75& Notes. [December, 
An Anti-Vaccination Congress has been held at Berne, under 
the presidency of M. H. Boens. 
“ Light ” gives instances of the apparition of the spirit of a 
dog and of a horse, and describes a case where a cat saw and 
was much terrified at the ghost of a wicked old woman. 
A member of the Paris Anthropological Society considered it 
“ not happy ” that an autopsy of the brain of the late L. Asseline 
had brought to light a simian feature. 
According to the “American Naturalist ” the Colorado beetle 
is decreasing in numbers in Pennsylvania. 
Mr. J. C. Hughes (“ Forest and Stream ”) remarks that the 
American wolf ( Canis lupus var. occidentalis) feeds, to a large 
extent during summer, upon various berries, the seeds of which 
map be abundantly recognised in its excrements. 
[This fad! is one of many proving how the old arbitrary dis- 
tinction between carnivorous and herbivorous or frudtivorous 
animals is breaking down.] 
The “American Naturalist” writes, somewhat strangely, 
“ There is a duty which every scientific man owes to the com- 
munity which supports or tolerates [!] him, a duty which becomes 
greater as his authority and influence are increased in his chosen 
field. That duty is to present in the vernacular of the people 
the leading facts in his chosen science.” From this view we 
totally dissent. 
The question of the permanence of existing continents and 
seas is still under discussion in the “ Geological Magazine,” 
Prof. Le Conte and S. B. J. Skertchley taking the affirmative 
side. 
It is to be remarked that among Coleopterous insects longitu- 
dinal markings occur chiefly in the less highly developed groups, 
such as Curculionidas, Longicornes, Chrysomelidae, &c. 
M. Baubigny (“ Comptes Rendus ”) has determined the atomic 
weight of nickel as 29*372 (that of sulphur being taken as 16*037). 
The election of a Lord Rector for Edinburgh University has 
again been conducted on political principles, Sir Stafford North- 
cote being the successful candidate. 
We are somewhat surprised to find that Mr. A. R. Wallace 
has given in his adhesion to the Anti-Vaccinationists. 
Tarchanoff (“ Pfltiger’s Archiv.”) shows that the egg-albumen 
of those birds whose young are featherless when hatched differs 
from normal albumen in several of its physical and chemical 
properties. 
An esteemed medical contemporary is exceedingly severe upon 
the Psychical Research Society. 
