308 Notes. [May, 
development of a monster. The change, however, is much more 
rapid in summer than in winter. 
According to Balduino Bocci (“ Central-Blatt Med. Wissen- 
schaft ”), human urine injedted under the skin of frogs occasions 
paralysis, and sometimes even death. Upon mammalia the 
poisonous adtion is slight. 
The Revs. V. G. McNally and E. H. Sugden, B.A. (“ Light”), 
assert that the power of thought-reading is practically universal. 
The “ writers of the PerfeCt Way ” (“ Light ”) consider that 
u a knowledge of the physical is an indispensable aid to the com- 
prehension of the metaphysical.” This admission will appear 
significant to anyone who examines the physical teachings of 
that modest volume. 
M. A. Gaudry, in a communication to the Academy of 
Sciences, considers that in the Silurian epoch the majority of 
the animals appear to have been better organised for defence 
than for attack. He points out that each of the epochs of the 
globe has had forms which reached in it their highest develop- 
ment, and then passed away, whilst less powerful types have 
proved permanent. (This is, in fadt, Mr. Cope’s “ dodtrine of 
the non-specialised.”) 
Dr. Haldemann reports, in the “ Cincinnati Lancet ” and the 
“ Popular Science Monthly,” that the brain of a mulatto, who 
died lately at Columbus, Ohio, weighed 68f ozs., or nearly 5 ozs. 
more than that of Cuvier. The man was “ illiterate and not 
very intelligent.” 
The “ Popular Science Monthly ” mentions also the case of a 
bricklayer, whose brain weighed 67 ozs., but who could neither 
read nor write. 
According to the “ Amtsblatt des Landes Kulturrathes fur 
Boekman,” the frequency of thunderstorms decreases inversely 
as the latitude, and from the centre of continents towards the 
coast. The numbers given are : — On the equator almost daily; 
Java, 97 yearly; Sumatra, 86 ; India, 56 ; Georgia, 55 ; Borneo, 
54; Gold Coast, 52 ; Italy, 38; Antilles, 36 ; Lower Guinea, 32 ; 
La Plata, Canada, and Austria, 23 ; Baden, Wurtemberg, and 
Hungary, 22 ; Silesia, Belgium, and Bavaria, 21 ; Holland, 18 : 
Saxony, B:andenburg, and Kasan, 17; France, Australia, and 
South Russia, 16 ; Spain and Portugal, 15 ; Slesvic Holstein, 
Mecklenburg, Hanover, West Prussia, and Cape Town, 13 ; 
Mesopotamia, 12; North Russia, 10; Sweden and Finland, 8; 
England, Astrabad, and the Alps, 7 ; Norway, 4; Cairo, 3; 
Egypt (Upper?), and Turkestan, scarcely any. 
The Hygienic Congress of Geneva offers a prize of 2000 francs 
for the best essay on the causes and prevention of blindness. 
