Notes . 
798 
sicr n which enables us to affirm with absolute certainty that a 
dream was a dream and nothing more . — Revue Philosophique . 
The researches of Gustav Hausen (“ Zeitschrift fur Wissen 
Zoologie,” vol. xxxiv., p. 367) seem finally to have decided the 
controversy concerning the function of the antennas of inserts. 
He has examined the behaviour of inserts towards strongly 
odorous substances both before and after the removal of these 
organs, and when they had been coated with paraffin, and finds 
that after such operations they become indifferent to smells. 
Flies thus treated took no further notice of tainted meat. He 
shows also that the development of the antennae in different 
insecft groups decidedly harmonises with these experimental 
results. 
According to the “ Augsburg Gazette ” the crayfish are pe- 
rishing in numbers from an epidemic disease, the most striking 
feature of which is the development of white fungoid growths. 
M. Etard (“ Comptes Rendus ”) considers that boron ought to 
rank among the elements of the phosphorus series, not far from 
phosphorus itself, and at the head of the vanadium family. 
M. Faye, in a paper read before the Academy of Sciences, 
contends that pellagra is produced by the use in food of grain 
which has not undergone the aCtion of yeast or leaven. 
M. Poirot (“ Comptes Rendus ”) recommends wormwood as a 
remedy for the Phylloxera. It is said also to banish flies, ants, 
scorpions, and tarantulas. 
In the earthquakes which ravaged Asia Minor in July last the 
fissures which opened in the soil are said to have emitted 
greenish black water and “ sulphurous ” fumes. It is much to 
be wished that these liquid and gaseous produfts could be sub- 
mitted to a thorough analysis. Violent shocks were felt nearly 
at the same time in Manilla, the neighbourhood of Naples, and 
the Azores, where an island has risen out of the sea. 
Mr. C. A. Feilberg, writing in the “ Viaorian Review,” points 
out that the native vegetation of the inland parts of Queensland 
has a faculty of remaining dormant for months during the long 
and frequent droughts, and suddenly resuming aaive life on the 
fall of rain. 
Mr. O. C. Marsh (“ American Journal of Science,” Ser. 3, 
vol xx p. 235), summing up the results of his researches on 
the mesozoic mammals of the Rocky Mountains, finds that they 
cannot be introduced into any existing order. With few excep- 
tions the sixty species discovered are low, generalised forms, 
without decisive marsupial characters, and rather approaching 
the InseCtivora. 
