Notes . 
285 
1879.] 
health merely by fees for being called in “ when the authority 
sees fit ’’-—which may be never. Those who have not forgotten 
the lamentable circumstances which led to the resignation of Dr. 
C. Fox will see reason for vigilance lest the medical officers of 
health should be reduced to mere nonentities in favour of persons 
interested in the conservation of nuisance. 
Prof. Roscoe has recently exhibited some specimens of finely 
divided gold, prepared by Faraday, proving that metallic gold may 
exist in two distindl molecular conditions. 
Prof. Metschnikoft proposes a new method of dealing with 
noxious insedts. The application of yeast to shrubs and plants 
thus afledted has often proved successful, and is recommended by 
Prof. Hagen, of Cambridge, Mass. But according to Prof. 
Metschnikoff (see “ Zoolog. Anzeiger,” No. 47) the adtion of 
yeast, when successful, is due to the accidental presence in it of 
the fungus known as “ green muscardine ” ( Isaria destructor ), 
which are exceedingly deadly to insedts. He has succeeded in 
cultivating the muscardine, and hopes that by its means the 
Phylloxera , the Colorado beetle, &c., may be eradicated. It is to 
be hoped that the new power we are thus invoking may prove 
amenable to control, or perhaps the remedy may prove worse 
than the disease. What if this fungus prove deadly to the silk- 
worm, the honey-bee, and, worse still, to those species — chiefly 
Hymenopterous — which effedt the fertilisation of flowers ? 
According to the “ Kansas City Review ” remains of gigantic 
race of men, considerably advanced in civilisation, have been 
discovered “ in a cave on the old Smith farm in Tiffin Township, 
Adams County, Ohio.” The cavern had at one time been a 
burial-place, and contained many tombs adorned with bas-reliefs 
of a very high artistic character. One of the tombs, when broken 
open, was found to contain the mummy of a man 9 feet 1 inch 
in length. Several tools and weapons of copper were found in 
the tomb, hardened to such a degree that a file will barely scratch 
the lance. It is to be hoped that further examinations will be 
undertaken by fully qualified persons. Perhaps at last a light 
will be thrown on the early history of the western hemisphere. 
The same Review mentions, on the authority of Dr. F. A. 
Ballard, that in Jackson County, Missouri, has been found the 
tusk of a mastodon over 14 inches in diameter and 12 feet in 
length. 
The “ Leadville Herald ” announces the discovery of a true 
glacier in the Mosquito Range of the Rocky Mountains. 
In a memoir on magnetic circuits in dynamo- and magneto- 
elecftric machines, communicated to the Royal Society by Lord 
Elphinstone and C. W. Vincent, it is shown that any interference 
with the lines of force about a magnetic circuit means an inter. 
