1884.] 
Notes. 
501 
funcftion directly dependent on the oxygen-tension of the air, yet 
under certain circumstances the organism has the power of taking 
up from an atmosphere abnormally rich in oxygen more of this 
element than from common air. 
Mr. Theodore Gill (“ Science’’) complains emphatically that, 
though the deep-sea fishes of the Challenge / Expedition have 
been in the hands of Dr. Gunther for eight years, eminent ichthy- 
ologists are still refused access to them. 
An “ Anti-Vivisection Society” has sprung up in America. In 
reply to one of its manifestoes the Pennsylvania Medical Society 
adopted a resolution emphasizing the usefulness and necessity of 
physiological experimentation. 
We are glad to learn that the “ Illustrated London News” and 
the “ Dispatch ” have come forward in defence of physiological 
experimentation. These papers reach thousands of intelligent 
persons who never take up a medical or other scientific journal. 
The “ Dispatch ” says truthfully — “ The Act of 1876 has resulted 
in almost extinguishing original physiological research in this 
country.” 
According to Dr. Pehl, bacteria in water may be very greatly 
reduced in number by keeping it in rapid motion. 
The fifty-seventh meeting of “ German Naturalists and Phy- 
sicians ” will take place at Magdeburg from the 18th to the 23rd 
of September. 
The coming meeting of the British Medical Association at 
Belfast still occasions some disputes and heartburnings. 
During the year 1883, according to the annual report just 
issued to Parliament, five hundred and sixty-nine experiments 
were performed on living animals in the United Kingdom, thirty- 
four of these being carried out in Ireland. Fifty-five experi- 
ments were performed without anaesthetics, and one hundred and 
twenty-two under certificates giving permission to preserve the 
life of the animal after recovery from anaesthesia. Concerning 
this last class of experiments the report states that in one hundred 
and fourteen cases the operation consisted of inoculation with 
various septic matters or morbific organisms, for the greater part 
connected with an important inquiry into the nature of tubercular 
affections. No pain was inflicted in these cases except in about 
fourteen or fifteen instances, in which disease was produced, but 
which was very trifling. In the remaining eight cases, in which 
more serious operations \^ere required, as these were effected 
under anaesthesia, the only suffering in the animals that survived 
would be that which attends the ordinary repair of a “ surgical 
injury.” 
