[May, 
( 344 ) 
NOTES. 
Prof. J. T. Short has published a work on the “North Ame- 
ricans of Antiquity,” in which he contends that the mound- 
builders were not Red Indians, but were related to the Nahuas 
of Mexico; that man is not autochthonous in America, and has 
not been on that continent above 3000 years (?) ; that the ancient 
Americans were not a single race ; that the Mayas and Nahuas 
possessed a very high degree of scientific and artistic knowledge, 
that they reached this continent from opposite directions, and 
that the civilisation developed by each people is indigenous. 
The Influence of Light upon Animal Life . — We summarise 
here certain observations reported in the “ Mittheilungen aus 
dem Embryologischen Institut zu Wien ” (iv., p. 265), and “ Un- 
tersuchungen zur Naturlehre des Menschen und der Thiere ” 
(xii., p. 266) : — It was established by Moleschott, as far back as 
1855, that frogs in light exhaled more carbonic acid than in 
darkness. The question still remained whether a direct action 
of light upon the chemical process in the animal body was here 
concerned, or whether the light merely excited the animal to 
greater vivacity, and thus indirectly occasioned a greater evolu- 
tion of carbonic acid. This point has been now experimentally 
decided by Moleschott and Fubini, who arrive at the following 
conclusions : — The action of light in promoting the metamor- 
phosis of matter is exerted not merely through the eyes, but 
through the skin, and can be traced even in blind frogs, birds, 
and mammals. If the eye alone, or the skin alone, is stimulated 
by light, the increased escape of carbonic acid is smaller than 
when the entire body is exposed to light. The respiration of the 
tissues is increased by light in the same manner as the respira- 
tion of the entire body. Both in cold-blooded and warm-blooded 
animals, whether blind or seeing, the excretion of carbonic acid 
increases with the chemical activity of the light, the violet-blue 
ray being the most effectual. 
Dr. S. L. Schenck has studied the development of tadpoles 
exposed respectively to red, blue, yellow, and green light, all 
other conditions being exactly alike. Under the red glass the 
embryos gave the first signs of movement, and were throughout 
the experiments the most acftive. Under the blue glass the exaCt 
contrary phenomena were observed. If the liquid was agitated 
many of them allowed themselves to drift about like lifeless 
matter. The tadpoles exposed to green and yellow light did not 
differ in their behaviour from such as were placed in full day- 
light. Those under the blue light appeared the most ravenous, 
