1885.] 
( 435 
NOTES. 
Those who advocate the use of inserts as food should remember 
that many insedts contain cantharidine, formic acid, and other 
irritants not as yet studied. 
According to “Science” the desecration of the Falls of 
Niagara has been stopped ; the buildings and mills have been 
cleared away from the American shore and from Bath Island, 
and all points of view thrown freely open to the public. The 
cost to the State of New York has been 1,433,429 dollars. 
“ Light ” speaks of the Witch of Endor as an “ ancient 
medium.” 
A new chemical laboratory and museum are to be built in 
connection with Cambridge University at a cost of £70,000. 
But will the students be encouraged to undertake chemical re- 
search, and will such research, if successful, be a passport to 
honours ? 
Mr. W. H. Babcock (“ Science ”) gives a case of a telephone 
wire having for a long time given forewarnings of storms, from 
six to twelve hours in advance. 
Dr. J. Foster has recently read, before the Bradford Medico- 
Chirurgical Society, a very important paper on the physiological 
aspecfts of education. He remarked that the physiologist and 
the schoolmaster are at issue : — “ The former will consider how 
he may best develope the brain and fit it for future usefulness ; 
the latter, how he may get the most work out of it in the 
present.” ... “To enable the scholar to answer questions is 
not to educate him.” The paper is an authoritative condemna- 
tion of the “ results ” system in education. 
Why is it that, to men of culture, the females of the lower 
races of mankind are generally more repulsive than the males ? 
We must a^ain urge our readers to do their utmost to prevent 
the return of°any Bestiarian to Parliament at the approaching 
election. 
The balance of the Darwin Memorial Fund, after paying for 
the statue and medallion, will be made over to the Royal Society 
to be invested, and the dividends or interest to be applied for the 
promotion of biological reseaich. 
Mr. C. Morris (Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences) 
refuels the air-bladder of fishes as a degenerated organ, which 
