i88i.J 
( 433 ) 
NOTES. 
The following remarks, taken from the letter of Sir Henry Marsh 
on the proof “ Report of the Committee of the Faculty of Medi- 
cine of the London University, have a much wider value than 
the writer more immediately intended, and apply to other than 
medical examinations, whether “ final ” or otherwise : — “ My 
next proposition,” he says, “ should be to have annual examina- 
tions on fixed, definite, and limited subjects, and these necessary 
ones, and no large final, and as it now is, boundless examina- 
tions. I think this grand examination most pernicious in its 
effedt on the student’s mind, and ill-calculated to effedt its in- 
tended objedt — that of being a test of proficiency. The objedt 
now before a student’s mind is to be well prepared for this great 
and dreaded examination, and not, as it should be, to know and 
treat disease. The student’s proficiency should also be ascer- 
tained step by step. This would be best ascertained by yearly or 
half-yearly examinations. Here with us this great examination, 
on which a young man thinks his prospedts and success for life 
depend, is most injurious to the mind and the whole course of 
study. Its wide range gives a hopelessness as to being fully 
prepared, and the health of many has been permanently impaired. 
The pupils are at the mercy of the examiners, some of whom, it 
uniformly happens, are blockheads. Time and health are wasted 
in useless studies to prepare, not for pradtice of one’s profession, 
but to answer either book questions or fanciful and often absurd 
ones. Those who are most flippant, and least disturbed by 
mauvaise honte, are, I have found in many instances, the best 
answerers, but the really worst informed. Grinding and cram 
ming thrive ; no one ventures on this awful examination without 
bringing grist to the mills of the grinders.” 
M. Clemandot (“ Comptes Rendus ”) contends that the phos- 
phorescence of bodies is due to a vibration excited chiefly by the 
blue ray of light. 
M. E. L. Trouessart, in a communication to the Academy of 
Sciences, treats of the agency of marine currents in the geo- 
graphical distribution of amphibious mammals. He concludes 
that the Otariidac have originated in the Antarctic regions, and 
have branched out towards the north, occupying the shores of 
Patagonia, the Falklands, South Africa, New Zealand, and Aus- 
tralia. Humboldt’s current has carried them to the west of South 
America as far as the Gallopagos, but no farther. Those found 
on the Californian coast belong to different genera, and have 
