Notes . 
1879.] 
389 
the veins, there being— as M. Milne-Edwards has shown to be 
the case in various regions of the body of the Mollusca — no 
system of capillaries establishing a continuity between the arte- 
rial and the venous systems. Similar orifices exist in many 
other Mollusca. 
According to the “ Revue Internationale des Science ” a spe- 
cies of tortoise is found in China in which the head, neck, legs, 
&c., are covered not with scales, but with long and dense hair. 
The locality of this singular being is a lake in the province of 
Kiang-su. It is from 7 to 8 centimetres in length, with a pro- 
longed snout, and a tail long and narrow. 
Prof. Naegeli, of Munich, maintains that infectious and mala- 
rious diseases are due to Schizomycetes , which, however, are not 
all specifically distinCt, but represent forms of one, or at most of 
a limited number of species. 
M. P. Arnoux has brought to France a specimen of honey 
found in certain subterranean cavities in Ethiopia, and said to 
be collected by an inseCt “ resembling a large mosquito.” It is 
unaccompanied by wax, and differs from ordinary honey by being 
free from cane-sugar. We can scarcely believe that it is elabo 
rated by a dipterous inseCt. 
M. Ch. Musset has described to the Academy of Sciences a 
shower of sap which he observed, on the 22nd of August last, 
falling from two trees of Abies excelsa. Clouds of inseCts had 
collected to the feast. 
M. Jousset de Bellesme has shown that the so-called liver of 
the Cephalopa presents no functional analogy with the liver of the 
Vertebrates. It transforms albuminoid matters, but is without 
aCtion on fatty and starchy bodies. The author has already de- 
monstrated the same fadt concerning the liver of Crustaceans, 
and M. Plateau has reached a similar conclusion regarding the 
Arachnidae and Myriapoda. 
M. Merget, of Bordeaux, finding that mercurial vapour easily 
permeates disks of wood, recommends it as a means of studying 
the structure of vegetable matter. If wood, after exposure to 
the vapours of mercury, is brought in contaCt with a sensitive 
paper (obtained by saturating paper with an ammoniacal solution 
of nitrate of silver) a distinCt design of the fibro-vascular 
bundles and of the medullary rays will be obtained. We may 
thus design the stomata of a ieaf, and show that in case of those 
possessing stomata on both surfaces the air circulates from one 
epidermis to the other. 
Chemistry and Technology. 
Mr. A. Percy Smith communicates to the “ Chemical News ” a 
case of poisoning by arsenical wall papers. A lady in Rugby 
