NOTES. 



863 



The largest trees known are probably a 

 Eucalyptus amygdalina, or "peppermint- 

 tree," growing in the Daudenong district of 

 Victoria, Australia, which is said to meas- 

 ure 370 feet to the starting-point of the 

 crown, and 417 feet to the top, and a speci- 

 men of the same species, mentioned by 

 Baron Ferdinand von Miiller as having 

 reached the incredible height of 480 feet. 

 A tree was cut near Ballarat in 1869 which 

 was 96 feet in circumference at the ground, 

 34 feet at 12 feet above the ground, 8 feet 

 at the height of 144 feet, and at 210 feet 

 was still five feet in circumference. An- 

 other tree measured three feet in circum- 

 ference at the extreme point of its height, 

 3S5 feet, while its real top seemed to be 

 missing. 



The death is announced of Theodor 

 Schwann, the distinguished physiologist, 

 whose name is inseparably connected with 

 the history of the " cell theory." He was 

 born in 1810 near Diisseldorf, but spent most 

 of his active life as Professor of Anatomy 

 in the Catholic Universities of Louvain and 

 Liege, Belgium. Three important pieces of 

 work, each of which has been the starting- 

 point of endless researches, are due to him. 

 The first consists in his observations a:d 

 reflections relative to the cell-structure of 

 organisms ; the second, his discovery of the 

 organic nature of yeast, of the yeast-plant 

 as the cause of alcoholic fermentation, and 

 of organisms as the cause of putrefaction in 

 general ; and the third, his investigation of 

 the laws of muscular contraction. 



Dx. W. J. Hoffman observes, in his " An- 

 notated List of the Birds of Nevada," that 

 the absence of birds in large areas in that 

 State, and their abundance in certain locali- 

 ties, " can mainly be attributed to the pe- 

 culiar distribution of the vegetation. ' With 

 the birds, as with insects, particularly the 

 Coleoplerce, if an area of vegetation, com- 

 posed of a certain class, be found, we gen- 

 erally know what may be expected as typ- 

 ical of that area. The greater altitudes 

 attained in the Rocky Mountains have fur- 

 nished additional facts regarding the breed- 

 ing of certain species, which may truly be 

 considered sub-Alpine when compared with 

 their northward range." 



The statements in reference to the edu- 

 cation estimates for England, made by Mr. 

 Mundella, in the House of Commons, indi- 

 cate that it is the intention of those having 

 the matter in hand to make elementary edu- 

 cation more efficient and better adapted to 

 convey to the pupils a knowledge of those 

 things that will be really useful to them in 

 after-life. Among the amended provisions 

 of the code -laid before the House was one 

 for giving in infant schools a systematic 

 course of simple lessons on objects and on 



the phenomena of nature and common life. 

 Among the " class-subjects " in boys' and 

 girls' schools are physical geography and 

 elementary science, and among the specific 

 subjects are mechanics, animal physiology, 

 botany, the principles of agriculture, and 

 domestic economy. 



Dr. Edward T. Carswell, in his ad- 

 dress as president before the American 

 Academy of Medicine, takes strong grounds 

 in favor of requiring evidence of graduation 

 from a college as a condition of admission 

 to the medical school, and of the abolition 

 of the fee system, as essential elements of 

 reform in medical education. 



The recent International Medical Con- 

 gress in London recommended as tests for 

 sight, to be enforced on signal-men and 

 look-out men at sea, that in all ocean-going 

 vessels there should always be in actual 

 control of the helm a person possessing 

 with both eyes, without glasses, normal 

 sight both as to acuity and colors, and that 

 in addition one of the persons on the look- 

 out should be similarly qualified ; that in 

 vessels engaged in the coasting-trade, every 

 J person liable to take charge of the helm 

 l should possess sight under similar con- 

 ditions, equal to at least two thirds of the 

 normal ; that all persons engaged in marine 

 signaling and all pilots should have normal 

 sight ; and that hypermetropic (over-sighted) 

 persons should not be admitted. The con- 

 gress also advised the constitution of an 

 international commission to consider the 

 means of improving the system of signals, 

 and to fix upon the standard colors and 

 upon the sizes of the signals to be em- 

 ployed. 



The death of Br. Christian Gottfried 

 Andreas Giebel, Professor of Zoology in the 

 University of Halle, was recently announced. 

 He was born in 1820, and had occupied his 

 professorate at Halle since 1860. Be was 

 the author of numerous works in his branch 

 of science, among which were the " Fauna 

 of the Primitive World " (1856), " The Mam- 

 malia in their Zoological, Anatomical, and 

 Paleontological Relations " (1S55), " A Nat- 

 ural History of the Animal Kingdom " (1864), 

 "Agricultural Zoology " (1S69), a " Thesau- 

 rus Ornithologiae " (1877), and a work on 

 " Parasitic Insects," besides numerous small- 

 er works. 



Du. J. Bouillaud, a French physician 

 distinguished for his researches in heart dis- 

 ease, died in Paris last October, in the eighty- 

 sixth year of bis age. He discovered the 

 relations between organic affections of the 

 heart and acute articular rheumatism, and 

 recognized and partially defined the ana- 

 tomical lesion which produces aphasia. He 

 published his first work, a "Treatise on Dis- 

 eases of the Heart," in 1824. 



