NOTES. 



767 



animals are very much enraged, or when 

 they are charging an assailant, this sound 

 changes into a hoarse roar or terrific 

 scream. The fourth sound betokens dis- 

 satisfaction or distress ; it is repeated fre- 

 quently when an elephant is separated from 

 the herd, or is tired, hungry, or overloaded ; 

 it may be thus imitated : urmph, urmph. 



NOTES. 



Written, as the little sketch of " Audu- 

 bon's Flower" was, where access to books 

 was impossible, and upon the memory of a 

 reading of twenty years ago, I fear that, in 

 the closing part, I may have overstated. 

 It is not meant that Audubon named the 

 flower, except conceptionally, or mentally, 

 but that he did name it so far as a truthful 

 bit of art could do, subordinated to a scien- 

 tific conscience. S. L. 



Dr. Lawson Tait finds that, as a rule, 

 the ear in women can perceive higher notes 

 (i.e., sounds with a larger number of vibra- 

 tions per second) than the ear in men. 

 The highest limit of and ability for the 

 human ear is somewhere between 41,000 

 and 42,000 vibrations per second. Very 

 few of the persons experimented on by Dr. 

 Tait had equal sensibility to acute sounds 

 in both ears the right ear usually hearing 

 a higher note than the left. The sense of 

 direction of the sound in the human ear 

 seems to be lost at a very much lower point 

 than appreciation of the note. This, how- 

 ever, is not the case with cats. 



On January 1 1th died Mr. Alfred Smee, 

 aged about sixty years. He was elected 

 Fellow of the London Royal Society at the 

 early age of twenty-one. Among his pub- 

 lished works were the following : " Ele- 

 ments of Electro-Metallurgy," " Elements 

 of Electro-Biology," " Monogenesis of Phys- 

 ical Forces," " The Mind of Man," etc. 



Karl Ernst von Baer, the eminent 

 biologist, whose death occurred in Novem- 

 ber, was born in Esthonia, February 12, 

 1792. In 1819 he became Professor of 

 Zoology in the Konigsberg University. He 

 was called to St. Petersburg in 1834, and 

 was appointed librarian of the Academy. 

 He led a scientific expedition to the north- 

 ern shores of Russia in 1837. He wrote 

 several works on zoology and botany, es- 

 pecially those of Northern Russia. 



Wilhelm F. B. Hofmeister, Professor 

 of Botany in the University of Tubingen, 

 and author of several works on plant phys- 

 iology and embryology, died on January 

 12th, at the age of fifty-two years. 



The world of science has recently suf- 

 fered another loss in the death of David 

 Forbes, F. R. S., the geologist, at the early 

 age of forty-eight years. He was a great 

 traveler, and among his published papers 

 may be named those on the " Relation of 

 the Silurian and Metamorphic Rocks in the 

 South of Norway," and on the " Geology of 

 Bolivia and South Peru." 



Blanca Peak, in Colorado, the elevation 

 of which was determined last year by Hay- 

 den's survey, is probably the highest point 

 within the limits of the United States. Its 

 height is 14,464 feet ahj>ve the level of the 

 sea. There are in Colorado over fifty other 

 peaks which rise more than 14,000 feet 

 above sea-level. 



Mr. Robert E. C. Stearns mentions, in 

 the American Naturalist, two remarkable 

 instances of vitality in snails. One snail, 

 of the species Bulimus pallidior, lived for 

 two years, two months, and sixteen days, 

 without food, and at the end of that pe- 

 riod appeared to be in pretty good health. 

 Another, Helix Veatchii, lived without food 

 from 1859 till 1865. Both of these species 

 of snails are indigenous to nearly rainless 

 regions. 



There is a pretty constant increase in 

 the decennial number of plural childbirths 

 in the kingdom of Prussia. In the period 

 between 1824 and 1834 this class of births 

 amounted to 112 per 10,000 births, and the 

 same proportion was repeated in the suc- 

 ceeding decennium. From 1844 to 1854 

 the proportion was 114 to 10,000; from 

 1854 to 1864, 123 ; from 1864 to 1874, 128. 

 Of these plural births, the immense majority, 

 nearly 99 per cent., were twins. Triplets 

 were somewhat less than 1 per cent. In 

 over 6,000,000 births there were only 79 

 cases of four at a birth, and one case of 

 five at a birth. 



The Atamasco Lilt. A new form of 

 this favorite amaryllis, A. Atamasco, has 

 been found in Florida by Mrs. Mary Treat. 

 It is an earlier flower than the old form, 

 and is larger and handsomer. 



It was stated by Mr. Sidebotham, at a 

 meeting of the Manchester Literary and 

 Philosophical Society, that aniline colors 

 are now much used by artists both for paint- 

 ings and water-color drawings. But, as 

 nearly all of these colors fade under the 

 action of light, no artist who wishes his 

 work or fame to endure can afford to em- 

 ploy them. 



Years distinguished by a maximum of 

 sun-spots coincide very closely, according 

 to Prof. Fritz, of Zurich, with years of ex- 

 traordinary hail-fall, or unusual average 

 height of the great rivers. 



