54 
Notes. 
[January, 
note from Greenland, which is separated from Spitzbergen by a 
deep sea: J 
Mr. Wigner, F.C.S., in a letter to the “ Times,” gives some 
alaiming revelations concerning the adulteration of milk. Of 
ty samples obtained as it comes to London the total average 
was 7 per cent better than the standard of the public analysts. 
Lut of three hundred samples obtained about the same time 
iiom London milkmen all but ninety-seven were worse than the 
woist of the original samples. On the lowest computation the 
sum paid yearly by London for milk-adulteration is £356,000. 
‘ Psychische Studien ” and “ Light ” give, on the part of 
Gambetta and of Prince Bismarck, a number of instances of 
^ y ears ago was considered gross superstition, such as 
eliet in unlucky days and years, in fortune-telling by cards, in 
the danger of thirteen persons sitting down to table, in the in- 
Huence of the moon on the growth of plants and of the human 
hair ! 
Mr. T. Mellard Reade, F.G.S., in a letter to the “ Geological 
Magazine, maintains that the human skull found at Birkdale in 
1872, on which a paper was read by Dr. Barron at the Southport 
meeting of the British Association, is, at a liberal estimate, not 
more than 2000 years old. 
Prof. Dohrn s collection illustrative of the fauna of the Bay 
ot Naples has become the property of the Cambridge Museum 
ot Comparative Anatomy. 
According to the Society for Psychic Research, impressions of 
odours and tastes are transferable. 
The “Journal of Education ” having offered a prize for “the 
best list of the ten greatest living English men of letters, the 
names selected by a majority of the candidates include three 
avowed enemies of Science and at least two decided Bestiarians. 
The name of Elerbert Spencer figures near the bottom of the 
list ! 
“ Science ’ discusses rhabdomancy, magnetic healing, &c., in 
an article headed « From Superstition to Humbug.” 
It is announced that a Zoological Society is about to be formed 
at Liverpool. The promoters hope to have shortly the largest 
and most complete zoological gardens in Europe. We hoDe 
however, that they will be in the hands of a society, and not of 
a company. In the latter case they will either come to an un- 
timely end or continue in existence by dint of attractions similar 
to those offeied by the Royal Westminster Aquarium. 
According to “ Flora ” the fungus Torrubia cinerea has been 
found glowing upon a mature Carabus (species not named). 
