i88i.] 
Notes . 
5 6 7 
doctor was sent for, in whose presence the blade was extracted 
by mechanical force. No pain was still experienced, but lest 
unforeseen complications should set in he was sent to a hospital, 
where he remained in perfect health for a week, and was then 
sent home. 
The following are examination questions which are said to 
have been proposed by a “ Congress of Domestic Economists ” : — 
“ Do you remember why all animals who have a long skull are 
called vertebrate animals ? 
“ What are germs, and how can you kill them ? 
“ Every kind of food that grows in the ground is called a vege- 
table. Is flour a vegetable ? 
“ Why do men and boys that work hard require a good deal of 
food that jnakes fat, called ‘ body warmers ’ ? 
“ Why is an egg that has been beaten or whipped a cooked 
egg ? ” 
The greatest rainfall in twenty-four hours in the British Islands 
has been registered in the Isle of Skye. 
According to Mrs. Mary Treat (“American Naturalist”) the 
great crested flycatcher ( Myiarchus crinitus), when building its 
nest in a box, fixed in a vineyard for the purpose, at first holds 
the sticks by the middle, and tries in vain to force them through 
the door. At last the bird learns to push in the sticks end first, 
and the nest is soon completed. Is not this a case of reasoning, 
a right conclusion being drawn from faCts observed, and being 
then practically applied ? 
According to the “ Tucson Citizen ” a large and remarkable 
cavern, more than a mile in extent, has been discovered in the 
Santa Rita mountains, in Arizona. 
The “American Naturalist writes — “ No one is more solicitous 
for the protection of our wild animals than the true sportsman.” 
This may be the case in America. In England he is utterly re- 
gardless of every creature not in the game-list. 
M. V. Galtier submits to the Academy of Sciences the fol- 
lowing startling conclusions : — The injection of the virus of 
rabies into the veins of sheep does not bring on the disease, but 
seems, on the contrary, to confer immunity. Rabies may be 
transmitted by inoculation, and by the introduction of the virus 
under any circumstances into the digestive passages of any ani- 
mal. He even thinks that the injection of the virus into a vein 
may prevent the outbreak of hydrophobia after a bite from a 
rabid animal ! 
A writer in the “Boston Journal of Chemistry” seems to 
regret that a physician “ is not required to write, talk, or in faCt 
do any aCt which is fairly open to the world.” We submit that 
