Notes. 
1883.] 
183 
do not impart any virulent quality to the fluids which they 
inhabit. 
M. G. Dupetit (“ Comptes Rendus ”) shows that the edible 
mushrooms, such as Boletus edulis and Agaricus campestris , 
contain in their raw state a juice which proves fatal if injeCted 
below the skin of small animals. This poison is destroyed by 
a temperature of 212 0 F., and is probably one of the soluble 
ferments. 
The Society for the Advancement of Medicine by Research is 
said to have “ assumed a position of the utmost influence,” to 
include in its ranks “ every British biologist of note, lay as well 
as medical,” and to be “ receiving very liberal support, moral as 
well as pecuniary.” It is singular that so little should be heard 
of a Society which has undertaken so important a work, and 
which is in so prosperous a condition. 
M. Planchud (“ Comptes Rendus ”) shows that certain Algae 
have a power of reducing sulphates, which is not possessed by 
lifeless organic matter. He considers that the deposits of me- 
tallic sulphides and of free sulphur probably owe their origin to 
similar microbia. 
MM. Gayon and Dupetit, at the same meeting of the Academy 
of Sciences, gave an account of a class of microbia which reduce 
alkaline nitrates present in the soil to nitrites. 
Dr. C. C. Abbott considers that prior to the advent of the so- 
called Red Indians the eastern states of North America were 
inhabited by a people much resembling the Esquimaux. 
Ch. A. Vogler states that the proportion of oxygen in the at- 
mosphere fluctuates in accordance with the barometric pressure, 
the maximum in each being coincident. 
M. Barille (“ Recueil de Medecine Militaire ”), in examining 
the blood of a horse which had died of rabies, found in the blood 
a prodigious number of baCteria. The white globules were ab- 
normally numerous, and there were likewise oval corpuscles not 
present in normal blood, and having all the characters of a 
Micrococcus. 
In various quarters we meet with notices of singular cures of 
diseases, said to be effected by “ the prayer of faith,” at an esta- 
blishment in the north of London known as “ Bethshan.” As 
medical men take no part in the process we should like to know 
who diagnoses the various diseases ? Hysteria is known to 
simulate paralysis, lameness, &c. 
We learn with no small pleasure that the new American 
journal, “ Science,” will admit no advertisements “ to which 
any reasonable objection can be made by scientific men,” the 
