n6 
Notes . 
[February, 
A museum is to be erected in connexion with the Owens 
College, Manchester. We hope the promoters will avoid the 
common error of expending the bulk of their funds on bricks and 
mortar, and having to depend upon chance donations for the 
contents of the establishment. 
M. Boussingault (“ Comptes Rendus ”) gives determinations 
of nitric acid and of ammonia in snow water from elevated points 
in the Alps. That from Neige du Velan (3760 metres) showed 
— nitric acid, o ; ammonia, o-io m.gr. per litre. Glacier of Kal- 
tenwasser (3560 m.), and that of Palu (3000 m.), no nitric acid 
and no ammonia. 
In a paper read before the Society of Arts, Mr. W. A. Gibbs, 
the inventor of the agricultural drying machine, speaking of the 
treatment he has received, said : — “ If I had been a timid man, 
I should have been daunted ; if I had been a poor man, I should 
have been ruined ; if I had been a sick man, I should have been 
killed by this injustice.” 
The past autumn has been one of the driest on record in the 
north of Norway, — a contrast to the floods which have prevailed 
in England, France, Germany, and Italy. 
A herd of the caaing whale ( Phocena globiceps ), estimated at 
near 20,000 head, has appeared among the Loffoden Islands. 
About 1500 have been caught in a single fjord. 
Dr. Herdinger (“ Deutsche Medic. Zeitung ”), in a recent offi- 
cial report on deaf-mutism, shows that the offspring of consan- 
guineous marriages afford 10 per cent of the cases, in addition 
to 5 per cent of the total cases, of blindness, and 15 per cent of 
those of mental disease. 
Prof. T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S. (“ Geological Magazine ”) sums 
up the causes of the sudden destruction of large numbers of 
marine animals. The principal are — efflux of fresh water from 
the land, volcanic agency and earthquake waves, hurricanes, 
excess or deficiency of heat in shallow water, diseases, and 
lightning. 
Dr. Tuke, in a Lecture lately delivered before the Edinburgh 
Health Society, remarked that one of the great causes of over- 
strain in early youth was the vicious system of offering prizes 
for competition. It deflected the mind of the child from the 
main aim and object of its study, and often defeated the object 
which it was hoped to obtain. 
M. E. Heckel (who must not be confounded with Prof. Ernst 
Haeckel of Jena) still denies the action of insects as factors of 
brilliant colouration in flowers. He brings forward no new facts, 
but says — “ I persist in admitting [he should say in maintaining] 
that fecundating insects are not in any manner the cause of the 
