Genre:

Introduction; Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Observation, Palaeontology, Monstrosities, Darwinism, Evolution, Supernaturalism, Animal Behaviour, Breeding, Astronomy, Meteorology, Amateurism

    Presents some 'diversified intelligence' to leaven the 'dearth of all news but war-news'. It consists of brief reports of scientific and apparently miraculous phenomena observed by professional and amateur practitioners. For example, in a report entitled 'Origin of Species' (the title of Darwin 1859), it claims that 'a sow in the possession of Mr. Mangold farmer, of Snorton Suis, produced on the 24th inst. a farrow of nine piglings, one of which has a snout terminating in a proboscis similar to that of the elephant, only of smaller size. This aberrant little pachyderm presents an illustration of the Theory of Development which may be acceptable to Mr. Darwin'.