i88o.] 
Notes. 
795 
of a Brazilian serpent (Bothrops jaracara), and of the local effedts 
produced. If injedted under the skin there ensue merely inflam- 
mations or abscesses, though the dose was five to six times 
greater than would have proved fatal if introduced into a vein. 
M. J. Chatin has presented to the Academy of Sciences (Sept. 
27, 1880) a paper on the ciliated embryo of the formidable para- 
site Bilharzia hcematobia. 
The charters of the Eclectic Medical College of Pennsylvania 
and of the American University of Philadelphia have been can- 
celled by the Supreme Court of Philadelphia, for selling spurious 
diplomas. Dr. Buchanan is now awaiting his trial. 
The Council of the Royal Microscopical Society have under 
consideration the subjedt of increasing the utility of their exten- 
sive library, by lending books to the Fellows. 
According to “ Science,” Prof. Richard Owen, formerly State 
Geologist of Indiana, proposes the following general law for the 
distribution of land on the globe “ The land shows itself above 
the ocean level in definite multiple proportions, by measure- 
ment ; the unit is the angular difference between the axis ot 
revolution and the axis of progression. 
In a paper on the physiological adtion of Conium maculatum, 
communicated by M. Rochefontaine to the Academy of Sciences, 
it is concluded that Conium may adt like Curare, but it produces, 
besides, phenomena which have not been observed in animals 
submitted to the adtion of Curare. 
According to a daily paper, which we need not name, an 
English officer on the Gold Coast encountered a spider which it 
required three shots with a revolver to despatch, its skin being 
too tough to be penetrated with a clasp-knife ! 
According to the “ Veterinary Gazette ” numerous specimens 
of an extindt species of horse have been discovered in France, 
approaching the recent horse more closely than any extindt spe- 
cies hitherto discovered, and forming a connedbng-lmk between 
the genera Equus and Hipparion. The lateral metacarpals are 
distindl from the great metacarpal, whilst in the existing horse 
they are co-ossified for the greater part of their length. 
At the late meeting of the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science, Prof. Morse called attention to tne exist- 
ence of a number of species of land shells in Yesso identical 
with forms met with in New England. Two species of slugs 
also are common to Japan and New England. 
We learn, from the “ Rocky Mountain Medical Review,” that 
one A. Wilford Hall, in a work bearing the ambitious title The 
