NOTES. 



695 



each case through zoological strata of dif- 

 ferent types, until we arrive at those where 

 no land mammals are to be found at all. 

 And this succession in space, as evidenced 

 by geography, corresponds in a rough way 

 with the succession in time as revealed by 

 geology : 1. As we recede in distance, we 

 meet with increased dissimilarity. 2. This dis- 

 similarity partakes of a recession in type. 

 3. Some of these geographical districts 

 seem to have their counterparts in geologi- 

 cal periods. The Ethiopian region, as Wal- 

 lace has shown, presents us with the exiled 

 Miocene fauna of Europe. Eocene forms 

 may be seen in its dependency of Madagas- 

 car. Highly isolated Australia, with its mar- 

 supials, etc., appears as if it were still in 

 the secondary age. Oceanic islands, such 

 as New Zealand, give no land mammals at 

 all. In others, the reptiles "possess the 

 land." 



Antiqaity of the Practice of Inocniation. 



— Inoculation as a means of mitigating the 

 severity of small-pox was practiced in East- 

 ern countries ages before its introduction 

 into the West by Lady Mary Wortley Mon- 

 tagu. The Chinese appear to have prac- 

 ticed it as early as the sixth century. Small- 

 pox is by the Chinese called " heaven's flow- 

 ers," and their term for inoculation is "culti- 

 vating heaven's flowers." Their mode of pro- 

 cedure is to pulverize the scabs taken from a 

 small-pox patient, and to blow the powder 

 thus obtained up the nostril of the child. 

 The powder is injected into the left nostril 

 in the case of a boy, and into the right in 

 the case of a girl. It is impossible to tell 

 whether the disease induced will be severe 

 or not. In some years there are few if any 

 deaths, at other times the mortality is much 

 the same as that from small-pox. A lucky 

 day is carefully chosen for the operation, 

 and at a time when the child is in good 

 health. No particular rules are observed 

 in selecting the matter, except that it is 

 always taken from a mild case of the dis- 

 ease. Gradually, however, vaccination is 

 coming into use in China. The suspicion 

 with which vaccination was formerly re- 

 garded by the people as a subtle device of 

 the foreigners to destroy the inhabitants of 

 the Central Flowery Kingdom is dying out, 

 and Dr. Osgood, of Foochow, who has every 



opportunity of knowing, says that "vacci- 

 nation is gaining ground every year, and is 

 destined in time to drive out inoculation." 

 But the process of substitution must neces- 

 sarily be very slow in so strictly conserva- 

 tive a country as the Chinese Empire. 



NOTES. 



Amoxg the results of the labors of the 

 United States Fish Commission during the 

 year 1878 is to be reckoned the discovery 

 of fifty new species of fishes in our At- 

 lantic waters. These species are enumer- 

 ated by Messrs. G. Brown Goode and Tarle- 

 ton H. Bean, in the " American Journal of 

 Science." Full descriptions of the fishes, 

 with discussions of sundry questions of 

 classification, will appear in the publications 

 of the United States National Museum. 



A NEW danger to health is found in the 

 use of artificial flowers colored with aniline 

 dyes. The bronze-green and other colors 

 now so much in vogue are not "fixed," and 

 the dye is apt to be transferred to the skin 

 of the head, producing much annoyance, un- 

 pleasant irritation, or even inflammation. 



Professor Leidt, having examined with 

 the microscope a " black mildew " found 

 growing on brick walls in shaded situations, 

 found it to be a species of alga closely al- 

 lied to Protococcus viridis, which gives the 

 bright-green color to the trunks of trees, 

 fences, etc. The species which produces 

 the black discoloration may be only viridis 

 in a different state, but, until it is proved to 

 be such, he proposes to distinguish it by the 

 name of Protococcus lugubris. The latter con- 

 sists of minute round or oval cells, from 0'006 

 to 0.009 millimetre in diameter, isolated or 

 in pairs or in groups of four, the result of 

 division ; or it occurs in short irregular chains 

 of four or more cells up to a dozen, occasion- 

 ally with a lateral offset of two or more cells. 

 In mass, to the naked eye, the alga appears 

 as an intensely black powder. 



In certain districts of Austria where 

 cretinism exists the skulls of the wretches 

 who have been afflicted with that disease 

 are disinterred a few years after death and 

 preserved by their nearest relatives. A like 

 custom prevailed in Peru in times prior to 

 the discovery of America, as we learn from 

 an article in " La Nature," on the Anthropo- 

 logical Exposition lately held in Paris. Two 

 crania were there exhibited, one of them 

 overlaid with gold and the other with sil- 

 ver. The evidences of cretinism in these 

 skulls are unmistakable, and there can be no 

 doubt that they were at one time objects 

 of pious care. The custom in Austria is to 



