I879-J 
( 7°i ) 
NOTES. 
Biology. 
M. E. Renon predicts a series of bad seasons until 1883, when 
the summer is to be warm. The winter of 1881-82 will be 
exceptionally severe. He assumes a period of 41 years, the 
beginning and end of which are characterised by bad weather. 
Referring to the fact that in the past July, as in July, 1758 and 
1816, the temperature in Western Europe was exceptionally 
low, though accompanied by south and south-west winds, he 
supposes that the African current, in place of taking its usual 
course over Spain, France, &c., has been deflected to the east - , 
thus accounting for the great heats experienced in Italy, Hun- 
gary, Bulgaria, &c. 
In a paper on the “ Production of Electricity by the Rays” 
M. Ch. Robin states that, as early as 1865, he demonstrated that 
the electric apparatus in the tail of the Ray acts in the same 
manner as those of the Torpedo and the Gymnotus, the differ- 
ences between them being merely of a secondary nature. Quite 
recently he has verified anew the exactitude of his former obser- 
vations. 
“ La Correspondance Scientifique ” gives an interesting 
account of the museum founded at Cette by M. J. B. Doumet, 
a young French officer who, in 1815, was dismissed from active 
service on account of his suspected attachment to the Empire. 
It is exceedingly rich in the mollusks, crustaceans, fishes, and 
reptiles of the Mediterranean and of the adjacent countries. 
The collection of exotic Lepidoptera is also very fine. One of 
the greatest curiosities is the original herbarium of Michel 
Adanson, the celebrated botanist, the maternal grandfather of 
Doumet. 
P. H. Reinsch has observed the occurrence of the mycelia of 
fungi in a hen’s egg (“ Botanische Zeitung,” 1879, No. 3, 
PP- 37 . 3 8 )- 
M. A. Chaveau, in the course of experiments described in the 
“ Comptes Rendus,” observes that certain Algerian sheep were 
perfectly proof against the poison of carbuncle, even on repeated 
inoculation — a fact which raises a number of most important 
questions. 
Professor K. Th. Liebe, in the “ Transactions of the Imperial 
Academy of Sciences of Vienna,” contends that during the 
second diluvial period the hills of southern Bohemia and Moravia 
were the starting-point from which the virgin forests invaded 
the great diluvial steppe of Central Europe to the north of the 
Alpine chain. 
VOL. IX. (N,S.) 2 Y 
