Gleanings.
Dr. Prescott Joule has been granted a Civil List Pension of £200 per annum.
Yorkshire College, Leeds.—The late Mr. Henry Brown. J.P., formerly of Bradford, has bequeathed to the College £5,000, for founding and maintaining scholarships,
A Natural History Museum is to be erected at Bolton. The foundation stone was laid early in July.
Diatromaceous Material.—Hardwicke's Science Gossip announces that Mr. Clark, the Secretary of the San Francisco Microscopical Society, is now enabled, by the kindness of the State Geological Survey, to offer return exchanges of the Pacific Coast diatomaceous deposits on receipt of any valuable microscopical material.
Science and Art Department.—Messrs. Chapman and Hall have just published for the Department, in one volume, a selection of the Free Evening Lectures, delivered in connection with the Scientific Apparatus Loan Collection, in 1876. Among these, as of local interest, we quote Mr. Harrison's lecture "On the Study of Local Geology, with Illustrations from Leicestershire." There are also good papers by the Earl of Rosse, Professors Roscoe, Tyndall, Gladstone, Hull, Spottiswoode, &c.
Dipping Tube.—We desire to draw attention to a useful form of glass dipping tube, which can ye obtained of Mr. Bolton, 17, Ann Street, Birmingham, for sixpence. It has a funnel top, on which some thin indiarubber is tied. There is a small hole in the side of the tube, which can be closed at will by one finger, when a slight touch of the stretched indiarubber cover of the funnel by another finger will, as may he desired, draw up or force out a column of water. The microscopist will find that under a dissecting microscope, with the help of this tube, be can readily pick out very minute and lively Infusoria, &c., for examination.
Excursion to the Bas Boulonnais.—The Geologists' Association has issued the programme of a week's visit (August 5—10) to the neighbourhood of Calais and Boulogne, there to inspect the eastern termination of our Wealden area, together with the Oolitic, Carboniferous, and Devonian rocks which crop out from beneath the former beds. The directors are M. E. Pellat, Dr. C. Barrois, and S. R. Pattison, Esq., and it needs little power of prevision to indicate a most pleasant and instructive week for those members who cross the Channel. England is evidently getting too small for our scientific societies!
A Roman Villa has recently been found during some excavations at Abinger, Surrey, on the property of Mr. T. H. Farrer. The remains at present disclosed consist of a portion of the atrium, or reception hall, with a pavement of small red tesseræ, more or less worn in parts, and now well secured from the weather by a thick thatch of straw placed carefully over it; an apartment to the north-east of this, measuring 11ft. by 6ft., and divided from the adjoining ones by well-built walls of stone and brick, another room running eastward, of similar dimensions, and another below this, on the south side, of a square form measuring 11ft. 6in. by 11ft. Beyond, directly eastward, as well as southward, are indications of other chambers, but at present Mr. Farrer has not proceeded further in the excavations. Silver and bronze coins, red and white tesseræ, pottery, some pieces Samian, nails attached to portions of roof tiles, &c., have already been met with.
