Notes . 
[February, 
118 
M. Risler (“ Comptes Rendus”) finds that the wheat plant 
never grows on any day when the temperature of the air in the 
shade does not, for some hours at least, exceed 43 0 F. 
Mr. D. Eccles assumes that matter and its states are an illu- 
sion having no existence outside of mind, which is the only real 
existence. 
M. Ch. Brongniart (“ Comptes Rendus ”) describes a fossil 
orthopterous inseCt discovered in the coal-beds of Commentry. 
The insedt in question, Titanophasma Fayoli, makes a near 
approach to the living Phasmidae, and is 10 inches in length. 
M. L. Vaillant (“ Comptes Rendus ”) describes Eurypharinx 
pelecanoidesy a deep-sea fish, caught off the coast of Morocco at 
the depth of 2300 metres. This fish is of an intense black 
colour ; its locomotive organs are quite rudimentary. The enor- 
mous mouth and pharyngeal cavity form, as it were, the aperture 
of a funnel, of which the body constitutes the stem. Digestion 
is supposed to be effected in the mouth. 
M. M. Mendelsohn (“ Comptes Rendus ”) finds that, for a 
given weight, the mechanical work of a single contraction of a 
more excitable muscle is greater than that of a muscle whose 
excitability is normal. The latter, however, is less rapidly ex- 
hausted. 
M. C. de Merejkowsky has presented to the Academy of Sci- 
ences a study on the Suctociliata, a group of Infusoria interme- 
diate between the Ciliata and the Acineta. 
MM. G. Pouchet and J. de Guerne (“ Comptes Rendus ”) have 
studied the Malacological Fauna of the Varanger Fjord. The 
charadter of this fauna is distinctly ArCtic. Of 94 species of 
mollusks, 63 are common to Greenland ; 55 to Spitzbergen ; 
42 to Nova Zembla and the Kara Sea; and 41 to Behring’s 
Straits. 
A being is now under exhibition at the Westminster “Aqua- 
rium ” which its owner, Signor Farini, asserts is “the ‘missing 
link ’ which the late Mr. Darwin was unable to discover in the 
chain of evidence connecting the direct relationship between man 
and the monkey. This link assumes the form of a female child, 
about six or seven years old, said to have been discovered in 
Burmah. She looks, and is, a very intelligent child, who, al- 
though only a few weeks in England, speaks and understands 
English with ease. The head, which is set well upon the shoul- 
ders, and is in size out of all proportion to her body, is thickly 
covered with hair, which grows down to the eyebrows, which 
overarch eyes of extraordinary depth and penetration. The arms, 
legs, and body are covered with thick hair at least an inch in 
length. In support of Mr. Farini’s theory that the little creature 
is but half human, it may be stated that she has a double row of 
