i 82 
Notes . 
[March, 
According to Mr. H. Pollard, the Secretary of the Leeds 
Naturalist Club, two house martins were seen near Barnsley on 
Odtober 23rd, and a young one at the same place about a week 
later. 
Mr. A. T. Urquhart reports that in New Zealand earthworms 
ascend trees in the night or in damp mornings. The English 
earthworm is a very poor climber. 
According to M. Gustav Cellerier (“ Astronomische Nachrich- 
ter ”) the nucleus of the comet 1881 behaved optically like a gas. 
Its power of refradtion at a distance of 102,000 kilometres from 
the nucleus = 0-0000093. Its spedtrum has most resemblance 
to that of a hydrocarbon, especially to olefiant gas. Should such 
a gas become mixed with our atmosphere the consequence would 
doubtless be an explosion. 
M. Guimaraes (“Comptes Rendus ”) shows that when coffee 
is ingested in moderate doses, in the course of a few days the 
adtivity of nutrition becomes greater, coincident with a marked 
augmentation of the pressure of the blood, acceleration of the 
movement of the heart, and of respiration, with a slight increase 
of redtal temperature and of the excitability of the nervous 
centres. 
According to M. A. Robin (“ Comptes Rendus ”) the foetal 
envelopes of the Phyllostomidae approach those of the Rodents, 
from which they differ merely by the absence of a terminal 
sinus, whilst those of the other Cheiroptera are nearer to the 
Primates. 
The “ Saturday Review” asks whether “ literary study does 
not now in the lower ranks promote that vice of inobservance 
which it certainly promoted in the higher ranks a century or 
two ago ? ” 
The French Academy of Sciences have lately proceeded to the 
eledtion of a Foreign Associate, vice Prof. Wcehler, deceased. 
Prof. Bunsen obtained 30 votes ; Van Beneden, 7 ; Nordenski- 
old, 4; Prof. Adams, 1 ; and Sir Jos. Hooker, 1. The fadt that 
Prof. Van Beneden stood second on the poll shows what influence 
the Old Natural History still retains among French official 
savants. 
Dr. F. L. Oswald (“ Popular Science Monthly ”), in an able 
article on the “ Curiosities of Superstition,” hints that the dogma 
of metempsychosis is possibly nothing but a dimly expressed 
anticipation of the Evolution theory. 
M. G. Colin, in a memoir presented to the Academy of Sci- 
ences, establishes that microbia are wanting in no part of the 
respiratory and digestive organs. Under normal conditions they 
