312 
Notes , 
of a carefully written biography of George Don, of Forfar, the 
eminent botanist. 
“ Science ” brings forward proposals for a revision of anato- 
mical nomenclature, referring to “ the care bestowed upon the 
language of modern chemistry.” We devoutly hope biologists 
will never take the language of chemistry as their model. 
The same journal gives a communication from Col. W. A. 
Ross, which, unless some occult error or oversight interfere, 
points the way to a modification of our views on the chemistry of 
anhydrous compounds. 
We learn that Dr. Buchanan, the dealer in spurious diplomas, 
is now an inmate of the Eastern Penitentiary, Philadelphia. 
The Faraday Lecture was delivered by Prof. Helmholtz on the 
5th ult. The lecturer’s subject was “ The Modern Development 
of Faraday’s Conceptions of Electricity.” 
M. J. Delaunay ascribes earthquakes to the passage of the 
larger planets through the cosmic groups of meteors. He pre- 
dicts violent earthquakes for the years 1883, 1886, 1890-91, 1898, 
1900-1, 1912-13, 1914, 1919-20. 
According to Prof. Morselli, of Milan, suicide has increased in 
England at the rate of 577 per cent since 1836 ; in Prussia, at 
the rate of 32*2 per cent since 1816. 
M. Charles Dufour, in a paper read before the French Associ- 
ation for the Advancement of Science, shows that the glaciers of 
the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Caucasus are all receding. 
The drainage of certain parts of Epping Forest, near Ching- 
ford Station, will probably lead to the extirpation of many forms 
both of animal and vegetable life. A similar catastrophe, on a 
far larger scale, will result from the projected drainage of the 
Everglades of Florida, a district whose flora and fauna are but 
very imperfectly known. 
Prof. Du Bois-Reymond is about to publish the researches of 
the late Karl Sachs on the electric eel ( Gymnotus electricus) of 
South America. 
Dr. Delaunay takes as a test of intelligence the direction in 
which a person draws a circle or executes a rotatory movement. 
Those whose minds are more highly developed move the hand 
from left to right, as in the daily movement of the sun, whilst 
the dull and stupid take the opposite direction. 
