43§ 
Notes. 
[July, 
It is known to most of our readers that a medal has recently 
been struck in honour of M. Milne-Edwards, the opponent of 
Evolutionism. The “ Revue des Sciences Biologiques ” gives a 
very clever article called “ The Reverse of the Medal,” which 
may be profitably read by the friends of “ official science ” on this 
side the Channel. The sterile and retrograde condition of French 
biology is due to his influence, which has been exerted with an 
omnipotence which no savant ever before possessed in any 
country. He has imprisoned zoology in the narrow ideas of 
Cuvier; he has energetically and patiently combatted all progress, 
repressed merit, and sought by all means to isolate the youth of 
France from the great scientific movement going on in neigh- 
bouring nations. 
M. Pauchon has made a series of experiments with beans, on 
the influence of the colour of seeds on germination. He finds, 
in order to reach the same visible stage of development, a black 
or violet seed absorbs more oxygen than a white or yellow one, 
though a more rapid germination is observed in the latter. On 
the other hand, the quantities of carbonic acid exhaled by white 
seeds are found to be greater than those from the dark, sometimes 
even double. These differences are considered to prove that dark 
or violet seeds are better conditioned from a physiological point 
of view. In the natural state, i.c., when the seeds germinate in 
light, the conversion of legumin into asparagin must go on much 
more easily in the coloured seeds than in the others. “ The 
more frequent and pronounced pigmentation of seeds of northern 
lands is, therefore,” says M. Pauchon, “a favourable circumstance 
for the growth of these organisms, under the peculiar light con- 
ditions to which they are subjedl.” 
Lord Walsingham, in a paper read before the Entomological 
Society, gave several instances of Micro-Lepidoptera found in 
South Africa, and identical with, or at least closely allied to, forms 
supposed peculiar to South America. 
The question as to whether the larvae of moths ever breed in 
the horns and hoofs of living animals is still undecided. 
According to H. von Koppenfels (“American Naturalist”) 
mongrels between the male gorilla ( Troglodytes gorilla) and the 
female chimpanzee ( T . niger) occasionally occur in the Gaboon 
distridl. Du Chaillu’s Kooloo-Kamba, N’schigo, M’bouve, &c., 
are only names given to the chimpanzee by different tribes. 
The Cervus inaral, of Western Siberia, exists in a state of do- 
mestication among the Cossacks near Kiakhta. 
Dr. S. V. Clevenger (“ Science,” May 28) supports, in opposi- 
tion to Prov. Mivart, the view of Mr. H. Spencer, that instincft 
is a higher development of reason. 
