595 
i88o.] Analyses of Books . 
Brazil,” by Dr. Lacerda Filho. The author enters upon, but 
does not decide, the important question as to whether the poison 
of snakes is a chemical individual, the action of which may be 
weakened to extinction by sufficient dilution, and which does not 
reproduce itself in the blood of the bitten animal ; or whether it 
is a ferment, soluble or figured ? He deteas certain fusiform 
corpuscules in the poison, but he has not satisfied himself that 
these are the agents in the decomposition of the blood. 
The illustrious biologist, Dr. F. Muller, who holds the ap- 
pointment of “ Travelling Naturalist of the National Museum,” 
contributes four memoirs “ On the Correlation between many- 
coloured Flowers and Inseas “ On the Sexual Spots of Male 
Individuals of Danais Erippus and D. G Hip pus ; “ On the 
Odoriferous Organs of the Species Epicalia Acontius and “On 
the Odoriferous Organs in the Thighs of certain Lepidoptera.” 
There is also a paper “ On the Geology of the Region of the 
Lower Amazon,” by Prof. O. A. Derby, and a Summary of a 
Course of Anthropology delivered at the Museum by Dr. Lacerda 
Fiffio. i • -a * 
We are very much gratified to find so much attention paid to 
Biology in a region so fruitful in interesting forms of animal and 
vegetable life as in Brazil, and where so very much remains to 
be investigated. 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. Vol. xiii., Part 2. 
1880. 
This issue contains notes, by C. L. Griesbach, F.G.S., on the 
Palaeontology of the Lower Trias of the Himalayas. 
Mr. W. King, the Deputy Superintendent of the Survey, com- 
municates a paper on the successful Artesian Wells at Pondi- 
cherry, which he has carefully examined in order to throw light 
on the proposal of similar borings for the supply of Madras. 
The quality of the water used in many parts ot India for do- 
mestic purposes, both by natives and British, is such as would 
be instantly condemned in England. Yet, unless the conclusions 
of modern sanitarians are entirely erroneous, the effeas of the 
ingestion of decomposing organic matter must be far more deadly 
in a tropical climate. In India, if anywhere, our cities ought to 
be absolutely free from pollution in their soil, their air, and their 
waters. 
