i88i.] 
( 691 ) 
NOTES. 
In a paper read before the Entomological Society, by Mr. R. 
McLachlan, F.R.S., a decided case of parthenogenesis among 
Coleoptera was recorded. A virgin female Gastrophysa raphani 
deposited several successive batches of eggs at intervals of 
several days, and in each batch one egg at least proved fruitful. 
Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, gives (“ Science ”) an interesting 
case of regressive recollection of languages. Dr. Scandella, a 
learned Italian, residing in America, had a complete mastery of 
French and English, as well as of his native tongue. Being at- 
tacked with yellow fever, in the beginning of his illness he spoke 
English only. As he became worse he spoke nothing but French, 
and on the day of his death Italian only. 
The “ Social Science Congress ” is, even more than the British 
Association, in danger of becoming a political debating society. 
It is doing everything but constituting sociology. 
According to Mr. A. Strahan (“ Geological Magazine ”) the 
coal found beneath the New Red Sandstone, in the south-west of 
Lancashire, is for the present not likely to be of practical im- 
portance. 
Prof. Barrett (“ Psychological Review ”) questions Dr. Car- 
penter’s — or we should rather say Dr. Beard’s — explanation of 
“ thought-reading.” 
The “ Scottish Naturalist ” gives an obituary notice of the late 
Robert Walker, F.G.S., Registrar of the University of St. 
Andrews, a zealous and successful observer in geology and 
marine geology. 
Prof. Seeley, F.R.S. (“ Geological Magazine ”), after a careful 
comparative examination, maintains that the London and the 
Berlin specimens of Archceopteryx belong respectively to different 
species. 
The Rev. F. O. Morris writes to the “ Morning Post ” that a 
specimen of the Californian quail has been recently shot near 
Huggatt, a village on the Yorkshire Wolds. 
According to M. Ravaisson (“ Comptes Rendus ”) the unpub- 
lished manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci contain suggestions for 
aerial locomotion, a description and diagrams of a steam-cannon, 
and an account of a device for hearing distant sounds, either on 
land or sea. (It must be noted that, like certain inventors of the 
present day, Da Vinci turned his attention chiefly to appliances 
for warlike purposes.) 
