372 
Notes. 
[June, 
We are glad to learn that public meetings are no longer so 
easily gulled by Anti-Vivisedfionist agitators. At Sheffield a 
large majority of votes was given against them, and at Richmond 
they did not venture to submit any resolutions to a meeting 
which they had got together. 
The “ Medical Brief" is discussing the question of maternal 
impressions, and recording cases both where they have occurred 
and where they might have been expedted to occur, but did not. 
Intelligence of the death of Johann Karl Friedrich Z ollner, the 
great physical astronomer of Leipzig, did not reach us in time 
to be noticed in our May issue. His theory of the possible ex- 
istence of a fourth dimension in space has given rise to much 
unworthy ridicule, and has certainly not been clearly demon- 
strated. But no thinking man can deny that our conception of 
the universe might be greatly altered if our faculties were en- 
larged or modified. The deceased was only in his 48th year. 
Reinke (“ Pfliiger’s Archiv ”) argues for the non-existence of 
eledlric currents circulating in the living cells of plants. 
According to MM. Mace de Lepinay and W. Nicati (“Journal 
de Physique ”) transitory colour-blindness is produced by a stay 
of a few hours among snow-fields illuminated by the sun. All 
artificial lights appeared green for a short time. The exhaustion 
of the retina for the perception of red is more prolonged than for 
other colours. 
Backlund (“ Bull, de l’Academie Imp. des Sciences de St. 
Petersbourg ’’) has examined the evidence for the existence of a 
resisting medium in space, but has arrived merely at a negative 
result. 
The “ Neues Jahrbuch fur Mineralogie ” contests the widely- 
spread notion of the archaic character of the deep-sea fauna. 
M. J. Gaule (“ Revue Scientifique ”), on examining the red 
globules in the defibrinated blood of frogs, heated to 86° to 88° F. 
in a solution of common salt at o-6 per cent, saw in the cellule, 
along with the nucleus, small movable corpuscles, elongated and 
pointed at their ends. These cytozoa are apparently the result 
of death ; a part of the cellule dies totally, whilst the other be- 
comes so much the more adtive, survives the cell, and becomes 
free. 
M. Delaunay (“ Les Mondes ”) makes some remarkable state- 
ments concerning dreams. By covering the forehead with a layer 
of wadding dreams can be rendered sane and rational. The 
position of the sleeper is also of importance. If he lies on his 
back the dreams will be sensorial and erotic. If on the right side 
they will be mobile, full of transition and exaggeration, absurd, 
and relating to old events. If on the left side they are intelligent, 
reasonable, and refer to recent affairs. 
