Notes. 
1883.] 
117 
luxuriance of the floral system in some Alpine species.” He 
seeks the cause in the solar radiations, which are more intense 
on the mountains than in plains. 
At a recent meeting of the Midland Institute of Mining 
Engineers the new process of getting coal with lime-cartridges, 
in place of gunpowder, dynamite, &c., was discussed. It has 
given unbounded satisfaction in Belgium, Austria, and in many 
mines at home, the percentage of round-coal being more than 
doubled, whilst danger to the men is entirely excluded. The 
only failure was at Aldwarke Main, where the coal, being elastic, 
gave way without being ruptured. 
Prof. O. Wendell Holmes has resigned the Chair of Anatomy 
at Harvard University, which he has held for thirty-five years. 
He intends, it is said, to devote his time to literature ! 
The annual yield of gold from the mines of French Guayana 
is about 2500 kilos. 
According to Langer (“ Kaiserlich Akad. der Wissensch.”) the 
fat of children contains 67 per cent of oleic acid, 28 of palmitic 
acid, and 3 of stearic acid. In the adult the oleic acid has risen 
to 89 per cent, whilst the palmitic and stearic acids have fallen 
respectively to 8 and 2. 
The poison of the rattlesnake, according to Dr. Ott (“ Gazette 
Hebdomadaire ”), kills animals by arresting the movements of the 
heart, and producing a considerable reduction of the arterial 
tension. 
According to Dr. Perardon the lower animals are less suscep- 
tible to the aCtion of resorcine than is man, 
A M. Gourdin writes to the “ Gazette de Cambrai ” that the 
lightning fell three times upon a tree by the roadside from which 
he was only eight paces distant. He lay down on the ground, 
and covered himself with a woollen umbrella. The tree was cut 
up, and he was “ coiled round with flames and completely elec- 
trified.” He considers that he owes his safety to his presence 
of mind and his woollen umbrella. 
In New Mexico there is another species of Heloderma allied to 
the poisonous lizard, H. horridum , recently brought to the 
Zoological Gardens. The species in question, H '. suspiosum, is 
found by Prof. Snow not to be poisonous. 
According to M. Herve-Mangon the annual production of milk 
in France would form a stream of a metre in width and one-third 
metre in depth, flowing for the entire year at the speed of 1 metre 
per second. 
Prof. H. A. Howe (“ Kansas Review of Science ”) concludes 
that the comet of last autumn is not that of 1843, and that there 
is no danger of its falling into the sun at any time. 
