i88 3 .] 
Notes. 
503 
an end to their fishing. Then, and not till then, they hastened 
to feed upon their prey, evidently understanding the nature of 
the tides, and knowing that the time for such sport was short. 
The “ Medical Press and Circular,” quoting an address deli- 
vered by Dr. Balthazar Foster, makes some apt comments on 
the “ Political Powerlessness of the Medical Profession.” 
Were this otherwise the Bestiarian hubbub would have been 
less formidable. 
An American naturalist proposes the generalisation that 
every particoloured cat has the tip of its tail black, and every 
particoloured dog the tip of its tail white. This is not 
strictly correCt, since there are buff and white cats without 
any black spot, and black and tan dogs without a trace of 
white. 
Dr. A Rizat speaks of the Graeco-Latin terms used in Science 
as being sometimes misunderstood, even by their inventors. 
The “Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences ” 
give an instance of how popular natural history is manufactured. 
A certain author asserts that “ while at Bermuda he had seen 
an Octopus leave the water and climb a cliff 200 feet high, in 
pursuit of a red crab.” The “ Transactions ” show, in com- 
ment, that there is no cliff of any kind in Bermuda 200 feet 
high ; that there is no crab on the Bermudan shores having a 
red carapace ; and that the only species of Octopus known there 
never leaves the water. 
Prof. Spring, of Liege, endeavours to show that free carbon 
is in a dead state, and that previous to entering into organic 
compounds, and still more into the bodies of living beings, it 
must undergo two successive depolymerisations, which endow 
it with new properties. He does not, however, show how the 
second depolymerisation is to be effected. 
A recent writer on medical electricity announces, as a great 
discovery, that “ electricity aCting on flesh deprived of blood or 
fluid is a deadly poison.” How he got the flesh of any living 
animal into such a state, and yet retaining its vitality so as to be 
capable of being poisoned, is not explained. 
Mr. Edison believes that means will ultimately be found to 
obtain electricity from the earth without the use of any machinery 
whatever. 
According to the “ Medium and Daybreak ” Swedenborg 
claimed the invention of the torpedo, the mitrailleuse, the 
hydraulic lift, and the discovery of the circulation of the .blood. 
The Public Library of Melbourne, as well as the Art Gallery 
and Museum, are now open on Sunday afternoons. 
