692 
Notes. 
[November, 
According to the “ Revue Spirite ” charges are brought against 
Prof. Mendelejeff, and certain of his colleagues at the University 
of St. Petersburg, of having smothered an enquiry into the truth 
or falsehood of Spiritualism, and shown bad feeling and bad 
faith. 
Mr. J. Chatin has examined the apical club of the antennae of 
Vanessa Io. It is covered with minute fossae, narrower at the 
orifice and widening within, and having at their bottom the so- 
called olfactory rods, which vary in number from one to four in 
each fossa. 
At the late meeting of the British Association Mr. Francis 
Galton presented an interesting Report on the Federation of the 
Local Scientific Societies. 
We learn from a medical contemporary that a prominent anti- 
vaccinationist has committed suicide, as a sequel to the death of 
his wife and of three of his children from smallpox. 
MM. Olivier and Richet (“ Comptes Rendus”) have established 
the mobility of the microbia found in the lymph of fishes, thus 
distinguishing them from a new histological element which they 
have discovered in the same medium. 
.Prof. E. Ray Lankester, in his Presidential Address delivered 
before the Biological Section of the British Association, pleaded 
urgently for the establishment of laboratories or stations for bio- 
logical research in England. We trust that his plea may not 
prove in vain. But of this elsewhere. 
We find in “ Light ” the following most deplorable comment 
upon Prof. E. R. Lankester’s recent plea for the establishment 
of laboratories for biological research : — “ Professor Lankester, 
of Bow-street notoriety in connection with the case of Dr. Slade, 
pleads for ‘ the Endowment of Research,’ which appears to be 
that he and such as he should be subsidised by the State, such 
people being.generally understood to be in search of knowledge, 
but not bound to teach it, or to produce results ! But Professor 
Lankester was always very modest ! ” Prof. Lankester and 
“ such as he ” have already furnished very valuable results, and 
would do more if they had the scope afforded them. To think 
that the scientific discoverer should spend his time in teaching 
is as unreasonable as to expeCt the manufacturer to retail his 
own products. 
i The Java catastrophe seems to many persons a confirmation of 
the alleged disappearance of Atlantis. 
An important new work by Robert Hudson Graham, C.E., will 
be shortly issued by Messrs. Crosby Lockwood and Co., London, 
entitled “ Graphic and Analytic Statics in Theory and Compari- 
son their practical application to the Treatment of Stresses in 
