3 10 
Notes. 
iMay, 
A French writer ascribes the absence of trees in the Pampas 
to the destruction of their leaves by a leaf-cutting ant, to which 
he gives the name of Opima spolia. 
M. Vulpian (“ Comptes Rendus ”) questions the validity of the 
experimental evidence upon which Fritsch and Hitzig have 
concluded that the grey cortical matter of the cerebral convolu- 
tions contains distindt motive and psychomotive centres. 
A perplexing fadt is the appearance, and often the subsequent 
disappearance and reappearance, of aquatic plants in ponds and 
streams without any human intervention. 
We are sorry to see “ Spectroscopy ” begin to appear as the 
name of a class of scientific research. It comprises a medley 
of astronomy, physics, chemistry, and biology. 
According to Prof. Cohn, Leewenhoeck was the original dis- 
coverer of badteria and bacilli. 
The rainfall at Mooltan is only 5 inches yearly. 
At the Lancaster Crematorium, in the United States, the 
charge for incinerating a human body is 35 dollars. 
Says C. N., “ It might not be a national loss, even though the 
accumulation of wealth were for a time subordinate to the search 
for truth, if eyes, from which the sunlight is new hidden by 
dingy walls of fadtories and warehouses, were permitted to rove 
onward and upward through the boundless heavens.” 
E. C. Mason (“ Popular Science Monthly ”) states that last 
autumn the musk-rats built their winter retreats exceptionally 
light and unsubstantial, and have suffered much from the severe 
season. This fadt disposes of the weather-foresight ascribed to 
this species. 
According to M. Berthelot, carbonic acid in small doses adts 
as a powerful exciter of the absorption of oxygen. 
The same savant declares that in our days “ the world is 
without mysteries,” although still “ many enlightened minds 
remain entangled in the bonds of Spiritualism and Animal 
Magnetism.” 
A peculiar decomposition sometimes occurs in cheese, during 
which, if eaten, it produces symptoms closely resembling those 
due to irritant poisons. Such cheese may be at once detedted 
by its strongly acid readtion with litmus-paper. 
We have just made the acquaintance of a Blaps mortisaga, 
which, after being shut up with a quantity of potassium cyanide, 
and being considered as dead, has recovered, and is now well 
and hearty. 
