758 Notes. [December^ 
aCts upon the nerve-centres, and produces first excitement and 
afterwards paralysis. 
Mr. Herbert Spencer, before leaving America, is said to have 
pointed out very emphatically the racial degeneracy which over- 
work is bringing upon the American people. 
The honours of the Royal Society have been thus awarded : — 
The Copley Medal to Prof. Cayley, F.R.S., for researches in pure 
mathematics ; one of the Royal Medals to Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S., 
for researches in physics ; the other Royal Medal to Prof. W. H. 
Flower, F.R.S., for discoveries in the morphology and taxonomy 
of the Mammalia, and in anthropology ; the Davy Medal in du- 
plicate, to Prof. Mendelejeff and Prof. Lothar Meyer, for 
researches in the periodicity of atomic weights ; and the Rumford 
Medal to Capt. Abney, F.R.S., for researches in photography. 
M. G. A. Hirn (“ Comptes Rendus ”) combats the new theory 
of the sun put forward by Dr. C. W. Siemens. He shows that 
the return of the elements to the centre would not contribute to 
the continuous reproduction of the solar heat. 
MM. Etard and L. Olivier (“ Comptes Rendus ”) have con- 
ducted researches on the reduction of sulphates by species of 
Beggiatoa, Oscillaria , and Ulothrix. Plants belonging to the 
first-mentioned genus do not flourish in waters devoid of 
sulphates. 
M. Feltz, in a communication to the Academy of Sciences, 
proves that earthworms living in a soil saturated with the in- 
fectious matter of “ charbon ” are capable of propagating and 
distributing the disease. 
M. D. Klein proposes the following modification in the state- 
ment of the law of isomorphism : — Isomorphous bodies have 
either a like chemical composition or present a centesimal com- 
position, differing but slightly, and always containing a group of 
elements common or of identical chemical functions, and forming 
much the greater part of their weight. 
M. Pouchet has communicated to the Academy of Sciences on 
the evolution of the Peridinia , and on the peculiarities of organ- 
isation which conneCt them with the Noctilucae. 
A correspondent of the “ Field Naturalist ” calls attention to 
a tradition that “ young robins annually kill their parents during 
the autumn months.” 
MM. J. Moursin and Schlagdenhauffen (“Comptes Rendus”) 
have experimented on the fluids of the Sea-urchins, of the cysts 
of Hydatids and of the Cysticerci, and, lastly, of the Amniotic 
fluid. All these liquids contain a ptomaine. The fluid of the 
large water- vessel of Cysticercus tenuicollis is distinctly venomous, 
and when injeCted into the peritoneal cavity of rabbits occa- 
