n8 
Notes. 
[February, 
first was not so much condensed as now, it might at some far 
back period have resembled a comet. Here, then, I find the one 
chief facftor of all earthly existences. I observe that the north 
and south points of this inner globe, as well as those of our 
globe, are not simply flattened, but are slightly concave. This is 
the result of attraction at these points being so intense, — similar 
to the end of an apple or orange, which is not flat, but slightly 
indented.” 
“ Truth ” gives a pen-and-ink sketch of Prof. E. Ray Lankester 
which is at any. rate instructive as showing what the modern fast 
litterateur thinks of the modern man of Science. We implicitly 
believe the writer when he says that he would prefer the society 
of a “ healthy fool ” to that of the learned Professor ! 
Prof. Meehan (“ Kansas City Review of Science ") decides that 
the timber line of high mountain-tops results from the washing 
down of the earth from the higher elevations. 
The overthrow of the Gambetta Administration involves a loss 
to Science in the removal of Dr. Paul Bert from the ministry of 
Public Instruction. 
A daily paper for the 17th ult. speaks of the “ sodium of cal- 
cium” as a dangerous compound. 
“ Light ” contains a great — and we may say an increasing — 
array of incidents which demand serious consideration. In 
many cases the stale explanations of trickery or of “ dominant 
ideas ” are utterly inexplicable. We do not, however, like the 
form of Signor Damiani’s challenge to Professor Huxley. It is 
substantially a bet, and betting is, in our opinion, “ ultima ratio 
stultorum.” 
We learn that the Rev. C. Spurgeon has vouchsafed to express 
his “loathing” of vivisecftionists. 
Keller (“Vierteljahrschrift der Natur. Gesellsch. Zurich ”) gives 
the following proof of the existence of a well-developed colour 
sense among Mollusca. A sepia ( Eledone ) in the Naples Aqua- 
rium was fleeing from the pursuit of a powerful lobster. During 
its flight it appeared of a pale red colour. Next it placed itself 
upon a piece of yellow tufa covered with brown spots, and 
assumed both the yellow ground colour and the size and shade 
of the spots, with such deceptive accuracy that it could scarcely 
be recognised by the observer. 
The apparatus employed by Prof. Abbe, of Jena (“Journal of 
Science,” vol. iff, p. 375, 1881), for demonstrating the influence 
of diffraction spedira in the formation of the microscopic image, 
is now made by Herr Zeiss, and can be obtained through his 
agents. Although great pains have been taken, > at the Royal 
Microscopical Society and elsewhere, to make known the pecu- 
