Notes. 
1881.] 
759 
metaphysics : the coming one will have to be on its guard against 
materialistic philosophy.” 
“ Les Mondes ” notices an interesting case of melanhaemia. 
A French soldier who formed part of the army of occupation of 
Rome, and was stationed for some years in the Pontine Marshes, 
has become entirely of a deep brown colour, totally distindt from 
the shade produced in natives of Northern Europe by exposure 
to the sun in lower latitudes. 
“ Light,” referring to the case of Mrs. Croad mentioned in our 
September issue, states that a Miss Fancher, of New York, 
though blind, could “ read a book by running her fingers over 
the pages, and do the most elaborate fancy wool-work, involving 
the nicest discrimination of shades of colour, in pitch darkness.” 
According to MM. Dufour and Forel (“ Soc. Vandoise des 
Sciences Naturelles ”) the glaciers of the Alps, Pyrenees, the 
Norwegian mountains and the Caucasus, as well as those of 
Greenland and Spitzbergen, have been receding. The study of 
this phenomenon may probably throw light upon the causes of the 
Glacial epoch. 
We consider it our duty to reproduce the following notice from 
the “Journal of the Society of Arts ” : — “ It having come to the 
knowledge of the Secretary that circulars, purporting to be issued 
by ‘ The Society of Science, Letters, and Art, of London,’ or 
some similar title, and dated from Finsbury Park or Upper Tol- 
lington Park, have been sent to certain Members of the Society 
of Arts, inviting them to subscribe to the ‘ Society of Science, 
Letters, and Art,” and that several subscriptions have been paid 
to the Secretary of the above Institution under the impression 
that it was connected with the Society of Arts, he is desired to 
give notice that nothing whatever is known of such a Society at 
this Office, and that it is not associated in any way with the 
Society of Arts.” 
M. Fredericq (“ Bulletin Belg. Acad.”) has examined the blood 
of the larva of Oryctes nasicornis. It is colourless, but gradually 
turns brown and coagulates on exposure to the air. It does not 
appear to contain any body like haemoglobine or hcemocyanine 
which serves as an intermediary between the atmospheric oxygen 
and the tissues. 
Mr. W. C. Holbrook, in a paper read before the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, describes the ske- 
letons of the “ mound-builders ” found in Rock River Valley. 
The cranium is small, low, and broad ; traces of a frontal suture 
are found even in the skulls of adults. In about 50 per cent of 
the humin there is. found a well-developed foramen, larger and 
triangular in the older bones, but in the more modern small, cir- 
cular, and less frequent. 
