n8 
[Notes. 
[February, 
are others quite unexpected, and not to be explained by that 
theory without involving suppositions for which no faCts can at 
present be adduced. 
Dr. Merriman, writing in “ Science,” declares — “ I believe in 
the fadt of the gradual development of the organic kingdoms ; 
for all Science teaches it. But I believe it was governed and 
guided by forces more potent than accident or chance. The 
Being, or first cause, if you will, that originated the simple ele- 
ments of matter, and endowed them with the power and the 
tendency to aggregate into developing worlds, might equally as 
well have endowed certain of them with the power and the ten- 
dency to aggregate into ever-advancing organisms.” 
Dr. Burrill, in a communication to the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, pronounces the “ fire-blight ” 
of the pear tree and “ twig-blight ” of the apple due to an 
organism similar to, if not identical with, the butyric vibrios of 
Pasteur and the Bacillus amylobacter of Van Tieghem. 
It is not generally known that the father of the celebrated 
chemist Chevreul reached the age of no years. 
The “ American Journal of Microscopy” reports a valuable 
memoir on “ Blood-stains as Evidence in Criminal Cases,” read 
before the St. Louis Medico-Chirurgical Association, by Dr. C. 
O. Curtman. The author shows that the popular notion of the 
discrimination of human blood from that of other Mammalia by 
microscopic and spedtroscopic evidence is erroneous. The 
blood-discs of the dog approach so nearly in size and shape to 
those of man that they cannot be discriminated with certainty, 
even when fresh. Blood-corpuscles taken from a mosquito up to 
forty-eight hours after imbibition could be easily recognised. In 
the body of the bed-bug blood is destroyed much more rapidly. 
Dr. E. L. Trouessart defends the theory of Evolution in the 
“ Revue Scientifique ” for Odtober, 1880. He contends that 
transformations have occurred more rapidly under certain cir- 
cumstances than under others, and that the changes may have 
occurred during embryonic life. He refers to the writings of 
Selys-Longchamp on “ Saltatory Evolution.” 
According to a memoir by Prof. Virchow, which appears in 
the “ Medical Times,” medical literature affords examples of a 
true external tail in the human species, resulting from a pro- 
longation of the spinal column. One of these cases, examined 
by Dr. Ornstein, Surgeon-in-Chief of the Greek Army, was 
5 centimetres in length, whilst another, examined by Virchow 
himself, reached the length of 7^ centimetres. 
According to Prof. Bouchardat, of the Faculte de Medecine, 
the vine is a powerful sanitary agent. Wherever it is largely 
cultivated the effluvia which give rise to intermittents disappear. 
