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NOTES* 
The “ Morality of the Medical Profession ” has been made the 
subject of an objectionable article in the “ Modern Review.” In 
reply have appeared a letter from “Two of the Profession” — 
both, forsooth, anti-viviseCtionists — and a protest from one whom 
the “ Medical Press and Circular ” pronounces “ a scientific 
savant , one holding an unassailable position in the social world, 
and a highly esteemed gentleman !” We do not agree with the 
writer as to the policy of ignoring attacks. The taCtics of social 
and political agitators consist mainly in throwing dirt, in the 
hope that some of it will stick. The persistent abuse levelled at 
the medical profession is part and parcel of a widespread anti- 
scientific movement. 
Prof. Hutchinson, in his LeCtures on the Laws of Heredity 
(“ Medical Press and Circular ”), mentions a very interesting 
faCt ascertained in Berlin. Among Catholics, who prohibit con- 
sanguineous marriages, the proportion of deaf-mutes is 1 in 
3000 ; among Protestants, who view such marriages as permis- 
sible, the ratio is 1 in 2000 ; whilst among Jews, who en- 
courage intermarriage with blood-relations, the deaf-mutes are as 
1 in 400. 
Mr. J. T. Humphreys (“American Naturalist”) records a case 
of a king-snake ( Ophibolus Savi) killing and devouring a full- 
grown water-mocassin (Ancistrodon piscivorus). 
Mr. A. E. Bush, of San Jose (in the same journal), describes 
the butterfly trees of Monterry (Pinus insignis). Three of these 
trees, each about 18 inches in diameter, were completely covered 
with live butterflies. 
On June 2nd, according to the same journal, thousands of 
white butterflies (. Pieris monusta) passed from west to east over 
certain > districts of South Carolina. 
Arthur de Noe Walker, M.D., one of the few medical men who 
deem it consistent with their duty to Science to identify them- 
selves with the anti-viviseCtion hubbub, has sent round a circular 
denouncing the “ Lancet ” for its recent strictures on Homoeo- 
pathy. 
Prof. B. Pierce maintains that the discovery of Neptune was 
“ only a happy accident the planet found by Galli, in accord- 
ance with Leverrier’s directions, was not the planet “ to which, 
geometrical analysis had di?eC\ed the telescope.” — Science. 
