Page:Hardwicke's Science-Gossip - Volume 1.pdf/77

1, 1865.]

nursery precincts, that "poor dear master could not live, because the death-watch was a-ticking like mad all night long in his room." I, in great sorrow, told my playfellow of her papa's doom; she repeated the tale to her mamma, a nervous, credulous woman, who became very desponding, and actually shook her head at the family doctor on the occasion of his next visit, when he was trying to inspire her with hope of his patient's recovery, repeating old nurse Jones's words.

I think I see the expression of his face now, as he quoted the following lines—

and proceeded to tell Sara and myself all about the tiny beetle that made the noise. 2em

is well-known that many lives have been lost by wounds received in anatomical research. The symptoms are those of hydrophobia, &c., and other modifications of blood poison. It is usual, therefore, in medical schools, to warn young students, and tell them the remedy. The advice is generally this: If the wound be slight, and no blood flows, it is the more dangerous; if deeper, so that there is a free flow of blood, less so. Always suck the poison out in the first case, and wash it well afterwards. This explains the lancet and porous stone absorption. As regards the milk, has anything else in which the virus is soluble been experimented on? Perhaps this latter custom may be well placed side by side with the custom of old doctors, of administering such simples as ammonia, albumen, &c., in the most nauseous forms, upon the principle—"℞ creduletatis quant. suff."

"Berthollet mentions eight kinds, chiefly phosphates, some resinous, biliary, and ligniform. Bezoars were deemed efficacious, not only when taken as medicine, but even when merely carried about the person; so that credulous people would hire them for particular occasions at a ducat per diem A single oriental bezoar has been known to sell for 6,000 livres They have now lost all reputation, and are never used Factitious bezoars have been made of various materials, the nearest probably made from gypsum stained by some vegetable juice. It is said, however, that tobacco-pipe clay tinged with ox-gall is commonly employed, since it answers to the genuine tests (vegetable stains do not)—1st, a yellow tint to paper rubbed with chalk; 2nd, green colour to paper rubbed over with quicklime. Bezoar orientale concretion found in 4th stomach of Capra agagrus of Persia (said to be), oblong, size of kidney-bean, shining olive or dark green in colour. Bezoar occidentale, 4th stomach of chamois of Piedmont sometimes as large as a hen's egg; surface rough; colour green, greyish, or brown." The old terms Bezoar Bovinum, B. Hystricis, B. Simiæ, B. Hominis (?), will of course explain themselves to your zoological readers. A. P. H.

.—The most magnificent oak ever known to have grown in England was probably that dug out of Hatfield bog; it was 120 feet in length, 12 in diameter at the base, 10 in the middle, and 6 at the smaller end where broken off; so that the butt for 60 feet squared 7 feet of timber, and 4 for its entire length. Twenty pounds were offered for this tree.—Knapp's Journal.

Helix obvoluta.—The principal locality for this shell is Ditcham Wood, Hampshire, where it may be found in abundance, but may be overlooked by one who is not familiar with the habits of this mollusk. The snail, like Bulimus montanus, is a great climber, and may be seen on the trunks of Fagus sylvatica as far up as the eye can distinguish them—a peculiarity that is not noted in our manuals. One, then, who would be repaid for his shell hunt must take pattern from that, that he would secure and ascend the trees; for among the moss and leaves at the base only dead specimens are met with. Living specimens of all ages show the epidermis clothed with hairs.

Clausilia Morilleti.—In a list of the land and fresh-water shells of the neighbourhood of Hastings, inserted by me in the "Magazine of Natural History" and "Naturalist," 1858, p. 99, a variety of C. Rolphi is alluded to, but is not referred to any published form. My examples I subsequently submitted for determination to Mr. W. Benson, who at once recognised them as C. Mortilleti. This species had only been then discovered two years, and has been found in three localities—Charing, in Kent; and Birdlip and Charlton, near Cheltenham. I would now record a fourth, that of Hastings. I have not seen indicated the character of the situations in which the Kentish and Gloucestershire shells are found, but from the different conditions under which I find C. Rolphi and its ally in the Hastings district, I am convinced that the latter is but a variety of the former. The C. Mortilleti is a less ventricose shell, of a paler colour, and without the small plaits; but all these variations may be attributed to the differences that prevail in the habits of the respective forms. Thus var. Mortilleti I found only in the damp and shady recesses of Coghurst Wood, while C. Rolphi occured very plentifully in the dry and open parts of the wood at Fairlight Glen. That C. Mortilleti is a mere synonym of C. Rolphi I do not agree with.

Achatina acicula.—This shell has occured to me only in two districts—one, among the stones of the walls of Hastings Castle; the other, on the Cotswold plateau, over an extensive area—in the former locality at an elevation of 200 feet, and in the second of 500 to 1,000 feet, above the level of the sea. These situations are dry and bleak, and are not habitats assigned to this species—for it is said to be found at low altitudes, and only in a living state at a depth of some inches beneath the surface. Are these ubobserved facts?

Planorbis corneus.—Mr. J. G. Jeffrys writes of the coil-shells, that "some of the smaller species of Planorbis, inhabiting marshes and very shallow water, which are dried up in summer, close the mouth of their shell with an epiphragm or filmy covering like that of some land-snails." I have recently observed this peculiarity in the largest of the British species of that genus, P. corneus. Some living specimens of this species, which I had taken from the pond on Hampstead Heath in September last, were placed in my botanical box, where they remained disregarded for several days; on examining them, I found that the mouths of both young and old shells were closed by a pellucid pellicle of dried mucus, and presenting a minute respiratory aperture towards the lower corner. , F.G.S