4S0 Scientific lntelUge?ice. — Zoology. 



rao?ine, and of some other less considerable plains of the same 

 nature, resemble rock-salt, both in taste and quality. 



13. Fossil Organic Remains in Sutke?'Iand, and Fluor- 

 spar in the Ord of Caithness. — A letter from one of our pupils, 

 Mr Clarke junior, of Eriboll, informs us that he has found or- 

 ganic remains in a quartz-rock connected with the limestone of 

 Sutherland. This is, we believe, the second time petrifactions 

 have been found in a part of Scotland, so interesting from its 

 display of transition-rocks. Another of our pupils, Mr R. IL 

 Cunningham, has discovered veins of fluor-spar in the granite 

 of the Ord of Caithness. 



ZOOLOGY. 



14. Hydrophobia in Mohammedan Countries. — M. Serres, 

 in his instructions to the medical department of the proposed 

 African expedition, makes the following remarks concerning 

 hydrophobia : — " Is it true that dogs in warm countries, and 

 especially among Mussulmans, are less subject than elsewhere to 

 hydrophobia ? If they verify this fact, the Commission ought 

 also to inquire into its cause ; because in France it is almost 

 always during warm weather, or after long droughts, that the 

 disease appears among these animals. Without anticipating 

 the explanation which may be supplied, we may here mention 

 a fact which possibly may bear upon it. It has been remarked 

 in Paris, that, since the establishment of running fountains, hy- 

 drophobia has become less frequent; and this has been attri- 

 buted to the limpid streams which run down the streets, and to 

 the facility which this affords to the dogs at all times to quench 

 their thirst. For it is known that dogs drink frequently, and 

 at the same time will but rarely partake of muddy or soiled 

 water. It has moreover been observed, that the hydrophobic 

 cases which have occurred in later years have been witnessed 

 among dogs belonging to the precincts of the town, where the 

 ponds, fed with rain water, are almost wholly dried up in sum- 

 mer. It has also been noticed that the time of their amours is 

 that in which they are most liable to the complaint. If the 

 assertion of the comparative rarity of the disease among Mus- 

 sulmans be correct, may not the cause be partly owing to the 

 great care which these people take of their dogs, and partly to 

 the abundance of water which the daily prescribed ablutions of 



