3o6 
Notes. 
[May, 
canary appearing, invisible to man, but visible to another canary, 
which learnt the song of the visitant. We have always held 
that the evidence for the immortality of the lower animals is 
substantially the same as that for the immortality of man.) 
The Rev. O. Fisher (“ Geological Magazine ”) argues that if 
the interior of the earth be as rigid as glass or steel, the crust 
must be more rigid than glass or steel, which is a reductio ad 
absurdum. 
At a meeting of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences 
.(“ American Naturalist ”) Mr. Mehan exhibited a nest of Cliwtura 
pelasgia, made of cherry twigs fastened with gum, and suggested 
that the gum was cherry gum, and not, as stated by Audubon, 
the saliva of the bird. 
Professor Nordenskiold, during his Ardtic expeditions, was 
struck with the great rarity of recent animal remains. He states 
that in Spitzbergen it is easier to find vertebrae of extindf reptiles 
than the bones of the seals and sea-fowl of the present day. (The 
rarity of the remains of birds, small mammals, and reptiles in all 
countries is difficult to account for.) 
“ Medicus,” writing in the “ Truth-seeker,” complains that 
about a year ago an eminent and highly-qualified candidate for 
the Chair of Physiology in the University of Michigan, was 
warned that he must not teach the “ development theory.” 
(Academical freedom will always remain a myth as long as the 
heads of colleges are LL.D.’s and D.D.’s, classical scholars, 
theologians, historians, and, in general, men of words.) 
We much regret to announce the unexpected and premature 
death of Dr. G. M. Beard, of New York, a highly valued con- 
tributor to the “ Journal of Science.” His decease took place 
on January 23. 
MM. Oliver and Richet (“Comptes Rendus ”) have discovered 
microbia, — chiefly bacilli, — in the blood and lymph of all the 
species of fishes which they have examined. 
Mr. G. T. Rope (“ Zoologist”) notices that, in Normandy, 
toads are often affedted with a disease which begins in the nose, 
and gradually eats away a considerable part of the head, the 
cavity being full of maggots. (Are not the maggots the cause 
of the disease ?) 
M. Beaunis (“ Comptes Rendus ”) has measured the time 
required for the perception of olfadtory sensations, and finds it 
vary from 37 hundredths of a second in case of ammonia to 67 
hundredths in phenol. Olfadtory sensations are perceived less 
rapidly than those of sight, hearing, or touch. 
Professor Goltz concludes from his researches that the theory 
of circumscribed portions of the cortical substance of the brain. 
