NOTES. 



43i 



The respiration of insects has been the 

 subject of study by M. Contejean, who has 

 found that, contrary to what takes place in 

 vertebrates, the movement of inspiration is 

 passive and that of expiration active. The 

 air is driven from the body by a contractile 

 effort. Hence, when the insect is wounded, 

 the flow of blood occurs at each expiration. 

 The respiratory movement is not interrupted 

 by cutting off the head, nor by the absorp- 

 tion of curare, whch produces an immediate 

 cessation in man. 



Dr. G. Meter thinks that he is able to 

 assume, from a comparison of the records of 

 a number of years, that the moon has an 

 influence in lowering the height of the ba- 

 rometer in the months from September to 

 January, at the time of full moon, and in 

 raising it during the first quarter. His 

 views are confirmed by the independent 

 studies of Captain Seemann, of the Deutsche 

 Seewarte. No effect has been perceived in 

 the other months. 



The property marking bacteria and ba- 

 cilli of absorbing aniline and being killed 

 by it has been put to good use by two 

 German observers, Messrs. Stilling and 

 Wortmann. Having demonstrated that the 

 violet aniline dyes, without arsenic, were not 

 poisonous to rabbits and guinea-pigs, the 

 authors produced eye-disorders in those ani- 

 mals, and treated them successfully with 

 aniline. They then tried the human subject, 

 and cured a skin-ulcer on a scrofulous child, 

 by daily dropping a little aniline solution on 

 the sore. Similar good results were had 

 with bad cases of eye disease ; and it soon 

 appeared that many surgical cases were 

 open to treatment in this way, and that, in 

 general, wounds and sores developing suppu- 

 ration could be sterilized with aniline. It is 

 thought that cases of internal inflammation 

 may also be within reach of this treatment. 



Pensions have been granted in the Eng- 

 lish civil list to Dr. Huggins, the widow of 

 the Rev. J. G. Wood, and the four unmar- 

 ried daughters of the late Rev. M. J. Berke- 

 ley. 



Mr. G. W. Hambleton regards consump- 

 tion as depending on conditions that reduce 

 the breathing surface of the lungs below a 

 certain proportion to the rest of the body. 

 The conditions include sedentary overcrowd- 

 ing, want of exercise, defective seats, ill- 

 fitting clothes, and whatever may impair the 

 lungs or lead to undue compression of the 

 chest. Remedies should be sought in free 

 country life, well-ventilated rooms, suitable 

 chairs, and clothing free from constriction 

 and not too heavy The earliest physical 

 training should aim at the full development 

 of the thorax. Persons whose breathing 

 capacity does not measure up to the normal 

 should not engage in any occupation tending 

 to constrain the chest or to expose the lungs 

 to the inhalation of dust. 



Prof. F. W. Oliver has published a pa- 

 per on the floral biology of the flower Epis- 

 cia maculata, a plant which, recently sent 

 over from British Guiana, first flowered at 

 Kew last summer. It is remarkable in that 

 the flowers are never open, but the front 

 lobe of the corolla is from the first folded 

 back, so as to close the mouth like a cork. 

 Nevertheless, all the arrangements are such 

 as are adapted for cross-fertilization by the 

 agency of some insect. The plant is unique 

 in being at once closed and yet requiring the 

 visit of an insect for its fertilization. 



Advantage is to be taken of the height 

 of the Eiffel Tower to fix in it a manomet- 

 ric tube in which mercury can be poured 

 to form a column that will give a pressure 

 of four hundred atmospheres. M. Cailletet 

 hopes to be able to make use of this enor- 

 mous pressure in continuing his experiments 

 on the liquefaction of gases. 



A deposit of floridite, or phosphate of 

 lime, described by Prof. E. T. Cox as found in 

 Florida, occurs in beds from a few feet to 

 thirty-seven or more feet deep at places, over 

 an area of 120 miles north and south, and 

 20 miles east and west, and consists of 80 

 per cent pure phosphate. The author be- 

 lieves that it is derived from the mineraliza- 

 tion of an ancient guano. 



The crumpled and crushed form of the 

 human ear is accounted for by Prof. II. D. 

 Garrison as a result of the habit of lying on 

 the side of the head, which habit has been 

 induced by the increasing weight of the 

 brain. The question, says the author, in his 

 paper on the subject, read at the American 

 Association, had originally been whether the 

 animals through which it had been developed 

 would profit most by large brains or by per- 

 fect and symmetrical hearing apparatus, and 

 had been promptly decided by natural selec- 

 tion in favor of large brains. 



The Biological Section of the American 

 Association has approved of a movement to 

 establish a biological station on the Gulf of 

 Mexico, for which subscriptions of $25,000 

 have been promised. The station will prob- 

 ably be located at Tarpon Springs, Fla., 

 where there are fine opportunities for the 

 study of fresh and salt water, as well as of 

 land forms. 



Dr. William Huggins has been chosen 

 to be President of the next year's meeting of 

 the British Association to be held in Cardiff, 

 Wales. The meeting of the Association in 

 1892 will be held in Edinburgh. 



Prof. A. J. Cook, speaking of the Food 

 of Bees, remarks that the carbohydrates 

 are sufficient for the life of the insects, but 

 that they must have nitrogenous food to 

 support them during the process of repro- 

 duction. The former they derive from the 

 honey of plants, the latter from spores, 

 grain, fungi, and bee-bread. 



