Notes . 
1879-] 
263 
under the skin. M. Quatrefages, in presenting the memoir, ex- 
pressed serious doubts as to the author’s determinations. 
M. P. Geddes has presented to the Academy of Sciences a 
memoir on the function of chlorophyll in the green Elanarice. 
These animals, on exposure to sunshine, decompose carbonic 
acid, and give off bubbles of a gas which was found on analysis 
to contain from 45 to 55 per cent of oxygen, the residue being 
nitrogen. A chemical examination of their bodies, after extrac- 
tion of the chlorophyll, demonstrated the presence of a consider- 
able quantity of ordinary starch. 
It is not generally known that there exists a vegetable organism. 
Hygrocoris arsenicus , which is developed in arsenical solutions, 
It appears as an opalescent cloud suspended in the liquid, and if 
examined under the microscope appears as a glassy mass scat- 
tered over with brilliant points. 
M. A. Milne-Edwards has laid before the Academy of Sciences 
a description of Blythonomus gigantens , an isopod measuring 
0‘23 metre in length and o-io in breadth, and which is distin- 
guished from all other crustaceans by the peculiar arrangement 
of its respiratory apparatus. 
M. B. Renault has described a new group of silicified fossil 
stems of the carboniferous epoch. He establishes the existence 
of a series of types parallel to that afforded by the Sigillarineae, 
but which in certain structural details approach the Cordaites. 
In a memoir presented to the Academy of Sciences, M. J. de 
Seynes refers the “ chestnut-disease ” now raging in the Cevennes 
to a mycelium analogous to Zasmidium cellare , which he finds 
on all the roots of the trees. 
The naturalist E. Beccari has discovered, in the virgin forests 
of Sumatra, a flower which surpasses all others at once in size, 
beauty, and perfume. It belongs to the family of the Amorpho- 
phili , and has received the name of Titcinum. The diameter of 
the flower is as much as 83 centimetres. According to “ La 
Lancette Beige ” six chests filled with the roots of this plant 
have just arrived at Genoa. 
Prof. Haeckel remarks that the intellectual contrasts existing 
between the ants and their cattle, the Aphides, are certainly 
greater than the enormous difference which we recognise between 
the divine genius of a Goethe or a Shakspeare and the poor 
animal soul of an Australian negro. 
According to Dr. Polli the human organism undergoes, in the 
course of its existence, a slow oxidation, on the completion of 
which death ensues. According to his calculation this should 
happen, accidents excepted, not earlier than the hundredth year. 
To prolong life a few grammes of a sulphite should be taken 
every morning in a glass of pure water. 
“ La Lancette Beige ” calls attention to the existence of nu- 
