i 885- 
Notes. 
7 5i 
scopical Society in 1854 and 1855, and filled the chair of the 
younger society, “ The Quekett Club,” last year. Like all true 
men of science, he was always ready to communicate to others 
his vast store of knowledge ; his kind assistance, so freely 
rendered, will be long remembered by those who enjoyed the 
privilege of meeting him. 
During their financial year, ending Midsummer, 1885, the 
Council of the Royal College of Surgeons admit having paid 
upwards of £10,000 to examiners ! Can we wonder that 
examinationism flourishes when it is so liberally endowed ? 
It appears that emissions of poisonous waters — possibly solu- 
tions of hydrogen sulphide — occur in the lagoons of atolls, 
destroying all fish, mollusca, and corals. Such an outbreak 
occurred at the Keeling Islands, in January, 1876, immediately 
after a cyclone of exceptional violence. 
Of posthumous honours awarded to scientific men long after 
their death, the most striking instance is the erection of a 
monument to Archimedes, by the inhabitants of Syracuse. 
According to M. Bonnal the temperature of an infant at the 
moment of birth is generally higher than that of the mother. 
We regret to learn, from the “ American Naturalist,” that a 
party of English sportsmen wantonly killed from twenty to thirty 
of the bison-herd preserved in the Yellowstone National Park. 
A member of Congress has been fined for damaging the geyser- 
deposits. 
At the Grenoble meeting of the French Association M. Mor- 
tillet read a paper in which he sought to prove that in the 
Tertiary epoch there existed an ancestral form of historic man, 
— an animal less intelligent than existing man, but more intel- 
ligent than the existing apes. He names this animal Anthro- 
pithecus. 
Even Mexico feels the necessity of State aid to Science, and 
has established a Comision Cientificci for research into every 
department of human knowledge. 
According to Lieut. -Col. Moody, 42 per cent of recruits ap- 
plying for enlistment in the Army are rejected on the ground of 
bodily unfitness.. 
The Dufferin Terrace at Quebec is lighted electrically, the 
power being obtained from the Falls of Montmorency, at the 
distance of nearly 9 miles. 
An epidemic among hares is raging in the central parts of 
France. The flesh of these animals, if eaten, occasions serious 
indisposition, though it presents no unusual appearance. 
