1882.] 
Notes . 
55 
A singular meteorite fell at 3.35 p.m., March 14th, 1881, 
about if miles from Middlesborough, and is described by Prof. 
Herschel in the “ Monthly Notices ” of the Royal Astronomical 
Society, 
According to M. F. Hement (“ Comptes Rendus ”) children 
deal from birth, and who have been taught to speak at the 
Pereira Institution, acquire the peculiar accent of their native 
district. M. Blanchard calls this observation strongly in 
question. 
M. A. Certes (“ Comptes Rendus ”) shows that the ova of 
certain low crustaceans, especially Artemia salina, can bear with 
impunity desiccation for months, and even for years. 
M. H. Toussaint, in a paper read before the Academy of 
Sciences, supports the contagious character of tubercular 
disease. 
We note with regret that a medical contemporary actually 
proposes that University professorships should be won, not rebus 
gestis, but by competitive examination ! 
Dr. Noerdlinger (“ Central Blatt fur Forst-Wesen ”), as the 
result of prolonged observation, denies that the quality of timber 
is in the least influenced by the age of the moon at the time 
of felling. 
According to the experiments of E. and H. Becquerel, con- 
ducted in the Jardin des Plantes in the winter of 1879-80 
(“ CEsterr. Landwirth. Wochenblatt ”), a thick layer of snow 
does not protedt the subjacent soil from falling below freezing- 
point. Grass-turf is a more efficient protection. 
M. Duponchel (“ Comptes Rendus ”) traces an agreement be- 
tween the curve of the solar spots and the actions resulting from 
the eccentric movement of the large planets. 
M. P. Laur (“ Comptes Rendus ”) finds that under certain 
circumstances eleCtric currents may be produced by solar light. 
Dr. Manuel da Gama Lobo, of Rio Janeiro, is said to have 
discovered the toxic agent in yellow fever to be derived from a 
“ species of Infusoria, the Opunsia Mexicana, which belongs to 
the family of bacillce .” (We fear there is here some error ; 
barillas are certainly not Infusoria.) 
“ Science ” gives an account of a meeting of the New York 
Medico-Legal Society when a paper on Alcoholic Trance was 
read by Dr. Crothers. The discussion which followed took a 
very personal form. 
Prof. Wincheil, of the University of Michigan, in a Leriure 
delivered before the Summer School of Philosophy, at Greenwood 
