( 512 ) 
[July, 
NOTES. 
Biology. 
Some interesting results on the hereditary transmission of arti- 
ficial injuries have been obtained by M. Brown-Sequard. He 
concludes that the young of parents abnormally constituted 
inherit external lesions, but not the central anomaly which de- 
termines such lesions. 
M. Geoffroy has recently discussed the views of Magnus on 
the evolution of the colour-sense. He agrees substantially with 
Mr. A. R. Wallace and Mr. Grant Allen that it was not the per- 
ception of colours which was wanting in Homer’s days, but 
merely a precise nomenclature for shades. 
M. Zolyet has laid before the Society of Natural Sciences, at 
Bordeaux, some researches on the respiration of fishes. He 
finds that of all animals their respiration is the least adtive ; they 
never, however, absorb more carbonic acid than they give off 
oxygen. Between the temperatures of 2° and 30°, which may be 
taken as the extreme limits of the surrounding medium compa- 
tible with life, the amount of oxygen varies from 1 to 10. 
The adtion of the sulphide of carbon upon the vine has been 
examined by M. Boiteau. He finds that all doses destructive to 
the Phylloxera , from 6 or 7 grms. up to 10 grms. per hole, — i.e., 
12 to 24 grms. per square metre, — are injurious to the roots 
within a certain radius. 
M. G. Pouchet states that Averrhoes is the first writer who 
gives an approximately true account of the sensation caused by 
the touch of electrical fishes. He compares it to magnetism, 
whilst Galen and others had considered it analogous to cold. 
It is asserted by some bird-fanciers that the feathers of canaries 
may be turned red by feeding them, before and during the 
moulting season, with a mixture of hard-boiled egg and bread, 
dusted over with the best quality of capsicum in fine powder. 
The “ Revue Industrielle,” after stating the conflicting views 
of Vegetarians and of the friends of a mixed diet, thinks that 
sufficient attention is not paid in this controversy to differences 
of race, temperament, climate, and employment. 
M. Richet has investigated the effedts of heat on the functions 
of the nerve-centres of the crayfish. Nervous voluntary acftion 
is weakened at 23 0 to 24 0 , and disappears completely at 26°. 
Reflex nerve acftion disappears at 27 0 to 29 0 , at 30° the respira- 
tory flabellum ceases to adt, and from 32 0 to 34 0 the motor nerves 
become inactive. It is remarked that amongst the Vertebrates 
