i88i.] 
Notes. 
631 
Mr. Herbert Parsons, writing in the “ Medical Press,” observes 
that the immediate effe(fts of opium are far more pleasant and 
perfect than those of alcohol, while permanent injury to the 
system is not so certainly a final result.” 
M. G. Delaunay submits to the Academy of Sciences certain 
interesting results on the adtion of strychnine, applicable in part 
to that of other poisons. He finds that of two frogs, the one 
large and vigorous, and the other small and feeble, the former is 
more severely affedted by an equal dose of strychnine. A well- 
fed frog is more susceptible to the poison than one which has 
fasted for some weeks. A frog which has been walking and 
jumping suffers more severely than one which has been at rest. 
A frog fixed with its head upright is less strongly attacked than 
one placed in the reversed position. He remarks that the bite of 
a viper has little effedf upon a dog when at rest, but is rapidly 
fatal if he is fatigued with hunting, &c. 
The existence of fossils in meteoric stones has excited much 
discussion, and is said to have been admitted by Mr. Darwin. 
According to “ Science” the Helmholtz-Thomson hypothesis, of 
the origin of life on the earth, has become a tangible reality. 
(But supposing that fossilised organisms have reached the earth 
from the realms of space, does it follow that living organisms 
have been also thus transported ?) 
The “ Medical Press and Circular ” maintains that the cases 
of irreparable injury received in schools from corporeal punish- 
ment are beyond number. (How is it that none of our humani- 
tarians feel called upon to interfere ?) 
According to an analysis of Prof. Frankland the water of the 
Holy Well of Zemzem, at Mecca, is sewage more than seven 
times as rich as the average sewage of London. 
At the Cincinnati meeting of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, C. S. Minot endeavoured to show that 
man is not the highest animal. We shall examine this para- 
doxical memoir on a future occasion. 
M. Axel Blytt (“ Botanische Jahrbiicher fiir Systematik u. 
Pflanzengeographie ”) concludes from the facffs of organic geo 
graphy, that the temperature of the sea and the strength of 
oceanic currents are subject to periodic changes. He finds in 
the distribution of the various groups of the Norwegian flora 
evidence that dry periods with a continental climate, and moist 
periods with an insular climate, have repeatedly alternated 
since the ice age. He considers that the study of these 
climatic changes will show that the distribution of species follows 
laws as simple as those manifested in the revolutions of the 
planets. 
