54 
Notes. 
[January, 
Prof. A. B. Prescott, in a paper read before the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, shows the limited 
biological importance of the organic syntheses effected by che- 
mists. He admits that all the matter of protoplasm is in a state 
of chemical combination, but that it cannot therefore be ac- 
cepted that chemical composition supplies the essential conditions 
or impulses for organisation or other vital functions. The syn- 
thesis of all the chemical compounds of the living body may or 
may not be attainable in the laboratory, but its success would 
give no whit of promise for the development of organisation. 
Chemical adtion is distindt from cell organisation as it is from 
heat, cohesion, &c., and its correlations with all these forces 
have to await demonstration by experiment. Cell growth ap- 
pears to be a necessary fadtor in the simple splitting of sugar 
into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and it may or may not be an 
essential fadtor in the chemical synthesis of proteids or of 
cellulose. 
M. L. Crie, in a communication to the Academy of Sciences, 
gives an account of phosphorescence in a number of cryptoga- 
mous plants, such as Agaricus olearius, igneus, noctilucens , 
Gardneri, lampas, &c. ; Auricularia phosphorea and Polyporus 
citrinus ; Rhizomorpha subterranea and setiformis, &c. 
M. E. Yung (“ Comptes Rendus ”) has observed that the diet 
of tadpoles has a remarkable influence upon the relative numbers 
of the two sexes. 
M. A. Gaudry has laid before the Academy of Sciences an 
account of a deposit of the bones of the reindeer discovered near 
Paris. He gives the following sketch of the history of the 
quaternary epoch in the Paris basin : — i. Hot phase : deposits of 
St. Prest ; Elephas meridionalis, transition from the tertiary to 
the quaternary period. 2. Great glacial phase : deposit on Mont- 
reuil ; herds of reindeer; Rhinocerus tichorhinus. 3. Hot phase : 
diluvium at the foot of Montreuil ; Hippopotami , Rhinocerus 
Merkii , Elephas antiquus ; fig-trees and laurels of La Celle? 
4. Temperate phase: diluvium of low levels of Grenelle ; mix- 
ture of tropical and ardtic forms. 5. Brief return of cold : rein- 
deer ; the rhinoceros disappears. 6. Present climate : epoch of 
polished stone. 
M. P. Bert, the new French Minister of Education, has com- 
municated to the Academy of Sciences an important paper on 
the limits of safety in the surgical use of anaesthetics. His 
researches necessarily involved experiments which in England 
would be branded as vivisedtion. 
M. E. Grimaux (“ Comptes Rendus ”) has succeeded in the 
synthesis of a body resembling in many of its readtions the 
proteine compounds. His point of departure, however, was of 
an organic nature. 
