i88 3 0 
( i8x ) 
NOTES. 
A Public Meeting was held on the night of January 31st in the 
Young Men’s Christian Association Hall, Manchester, under the 
auspices of the International Association for the Suppression of 
Vivisection, to protest against physiological experimentation. 
A letter was read from Mr. Jacob Bright, M.P., stating that he 
had never been persuaded that the results of vivisection at all 
compensated for the suffering inflicted upon animals from its 
practice. There was a large attendance, and it was made mani- 
fest from the beginning that the promoters of the meeting were 
in a hopeless minority. Prof. Gamgee, of Owens College, led 
the opposition so far as speaking was concerned, meeting with a 
most enthusiastic reception. All the three resolutions moved by 
the Anti-ViviseCtors were rejected, amid great cheering, with 
majorities of at least twenty to one. The proceedings closed 
with a round of cheers for Prof. Gamgee. We have never “been 
persuaded ” that Mr. Jacob Bright is an authority upon methods 
of scientific research. But there prevails a superstition that an 
M.P. must understand all questions and all subjects. 
Mr. C. Lloyd Morgan has published in “ Nature ” an ill-advised 
account of certain experiments upon scorpions. 
Dr. W. A. Hammond, of New York, contends that the “seat 
of instinCt ” is the medulla oblongata. He bases his argument 
upon the power of acephalic monsters to suck, provided the 
medulla is present. (But what proves “ instinCt ” to be a unitary 
faculty, having a seat ?) 
Mr. J. A. Newlands, in a communication to the “ Chemical 
News,” claims for himself the prior discovery and announcement 
of the “ periodic law,” the merit of which has been ascribed to 
MM. Mendelejeff and Lothar Meyer. 
A medal has been presented to M. Dumas in commemoration 
of the fiftieth anniversary of his election as a member of the 
Academy of Sciences. 
M. A. Gaudry (“ Comptes Rendus ”) considers that the exam- 
ination of primary fossils leads us to admit passages from 
species to species, from genera to genera, and from families to 
families. 
Silpha reticulata , 5 . atrata , and Phosphuqa opaca , all naturally 
carrion devourers, have taken to consume the sugar-beet, both in 
their mature condition and when larvae. 
