i88i.] 
Notes . 
695 
The “ London Quarterly Review ” for October contains an ex- 
ceedingly able but severe critique on the writings of Dr. Maudsley. 
The reviewer, however, ignores those proofs of moral life in ani- 
mals which the unbiassed naturalist meets with frequently. 
According to the “ Bibliotheque Universelle,” in France the 
term “ Darwinism ” is considered practically synonymous with 
“ atheist.” Certain ecclesiastical writers assert, and even seem 
to believe, that Mr. Darwin’s primary object was anti-Christian 
and anti-theistic ! 
M. Lasegue (“ Revue des Deux Mondes”) gives a very eulo- 
gistic summary of the researcees of Mr. Braid in “ Animal 
Magnetism.” 
At the recent Congress of German Naturalists and Physicians 
Geheimrath Weisman read a paper on the duration of life and 
the cause of death. He considers that the very various durations 
of life in different species is not determined alone by morpholo- 
gical and physiological laws, but depends on an adaptation of 
each species to vital conditions. The cause of death he seeks 
in a limitation of the reproductive power of the cells. Death is 
a phenomenon of adaptation, immortality having been lost by 
the higher animals when no longer needed. An Amoeba may be 
destroyed, but it has no fixed term of life, and its death is not a 
matter of necessity. 
M. E. Yung (“ Comptes Rendus ”) has made a series of expe- 
riments on the aCtion of poisons upon the Lamellibranchiate 
mollusks. Atropine produces no appreciable effeCt ; strychnine 
is fatal only when placed in direCt contaCt with the heart. 
A pair of twins, Jacob and Baptiste Jocci, are now being exhi- 
bited at Vienna. They are grown together from the sixth rib 
downwards, and have but one abdomen and two legs. Each 
child thinks, speaks, sleeps, eats and drinks independently of the 
other. One may even be indisposed without affeCting the other. 
— Medical and Surgical Reporter . 
M. Robin has exhibited before the Societe de Biologie a speci- 
men of blue urine, passed by a patient suffering from interstitial 
nephritis. The colour is supposed due to the decomposition of 
indican. 
Dr. G. M. Sternberg ( f < National Board of Health Bulletin”), 
from observations made on the mud in the gutters of New 
Orleans, concludes that pathogenic baCteria are bred not alone in 
the bodies of animals. 
At the last meeting of the Royal Microscopical Society Mr. 
J. W. Stephenson exhibited a slide of diatoms mounted in a 
saturated solution of phosphorus in bisulphide carbon. The re- 
fractive index of this medium is about 2* 10, while that of diatoma- 
ceous silex is 1*43, the visibility being greater than the same 
