Notes. 
[September, 
566 
According to MM. Lepine and P. Aubert, an examination of 
the poisonous character of urine shows that in the norma 
excretion the toxicity of the ash forms at least 85 per cent 0 
the total toxicity, whilst in certain febrile urines the toxicity ot 
the ash is only 55 per cent, the residue being due to the oigan 
matter. 
Dr. C. S. Minot (“ Science ”) gives a curious instance of a 
lady who associated the months, or the names of the montl s, 
with certain colours: January, February, and March eing 
bright yellow; April, blue; May, alight yellow; June, bright 
green; July, glaring yellow; August, orange; September a 
golden brown ; October, dark brown ; November and Decembei, 
grey. 
The vacancy among the Trustees of the British Museum, left 
by the death of Lord Haughton, could not be better filled than 
by Lord Walsingham,— a far more suitable man. 
M A. Millot has effeded a new synthesis of urea by the 
eled'rolysis of dilute ammonia, wood-charcoal being used as the 
positive eledrode. 
According to MM. Lepine and Roux, as communicated to the 
French Academy of Sciences, Micrococcus urece, if introduced 
into the urinary passages of a healthy animal, occasions cistitis 
and nephritis. 
Prof E D. Cope (“ American Naturalist ”) considers that, as 
far as ’the future of the human race is concerned, “the only 
cause for regret is the apparent inability of the best intelled to 
reproduce itself in any abundance.” 
Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., finds a scientific basis foi the 
saving that a cat has nine lives. If a cat and a dog are shut up 
in the & same “ lethal chamber,” the cat survives on the average 
three times as long, and in one instance nine times. 
Says the “ Popular Science Monthly,” in an article on “ Offi- 
cialism in Education,” “We do mean that in every official 
system the official or bureaucratic spirit is a constantly growing 
force, and must tend to a stereotyping of methods, and to a more 
or less barren uniformity in the minds moulded undei its 
influence.” 
Sen. P. Tacchini (“ Comptes Rendus ”) observed, on the sum- 
mit of Etna, beneath a pure sky of a very deep blue, the sun 
surrounded with a white halo, concentric with a coppery red 
corona. Since July 2nd the phenomena observed in 1883 and 
1884, after sunset and before sunrise, have reappeared. 
The following is forwarded us by a contributor : — “ Dr. William 
W. Ireland, of Preston Lodge, has in the press a work entitled 
