1 882.] Notes . 567 
been previously fecundated. There is no such thing as a fertile 
worker, and, in line, parthenogenesis in bees is a myth. 
According to the same journal two beetles (Doryphora juncta 
and Cassida texana ) have recently changed their habits, and 
become parasitic on the egg-plant. 
Another of our eminent scientific men, and a contributor to 
this Journal, came to an untimely end on the 14th instant. Prof. 
W. Stanley Jevons was drowned whilst bathing near Bexhill, on 
the Sussex coast. 
“ Festina lente ” gives, in the “ Geological Magazine,” a 
refutation of Prof. Ball’s speculations on the results of the 
moon’s adtion of the earth, substantially identical with that 
which he communicated to the “Journal of Science ” in March 
last. 
Herr Dueberg suggests that the moon may be habitable on the 
side invisible to us, the water and the atmosphere being with- 
drawn thither by the effedts of gravitation. 
Dr. Beard’s interpretation of thoughtrreading as merely 
muscle-reading is placed in peril by Mr. Bishop’s recent experi- 
ments. The latter gentleman, it is said, can now find a hidden 
objecft without any contadl with the person who has concealed 
it. We may, however, fairly doubt whether this fadt brings the 
great question between animism and “ materialism ” any nearer 
to a solution. 
A truly venomous lizard ( Heloderma horvidum), a native of 
Mexico, has been received at the Zoological Gardens. All its 
teeth, above and below, are, like the two fangs of death-snakes, 
furnished with grooves, and are in connection with poison- 
glands. A frog and a guinea-pig bitten by the animal died in 
one and three minutes respectively. The possibility of a 
venomous saurian has hitherto been denied on the very feeble 
a priori ground that no case of the kind had hitherto come under 
the notice of men of Science. It may be asked whether the 
learned world is not sometimes too hasty in rejecting common 
traditions without examination. 
According to M. Van der Berghe (Soc. de Med. de Gand.) 
wheat contains 9-24 parts of metallic copper per million, and 
oats io*8 parts. 
According to M. Dareste (“ Comptes Rendus ”) monstrosities 
may be produced, in birds, by simply prolonging the interval 
between the laying of the eggs and the commencement of incu- 
bation. 
Prof. Plosz and L. von Udran (“ Zeitschrift fiir Physiol. 
Chemie ”) have discovered a new crystalline colouring-matter 
in two samples of morbid urine. The new pigment is of a 
