I884-J 
Notes. 
53 
M. Th. W. Engelmann, after very careful and prolonged re- 
searches, has succeeded in showing indubitably that certain 
Vorticellae possess the power of evolving oxygen on exposure to 
light, by. means of a green colouring-matter which is equally 
diffused in their edtoplasm, and not by means of vegetable 
guests. These are the first authentic instances of animals which 
assimilate by means of a chromophyll. 
“ Les Mondes” complains that “ l’Hygiene Pratique,” a purely 
non-political French journal, has been prohibited in Germany, 
an adb explicable only by “ une haine implacable pour tout ce 
qui est francos.” 
Mr. G. W. Grim (“ Popular Science Monthly ”) notices the 
occasional appearance of small land-birds out at sea, sometimes 
hundreds of miles from land, and comments on their freedom 
from weariness and on their tameness until approaching the 
land. 
According to “ La Nature ” the mountains of Turkestan, now 
almost denuded, were once covered with magnificent forests. 
Prof. W. G. Sumner (“Popular Science Monthly”) says:— 
“ We can never annihilate a penalty. We can only divert it 
from the head of the man who has incurred it to the heads of 
others who have not incurred it. A vast amount of ‘ social 
reform ’ consists in just this operation.” 
The Central Association of Spiritualists is being wound up, 
and a deficiency of £150 has to be encountered. 
MM. J. Chambrelent and A. Moussons (“ Comptes Rendus ”) 
have proved the presence of morbific bacteria in the milk of 
animals attacked by splenic fever. 
Mr. Jos. Cowen, M.P., whilst distributing prizes at the New- 
castle College of Medicine, complained that “ the tendency of 
to-day was more or less in the direction of sameness and uni- 
formity, which begat sterility and intellectual weakness.” 
Many animal and vegetable forms seem stationary in numbers, 
if not actually on the decrease. Man and those weeds and 
vermin which are — in a broad sense — parasitic upon him have 
the sad prerogative of unlimited increase. 
H. A. G. Nathorst (“ Botanische Jahrbiicher ”) shows that the 
flora of Spitsbergen is richer than that of any other country in 
the same latitude. The majority of species avoid the coasts, 
and are mostly to be found in the interior, in accordance with 
Blyth’s theory. Most if not all the species have immigrated 
since the glacial epoch, finding their way over a since submerged 
tracft which connected Spitsbergen with Novaja Semlja, Ardfic 
Russia, and Scandinavia. There has been no immigration of 
