Notes. 
246 
[April, 
According to a writer in the “ Magazine of Pharmacy" the 
physical and chemical methods for the analysis of potable waters 
have proved themselves inadequate. “ Recourse will have to be 
had to the microscope, and to the culture-glasses used by physi- 
ologists in their inoculation experiments, before any really sound 
and valuable knowledge can be gained by the examination of 
waters.” 
The “ Popular Science Monthly ” very fairly sums up the late 
Mr. Frank Buckland as “ a writer who could seize with alacrity 
the popular side of a scientific question, but seldom went 
deeper.” 
It is alleged, though not on unquestionable authority, that a 
priest in Lerida, Spain, has cautioned his parishioners that any 
person who allows himself to be treated homoeopathically in 
sickness will be refused absolution, and, in case of death, 
Christian burial. 
M. Pasteur, in a communication to the Academy of Sciences, 
shows that disease-germs (microbia) may be gradually deprived 
of their virulence by artificial cultivation under certain condi- 
tions, and, on the other hand, may be brought back to their 
original condition by successive culture in the bodies of certain 
animals. The microbion of chicken cholera, after being rendered 
innocuous, may become deadly again if passed through the 
bodies of canaries or sparrows. 
M. Peyrusson (“ Comptes Rendus ”) has used hyponitrous 
ether as a disinfectant with great success. 
MM. Couty and De Lacerda conclude, after a long course of 
experiments, that the venom of Bothrops jacaranda is not a true 
poison, but a special pathogenic agent, ranking with the virus 
class. The fatal dose for an ape is relatively a thousand times 
smaller than that for a frog. 
According to MM. J. Kunckel and J. Gazagnaire (“ Comptes 
Rendus ”) the swellings of nerve-matter found at the base of 
hairs in inseCts and crustaceans consist of bipolar cellules, con- 
nected on the one side with the axial cylinder of the nerve-fibre, 
and on the other with a rod capped with a true hair or a trans- 
formed hair. 
Dr. Fatio finds that the spray of dry sulphurous acid, driven 
into the cases, &c., is a powerful and safe agent for destroying 
parasites in museums* 
According to the “ American Naturalist ” a full-grown hen 
possessing three legs was sold in the market at Shelbyville, 
Tennessee. The intestine Was divided about midway into four 
distinCt canals, which became reunited, but finally terminated in 
two distinct vents. It had also two livers, one on each side. 
