756 
Notes . 
[December, 
Prof. Joseph Le Conte (California Academy of Sciences) dis* 
cusses certain fossil foot-prints observed in Nevada which seem 
due to a biped, either a man or an anthropoid ape. 
A scientific friend asks whether the phenomena known as 
“ thought-reading ” may not indicate the dawning of a novel 
faculty which, in the course of perhaps a hundred generations, 
will become too plain to be questioned ? 
Dr. Quinlan aptly remarks that “ In Germany medical science 
is honoured and decorated instead of being hunted into foreign 
countries by Anti-Vivisection Acts.” 
Senhor Lopez Netto has met with a “ lignified ” snake (Jara- 
cara) in the crack of a tree in Matto Grosso. The animal ap- 
pears to have died in the crevice, and in the course of its decay 
each particle of animal matter was replaced by a particle of 
woody tissue deposited by the cambium. The process is thus 
quite analogous to that of fossilisation. 
Prof. Virchow maintains that it is not the province of Science 
to attack faith or its objects, but it is her duty to mark and con- 
solidate the present boundaries of knowledge. 
Mr. F. A. Lucas, after careful examination, decides that there 
is only one species of Mias. 
M. Felix Plateau (“ Acad. Roy. de Belgique,” 1882, p. 727) has 
made some interesting experiments on the respiration of insects. 
He finds no direct relation between the form of the respiratory 
movements of an insect and its place in our zoological classifica- 
tion. In all insects the vertical diameter of the body decreases 
during expiration. A lateral contraction is observed only in cer- 
tain groups. A supposed wave-like progression of the respiratory 
movements is perceptible only in isolated forms of some groups. 
Inspiration is ordinarily much slower than expiration, the latter 
being often abrupt. Most insects possess merely expiratory 
muscles, inspiration being effected chiefly by elasticity of the 
tracheae. Muscles which aid in inspiration are found not only in 
the Hymenoptera and the Acridiidae, but also in the Phryganeae. 
The respiratory movements are of a purely reflex character. 
The metathoracic ganglia are not specially respiratory centres. 
According to the “ Naturforscher ” H.H. Erlenmeyer and Lipp 
have effected the synthesis of tyrosine, a compound hitherto ob- 
tained exclusively from animal matter. 
Herr von Liebenburg (“ Wiener Akademie ”) suggests that 
lime plays an essential part in the formation of vegetable proto- 
plasma 
“ Les Mondes ” gives an account of a case of malignant tumour 
on the cheek of a man, produced by the bite of a large black fly 
which was killed in the act, The pustule was cauterised, and 
