be upset sideways by an accidental touch of the hand, or by catching the stage bracket of the microscope, causing the object in view at the time to be suddenly washed out of the field and perhaps lost altogether, to the disappointment of the observer.

For the purpose of removing this objection, I have devised, in conjunction with Mr. Pumphrey, a double clip that takes the place of the wedge and spring, and is found very satisfactory and convenient, and quite free from risk of disturbance accidentally. This clip is shown full size in the accompanying drawing, and is made of a piece of ebonite about one-eighth

of an inch thick, having two long cuts upwards from the bottom end, inclined to one another so as to leave a wedge-shaped piece between them, corresponding to the ordinary wedge for regulating the position of the inclined glass plate; whilst the front and back portions act as spring clips, holding the front plate of the trough and the inclined plate, the two cuts in the clip being made narrower at the bottom end than the thickness of the glass plates, so as to hold them by a slight spring pressure, as shown in the detached view of the clip.

Fig. 74. Zoophyte Clip. Full size.

By sliding this clip up or down, the width of the space between the plates that contains the objects under examination, is regulated in the same manner as by the ordinary wedge; and the clip at the same time holds the inclined plate securely in each position, without any risk of being displaced or moved unintentionally, as the clip is entirely free from the back of the trough, and keeps clear of the stage bracket in all positions whilst the trough is being moved upon the microscope stage.

The narrowness of this clip is also an advantage, as the ordinary wide wedge occupies an inconvenient amount of the field of view.

The inclined glass plate, which is usually made as high as the back of the trough, is cut down in this case to the same height as the front of the trough, as this is found to be a sufficient height, and allows the clip to be shorter.

A specimen of these clips is enclosed herewith, and they are now made by Mr. Pumphrey, Paradise Street, Birmingham, from whom they can be obtained. In the drawing the larger of the two sizes of zoophyte trough in ordinary use is shown, but the same clips suit also the smaller size of trough, and in that case the original height of the inclined glass plate is not altered.

W. P. MARSHALL.

THE

JUVENILE MUSEUMS.

HE paragraph in the March number of SCIENCE GOSSIP, extracted from "Town Talk" in Fun, suggested to me the importance of adopting means to encourage young persons in various localities to make collections of natural objects, and the result is that I propose to arrange for offering prizes to the young people of both sexes in Northumberland and Durham for the best collections in the following departments; the prizes to be awarded in the month of October. I intend that four prizes shall

Natural History and Botany.

1st prize, any scientific instrument of the value of £1; 2nd prize, ditto, 10s.; 3rd prize, ditto, 6s.; 4th prize, ditto, 4s.

Department I.-The best collections of marine and freshwater alga, prepared, mounted, and classified.

Department II.-The best collections of marine and freshwater shells, prepared and classified.

Department III.-The best collections of ferns and wild flowers, dried, mounted, and classified.

Department IV.-The best collections of fossils from limestone, the coal measures, and clay slate, named and classified.

Department V.-The best collections of butterflies and moths, mounted and classified.

The conditions to be

I. That each boy or girl competing shall not be more than 16 years of age.

II. That they shall themselves gather the objects exhibited in competition.

III.—That all the objects exhibited be accompanied by a document, stating when, where, and by whom the objects were found.

IV. Any competitor may compete in any one or in all departments.

V. That all objects exhibited in competition be gathered during the present year.

VI.-Competent adjudicators to be appointed for each department.

VII.-All objects exhibited to be obtained within the area of Northumberland and Durham, or off their coasts.

VIII. Each competitor to arrange his or her objects in cases, which will be provided for the purpose in the Museum of the Natural History Society, or other convenient room.

IX.-All intending competitors to enrol their names before the end of May.

As it is desirable to discourage as much as possible the tendency to injure small birds, no prizes will be given for collections of birds' eggs.

I throw out these general suggestions in order that gentlemen in other parts of the kingdom interested in the spread of a love for Natural History

amount of ignorance of the natural history

of minute life abroad amongst the public, and the little trouble people will take to make the most trivial use of their common sense, when a novelty, embellished by plausible description, is presented to them, than the rampant nonsense which has been penned and believed in regard to the so-called gregarinæ infesting certain varieties of false hair. The "chignon controversy" has been one of the most widespread but at the same time transient sensations of the age: started abroad, it soon reached England, where it bewildered the fashion worshippers of the day. The immediate cause of this hubbub was the appearance in the Hamburg paper Der Freischütz, of the 7th of February, 1867, of an article based upon the account given in the "Archiv. der Gericht. Medicin und Hygienie," and in which we are informed that “Mr. Lindemann professes to have discovered and observed a new microscopical parasite, to which he has given the name of Gregarine. He reports, according to his observations, that the gregarine—a protozoic animalcule-is of the lowest order of development of the animal organism, and is found parasitically within the animal and human body, where it floats about with the blood, by which it is nourished. The most striking instance of the parasitism of the gregarine is said to be its existence on the human hair. The gregarinous hair, however, differs in no way from the sound hair. Only if one looks very closely, little dark brown knots, which are generally at the free end of the hair, may be distinguished even with the naked eye. Those are gregarines. Out of thirty samples of hair procured from a hairdresser in Nishni Novgorod, gregarines were found in seventy-five per cent. And it is well known that the hair used for the chignons of the better half of Russia is bought of the poor peasant women, who are proverbially of dirty habits. Pursuing his inquiry, Mr. Lindemann has discovered that almost every louse has in its interior an enormous number of gregarines, and he convinced himself by further experiments that the gregarines on the human hair are deposited there by lice. He observes that the most favourable conditions for the growth