iS8 3 .] 
Notes . 
629 
M. V. Burq (“ Comptes Rendus ”) strongly recommeds the 
internal and external use of copper as a preservative against the 
cholera. 
According to M. B. Delachanal the bitumen of the Dead Sea 
is distinguished from other bitumens by the presence of sulphur 
in its composition. 
Dr. Jackson, in a paper read before the West Kent Medico- 
Chirurgical Society, shows that pre-historical man was afflidted 
with a variety of diseases, including syphilis. 
According to the “ Medical Press and Circular ” the wife of 
Prince Bismarck is “ a trafficker in a nostrum, made from 
magpies’ wings, for the cure of epilepsy ” ! 
At the Glasgow Congress of the Sanitary Institute of Great 
Britain an address to the working classes was to be delivered by 
Dr. Alfred Carpenter, of Croydon, — doubtless in glorification of 
sewage-irrigation. 
The Rev. A. Irving (“ Geolog. Mag.”) contends that the green 
colour of the Lower and Middle Bagshot Sands is due not to any 
mineral matter, but to vegetable impurities. 
The recently-published observation that meat can be protected 
from putrefaction by means of carbonic acid was anticipated by 
Hermbstadt as early as 1791. 
At the September meeting of the Entomological Society the 
Rev. Mr. Gorham read an interesting paper on the Insecft Fauna 
of Japan, showing that it was not formed by immigration, but 
was essentially endemic. 
At the same meeting was exhibited a hermaphrodite specimen 
of Macropis labiata. 
Says Dr. H. Rowland, in the Physical Section of the American 
Association, “ It is a faCt in Nature which no democracy can 
change that men are not equal.” 
It appears that Dr. Hermann Kolbe, Professor at the Uni- 
versity at Leipzig and Editor of the “Journal fur Praktische 
Chemie,” has been sentenced to a penalty of 200 marks for in- 
sulting Dr. Georg Krause, of Coethon, Editor of the “ Chemiker 
Zeitung.” In Germany it is exceedingly difficult to conducft a 
controversy without incurring the risk of legal proceedings ; but 
by way of compensation the penalties and costs in such cases 
are out of all comparison smaller than in England. 
Prof. G. Wiedemann, in a very brief notice of the experiments 
of the “ Reichenbach Committee ” of the Society for Psychical 
