702 
Notes . 
[October, 
M. B. Schnetzler communicates to the Academy of Sciences 
certain observations on Arum crinitum and its relations to 
insects. Its carrion-like odour entices numbers of flies, such as 
Musca C<zsar , which lay their eggs at the bottom of the spathe 
where the resulting larvae necessarily perish. Common flies 
and even Acarides are often found imprisoned among the hairs. 
Some flies, however, less eager to lay their eggs, are attracted 
by the glandulous hairs upon the spadix, which lead them, like 
the steps of a ladder, to the stamens. There, on alighting upon 
the anthers, they cause the pollen to be emitted, and fly away 
to deposit their eggs in another spathe, at the bottom of which 
they deposit upon the stigmata the pollen brought from the 
former flower. The dead flies, though upon a moist surface, 
appear dried up. It appears that the hairs which overspread 
the inner surface of the spathe secrete an acid which, like that 
exuding from the hairs of Drosera, contributes to the transfor- 
mation of the nitrogenised parts of the insects into matter 
absorbable by the spathe. Hence the author, without denying 
that insects contribute to the fecundation of this flower, contends 
that they contribute to its nutriment, and holds that it was 
rightly named Arum muscivorum by the younger Linnaeus. 
According to Ernesto da Canto, the smoke of burning straw 
or brush-wood has been found very beneficial to a variety of 
plants, but especially to the pine-apple. The observations were 
made in the hot-houses used in the Azores for forwarding pine- 
apples in the cold season. 
In the “ Rivista Orticale ” hemp-plants are recommended to 
be cultivated in vineyards, orchards, &c., for the banishment or 
destruction of noxious insects. The absence of insects in hemp- 
fields is said to be a well-known fact. 
Worms have been observed in fresh hens’ eggs at New York. 
The species was not determined, but it may probably be Distoma 
ovatum , which lives parasitically in the cloaca of poultry. 
In a paper communicated to the Academy of Sciences M. 
Richet shows that muscles in a state of contraction are more 
excitable than when in a state of repose. The relaxation of a 
muscle is not abrupt, but gradual, and the true form of the 
muscular shock is masked by the weights which extend the 
muscle. For muscles extended by a weight there is a period of 
latent contraction , during which the muscle is most excitable. 
M. Poincare has ascertained that guinea-pigs are affected by 
the vapour of nitrobenzol much more seriously than is man. 
Workmen exposed to these fumes in the manufacture of aniline 
rarely experience more than a transient loss of consciousness, 
which is at once removed on exposure to the fresh air. All the 
guinea-pigs experimented upon perished. On examination the 
liver, kidneys, nervous centres, and lungs were all found strongly 
congested. The chief symptom observed during life was a diffi- 
culty of breathing. 
