[88 1. J Notes. 627 
A large zoological station is being constructed in the Parc des 
Princes, at Passy, near Paris. 
The temperature in Norway during the last winter, from 
October, 1880, to March, 1881, has been 7 0 C. lower than the 
iverage. At Karasjok the lowest temperature registered, be- 
:ween January 13th and 18th, was —50*6° C. — a greater degree 
:>f cold than has ever been observed there before. 
At Prague the thermometer descended to — 15 0 C. in the first 
week of June, destroying numbers of swallows. 
Dr. Sacc, of Montevideo, contends that rabies in dogs might 
be entirely prevented by increasing the number of females and 
decreasing that of the males. 
According to M. C. Maze, on June 27th the temperature at 
Memel (22-9° C.) was the same as at Algiers, 19 0 farther south; 
and on the same day the thermometer stood higher by 5-4° at 
Ulleaborg, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, than at Paris. 
L. Herve (“ Les Mondes ”) thinks that all species of animals, 
man included, are larger and more vigorous on calcareous than 
on siliceous soils. 
The “ Medical Press and Circular ” considers that up to the 
present time “ sanitation ” has had no apparent effecft in reducing 
the prevalence of certain diseases, more especially diarrhoea, 
diphtheria, and fever of typhoid type : the recent epidemic of 
smallpox further shows that the virulence of that disease has un- 
dergone no diminution whatever. 
It is not generally known that the sense of smell may be made, 
for the time being, more acute by filling the mouth with very cold 
water. 
According to Captain Vassel, the Nile, in the Diluvial epoch, 
discharged itself into the sea in the midst of what is now the 
Isthmus of Suez, gradually filling up the narrow and shallow 
strait which then connected the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. 
Meantime its great volume of fresh water served as a barrier 
between the salt-water faunas of the two seas. The Amur at 
the present day forms, in the same manner, a barrier between 
the salt-water faunas of the Sea of Japan and the Sea of 
Ochotzk, the former of which has a tropical and the latter an 
ardtic character.— Vevhand. der K. K. Geol. Reichsanstcilt. 
The water of the Dead Sea, according to the recent analysis 
of H. Fleck (“ Repertorium Anal. Chemie ”), contains per litre : 
— Potassium chloride, 16-9 grms. ; sodium chloride, 74'05i grms.; 
sodium bromide, 5*024 grms.; magnesium chloride, 128*105 
grms. ; calcium chloride, 35*355 grms. ; and calcium sulphate, 
