312 
Notes. 
A correspondent of “ Light ” suggests that it might be well to 
discourage post-mortem examination till the body has been cold 
at least three or four days : for if the Spirit should be capable of 
feeling the terrors of the surgical operation, it must be a trial of 
unequalled horror. Surely such a delay must in many cases be 
in danger of frustrating the very objects for which post-mortem 
examinations are undertaken. 
The Report of the Mining Surveyors and Registrars of Victoria 
gives the proportions of gold from quartz rock obtained at different 
depths. The richness of the mineral stands in no perceptible 
relation to the depth at which it lies. The richest sample 
(io ozs. 9 dwts. 12 grs.) was got at the depth of 840 feet. One 
of the next richest (3 ozs. 10 dwts. 12 grs.) at 130 feet; and the 
poorest of all (16 grs.) at 400 feet. 
We regret to learn the death of an occasional contributor to 
our pages, Mr. J. Hepburn Davidson. 
The German Congress of Naturalists and Physicians will meet 
this year on September 17th, 
M. E. Brandt has laid before the Academy of Sciences an 
account of researches on the nervous system of certain Dipterous 
larvae of the families Leptidae, Bibionidae, Xylophagidae, There- 
vidae, and Dolochopididae. The larvae of the Leptidae have 
thirteen ganglia, i.e., two cephalic, three thoracic, and eight 
abdominal, all connected by double nerves as in the adult insects. 
In all other Diptera the ganglia are united by single connections. 
The larvae of the Bibionidae, Xylophagidae, and Therevidae, as 
well as the Asilidae, have the same respective numbers of 
ganglia with simple connections. The adults have merely two 
thoracic ganglia, the anterior one being formed from the two 
first in the larva, whilst the posterior ganglion is formed from 
the third of those of the larva. In the larvae of the Doli- 
chopididae there are still the same number of ganglia, which in 
the adult are reduced to four — two cephalic and two thoracrc. 
The larvae of the Fungicolae have sometimes thirteen, sometimes 
twelve ganglia, the two posterior in the abdomen merging into 
one, as in Rhyphus. The larvae of the Tabanidae have only 
seven distinCt ganglia. M. J. Kiinckel d’Herculais maintains 
that they have merely two. Is this a difference of species or of 
age ? The nervous system of the larvae of the Tabanidae forms 
an intermediate link between the Muscidae and the Nemoceridae. 
