374 
Notes . 
June, 
sivalensis do not belong to a bird at all, but are the lateral toes 
of the fore foot of an even-toed ungulate akin to the hippo- 
potamus. 
M. A. Cornu (“ Comptes Rendus ”) finds 'that in the speCtra 
of the metals certain series of rays, spontaneously reversible, 
present approximately the same laws of distribution and of in- 
tensity as do the rays of hydrogen. 
Mr. T. A. Jamieson (“ Geological Magazine”) gives reasons 
for supposing that the Mediterranean was at one time shut off 
from the Atlantic ; that it was divided into two distinCt basins by 
a land junction extending from Italy to Africa ; and that most 
of its islands^ notably Sicily and Malta, were in connection with 
the mainland. 
M. P, Reynard has devised a means of studying the pheno- 
mena presented by deep-sea animals when submitted to a pressure 
of 600 atmospheres. 
The eels of the lakes in the Forest of Vincennes perform 
every spring a pilgrimage to the Seine and the Marne, crossing 
several kilometres of land. 
The Committee on Migration, of the American Ornithological 
Union, has now, according to “ Science,” observing stations in 
every State of the Union, except Nebraska. 
According to the researches of Joseph Kleiber (“ Astronom. 
Nachrichten ”), the density of the inter-planetary medium at the 
mean distance of the Earth from the Sun lies between the limits 
io~ 22 and io~ 18 (water = 1). 
Councillor Helm, of Danzig, has given his collection of 7000 
Coleoptera and 3000 inseCts in amber to the Museum of West 
Prussia. 
M. de Thierry (“ Comptes Rendus ”) has devised an instru- 
ment — the haema spectroscope — for detecting infinitesimal traces 
of blood in water, urine, &c. Its aCtion is based on the proper- 
ties of oxy-hsemoglobin, which gives two absorption-bands 
between the rays D and E, and of reduced haemoglobin, which 
has a single band (“ Stokes’ band ”) between the two former. 
Mr. C. O. Byrne (“ Science ”), though no Hampdenite, justifies 
the epithet of “ fanatical pantheist ” applied by the Zetetics to 
the great astronomer, and considers that “ nothing can be more 
disappointing than many of the biographies of physicists, who, 
even in the most favourable instances, are but little great men.” 
In opposition to MM. Bouchard and Pouchet, M. A. Villiers 
(“ Comptes Rendus ”) affirms that alkaloids exist only in patho- 
logical urine, and not in the normal excretion. 
