NOTES. 



127 



bound together by strings of iron and wire. 

 This becomes a sort of stone-cloth, avail- 

 able for floors and doors, as well' as walls 

 aud ceilings, so that no wood whatever need 

 be used. 



A small pike caught by Dr. Charles C. 

 Abbott, of Trenton, New Jersey, seemed to 

 be unusually corpulent, so the fish was dis- 

 sected. It was found to contain a large 

 mud-minnow ; within the minnow was a 

 pike about two inches long, and within the 

 pike the remains of another mud-minnow ! 



The action of sundry drugs on the liver 

 has been experimentally studied by Drs. 

 Rutherford and Vigu.d, the result going to 

 show that podophylline, aloes, and colchi- 

 curu, are powerful hepatic stimulants. The 

 same property, but in an inferior degree, is 

 possessed by rhubarb, senna, taraxacum, 

 and scammouy. Croton-oil appears to have 

 but little action on the liver. In three cases 

 out of four calomel had no action on the 

 liver, and in the fourth the secretion of bile 

 was slightly increased. 



The Lancet publishes a list of British 

 physicians deceased last year at an advanced 

 age. There are nineteen names in the list, 

 and the sum of their ages amounts to 1,617 

 years, showing an average age of eighty- 

 five years. The greatest age attained by 

 any of the deceased was ninety-six years, 

 and three had reached that term. The low- 

 est was seventy-six years, at which age two 

 of the deceased ended their career. 



The Monthly Weather Review of the 

 Signal-Office records the following phe- 

 nomena for December, 1875, namely : Dan- 

 delions in bloom at Brownsville, Pennsyl- 

 vania, on the 23d ; 24th, pinks and hyacinths 

 in bloom at Brookhaven, Mississippi; 25th, 

 peach-trees in bloom at New Orleans ; 31st, 

 peach and cherry buds swelling at Litch- 

 field, Michigan, and on the same day roses 

 in bloom at Green Springs, Alabama. 



As mentioned in the Notes of the No- 

 vember number, the Abbe Moigno, of Paris, 

 has published several papers by Tyndall, 

 Huxley, Du Bois-Reymond, and others, ac- 

 companying them with refutations of their 

 authors' freethinking arguments. The good 

 abbe doubtless meant well, but the Roman 

 " Congregation of the Index " finds in his 

 book more poison than antidote, and ac- 

 cordingly forbids it to be circulated. 



Earthquake-shocks are stated in the 

 Monthly Weather Review to have been felt 

 on December 3d at Carson City, Nevada 

 (slight); 13th, at Maricopa Wells, Arizona; 

 21st, at Santa Barbara, California; 22d, at 

 Fortress Monroe, Virginia ; also at New 

 Market, Indiana ; Greensboro, North Caro- 

 lina ; Petersburg, Virginia ; and other points 

 in Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. 



A committee of the Boston Society of 

 Civil Engineers has drafted *a form of peti- 

 tion to be addressed to Congress, asking 

 for the establishment of the metrical system 

 of weights and measures in this country. 

 This system is now in use in all European 

 countries except England, Norway, Sweden, 

 Russia, and Turkey. It has also been 

 adopted in Mexico and the various states 

 of South America. 



The Royal College of Surgeons, of Eng- 

 land, having been advised by eminent coun- 

 sel that the terms of their charter require 

 them to admit women as candidates for 

 their diploma, have announced that they 

 are now ready to admit women to the ex- 

 aminations, on the same conditions as men. 



The repugnance of the Chinese to rail- 

 roads is based upon an article of their reli- 

 gion ancestor-worship. Constructors of 

 railroads pay no respect to ancient burying- 

 places, but run their lines right through 

 them, thus disturbing the repose of the 

 dead. This disregard of the sacredness of 

 the last resting-place of the departed griev- 

 ously scandalizes the devout Chinaman. 



Cynodrakon Major is the name pro- 

 posed by Prof. Richard Owen for a reptile 

 having some points of mammalian resem- 

 blance, some fossil bones of which have 

 been found in the late palasozoic or early 

 mesozoic formation of South Africa. Prof. 

 Owen thinks he recognizes in these fossiL? 

 some indications of retrogression rather 

 than progression in descent. A problem is 

 here presented for which, in Owen's opin- 

 ion, neither the Lamarckian nor the Dar- 

 winian theories offer any answer. 



We learn from the American Naturalist 

 that a summer School of Biology will be held 

 in the Peabody Museum at Salem, Massachu- 

 setts, beginning July 7th, and continuing 

 six weeks. Special attention will be given 

 to marine botany and zoology. Mr. J. 

 Robinson will be instructor in botany, with 

 C. H. Higbee as assistaut. A. S. Packard, 

 Jr., w r ith the assistance of J. S. Kingsley 

 and S. E. Cassino, will give instruction in 

 zoology. Special instruction in microscopy 

 by Rev. E. C. Bolles. The number of pu- 

 pils is limited to fifteen. 



Further experiments with salicylic acid, 

 made by Feser and Friedberger, show that 

 it may be administered for a long time, in 

 small doses, to domestic animals, without 

 injurious effects to digestion, nutrition, or 

 general health. But, given to a dog in the 

 proportion of one gramme to five kilo- 

 grammes of the animal's weight, salicylic 

 acid causes paralysis of the extremities and 

 disorder of the respiration and circulation. 

 Death from strong doses of the acid results 

 from paralysis of the respiration. 



