( 1 14 ) 
[February, 
NOTES. 
The following singular advertisement appears in the “ Deutsch- 
Kroner Ze^ung of December nth “ Magpies shot between 
December 24th and January 6th are used for a remedy against 
epilepsy. The undersigned, with whom this medicine is pre- 
pared, will be greatly obliged to everyone who will send him at 
that time as many magpies as possible, provided that they have 
been shot, and not killed by poison or caught in traps.— Castle 
Tutz, Dec. 5, 1883.— Signed, Theodor, Count Stolberg. 
[We feel strongly tempted to consider this advertisement as 
due to a survival, or rather a recrudescence, of superstition.] 
Prof. Edlund controverts the generally-received statement that 
a vacuum— or highly rarefied air— is a non-conductor of electri- 
city. He maintains that the obstacle to the passage of the 
6 resistance of the electrodes, and disappears 
entirely with their suppression. 
According to Dr. S. B. Higgins (“ American Naturalist ”) the 
coppeihead snake ( Ancistrodon contortrix ) always strikes at the 
ankles of its enemy, in contradistinction to the Crotalid® which 
aim higher. ’ 
Dr. Hyades, of the late French Expedition to Cape Horn 
Fuegc> S labl6S arC unknown among the dogs of Tierra del 
M. Rochefontaine (“ Comptes Rendus ”) announces that cho- 
lera, smallpox, typhoid fever, and anthrax are by no means un- 
common among the coppersmiths of Villedieu. 
According to Dr. Stone the human body is a far better con- 
a 'state of heSth 7 sufferin S from Paralysis than when in 
A fungus {Aspergillus glaucus) flourishes well in the solutions 
of the alkaloids, such as morphine and atropine. 
Dr. Landwehr (“ Zeitschrift Phys. Chemie ”) has obtained a 
true gum from mucine and metalbumen. It is capable of fer 
mentation, and by boiling with dilute acid is converted into 
sugar which reduces copper oxide. 
The ® 0t ,^ ly ( 0I Ps >' chic Research proposes a so-called “ ghost- 
census.’ The Soc.ety ,s seeking for cases “ where some marked 
event happening to a person at a distance has coincided with the 
him*”* 114 pe,ceptlon °f tIlat person’s presence or with a dream of 
