120 
Notes. 
Sir Spencer St. John, who, having been for many years 
British Consul in Hispaniola, has enjoyed extensive oppor- 
tunities for observation, finds that though up to the age of 
puberty the negro is mentally equal to the white, after that time 
he falls hopelessly into the background. 
The mortality among chemists continues. Angus Smith, 
Kolbe, Voelcker, Wigner, and Vierordt have followed Dumas, 
Wiirtz, and Thenard. 
An unknown writer, from Fiji, remarks that when flocks of 
terns and other sea-fowl rest upon the sea in great numbers the 
water becomes smooth, and there is “not a ripple to disturb 
them.” This the writer ascribes to oil emitted by the biids. 
At the Ischia earthquake there occurred a very decided case of 
“ scare-cure.” A woman who had been bed-ridden for months 
jumped up, saved herself by flight, and remained permanently 
cured. 
According to M. Delaunay, robust children cross the light leg 
over the left earlier than do weaker ones. 
M. de Varigny (“ Revue Scientifique ”) denies, on the faith oi 
careful experiments, that scorpions, if surrounded by fire, sting 
themselves to death. 
A writer in “ Les Mondes ” revives the view that atmospheric 
ozone is antagonistic to epidemics. 
An iceberg has been found in Davis’s Straits, which must have 
floated from the mouth of the Lena, as it contained relics from 
the unfortunate Jeannette. It is conjectured that it must have 
traversed seas near the North Pole. 
“ Science ” asserts that a considerable portion of the Ame- 
rican people still believe in witchcraft, and that “ our school 
system, with its imperfect scientific training, makes no efficient 
battle against these pernicious relics of the past.” 
Dr. Szpilmann (“ Berichte Deut. Chem. Gesellschaft ”) finds 
that air, and still more pure oxygen, promotes the multiplication 
both of the bacilli of anthrax and those of putrefaction. Ozone, 
on the other hand, is fatal to the latter, but has no injurious 
adtion upon the former. 
Dr. Glaser concludes that heavy winter rains and floods are 
very destructive to insect life. 
Communications on the migrations, dates of nesting, &c., of 
birds may be addressed to Herr G. von Hayck, at Vienna 
(Secretary of the International Ornithological Congress). 
4 FEB iBRg 
3 n ivi L . .• 
m J. 
