Notes. 
[February, 
118 
M. Rochefontaine raises the following question : — If an animal 
is submitted to a Faradic current over a limited region, under 
what conditions will a contadt with the fingers with some other 
part of the body produce a commotion in the experimentalist ? 
The author concludes, from the contradictory results of his ex- 
periments, that it would be imprudent to found upon phenomena 
of this kind a method of distinguishing real from apparent 
death. 
According to M. Forgola (“ Ciel et Terre”) observations made 
continuously during the last twenty-five years, at the Observatory 
of Pulkowa, present discrepancies explainable on the supposition 
of a progressive decrease of latitude at the rate of about i" per 
century. 
According to “ Cosmos les Mondes” a personage occupying 
an eminent post in French diplomacy has written to an astrono- 
mical paper to ask “ what planet had passed between the Earth 
and the Moon, so as to cause the recent total eclipse ?” 
It is significant that in the journal above quoted we find 
fourteen pages out of a total of forty-seven devoted to the art of 
war. What say the Peace Societies ? 
A writer in the “ Truth Seeker ” asserts that, so lately as five 
years ago, a woman was burnt to death in the province of 
Novgorod for alleged witchcraft. 
“V 
B. Tacke (“ Bericht. Deutsch. Chem. Gesell.”) finds that, in 
the rabbit, considerable quantities of combustible gases are 
eliminated from the organism through the blood and the lungs. 
The quantity expelled per anurn is much smaller. 
A new metallic element is announced, by Prof. Welsky, under 
the name of Idunium. It occurs in native lead vanadiate. 
M. G. Desrameaux has obtained a patent for a machine which, 
in a minute, can produce an absolute vacuum in a receiver of the 
capacity of 2000 litres. 
M. le Goarant de Tromelin maintains that the mean tempera- 
ture of the Northern Hemisphere is decreasing, whilst that of 
the Southern is increasing. 
The author of “ Ceylon, Ancient and Modern ” has, at 
“ Twickenham : printed by and for the Proprietor (privately), 
1884,” a comical little volume under the pronounced title 
“ Anti-Darwin, or some Reasons for not accepting his Hypo- 
thesis. It opens thus : — 
“ Poor race of men says the sceptical spirit, 
A fig for your 1 primal fall.’ 
Some graces ye may inherit, 
But the trace of the ape is over them all.” 
