1884.] 
Notes. '■ 
371 
The hypothesis that these rings are composed of a multitude of 
small satellites describing independent orbits around the centre 
of gravity of the planet explains the phenomena observed much 
better. 
A. Ares (“ Ciel et Terre ”) contends that the red colour of 
Mars is due not to its soil or its vegetation, but to its atmo- 
sphere. 
According to the “Journal d’Hygiene ” citric acid is a most 
powerful disinfectant, preserving meat from putrefaction, and 
proving rapidly fatal to septic microbia. The soluble citrates 
have no similar aCtion. 
M. Poincaire (“ Comptes Rendus ”) contends that the attrac- 
tion of the moon modifies the intensity of gravitation. Hence 
at the Equator the clock is retarded by half a second yearly by 
the combined attraction of the sun and moon, and advanced a 
second at the Poles. 
The inhabitants of Chiloe use as a weather-indicator the shell 
of a crab of the family Anomura, belonging probably to the 
genus Lithodes. It is almost white in fine weather, becomes 
covered with small red spots on the approach of moisture, and 
is almost entirely red when rain actually falls (“ Ciel et Terre ”). 
Mr. Maxwell Hall (“ Monthly Notices of the Royal Astrono- 
mical Society”) gives the following remarkable sequence of 
colour in the planets from the Earth outwards : — Mars, reddish; 
Jupiter, a delicate orange; Saturn, greenish yellow; Uranus, 
light green ; and Neptune, slightly blue. 
M. Faye (“ Comptes Rendus ”), after a careful examination, 
decides that the cosmogenic theory of Kant has not the smallest 
analogy with that of Laplace. 
M. Milne-Edwards gives an account of a young male gorilla 
living at present in the Jardin des Plantes. This animal is 
savage and morose, taking no part in the sports of the other 
apes, and being apparently inferior in intelligence even to the 
gibbons. 
M. j. Thoulet finds that the spiculae of living sponges consist 
of pure silica. 
Since the practical suspension of the “ Infectious Diseases 
ACt,” effected by Mr. Stansfeld’s mot'on last year, the number of 
syphilitic cases in the military hospital at Colchester have in- 
creased 300 per cent. 
At a meeting of the Washington Biological Society (“ Science ”) 
Mr. H. W. Elliott proved that the musk-rat (Faber zibethicus ) 
is zoophagous, and preys largely on carp. 
