G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 30I 



throdextrine and soluble starch or amidulin. That made by 

 Payen's method in which the starch is moistened with nitric 

 acid, dried and roasted contains, besides erythrodextrine, 

 both achrodextrine and sugar. Starch treated with sulphuric 

 acid yields first amidulin, Jhen erythrodextrine, then achro- 

 dextrine and sugar. The process of malting produces achro- 

 dextrine in quantity. When now the contents of the stom- 

 achs of dogs, killed from one to five hours after a meal made 

 up mostly of starch, were analyzed, large quantities of solu- 

 ble starch and of erythrodextrine were found, while achrodex- 

 trine and sugar existed only in traces ; in the small intestines, 

 on the other hand, there was no erythrodextrine, but sugar 

 was always present. The small amount of sugar in th^ stom- 

 ach is ascribed to the checking influence of the acid of the 

 gastric juice upon the saliva ; the action of this very acid 

 producing, however, the soluble starch present, while the 

 conjoined successive action of the saliva and the acid pro- 

 duces a part of the erythrodextrine. The chief part of this 

 substance Briicke has proved is due to the lactic acid fer- 

 mentation, which he thinks is a normal digestive process, in- 

 tended to prepare the starch for more rapid transformation 

 into sugar in the duodenum, under the influence of the pan- 

 creatic juice. 21 A, 1873, 294. 



THE FOSSIL HORSES OF SOUTHEEN EUROPE. 



Mr. Sanson, in a paper upon the fossil horses of the quater- 

 nary period, remarks that it is j^robably an error to consider 

 such remains as belonging to the Equus cahalhis^ or true 

 horse, or some of its varieties ; and he states that it is quite 

 impossible to distinguish, by the imperfect fragments usually 

 examined, between this species and the Equus asinus^ or the 

 original of the domestic ass. As the result of careful com- 

 parisons on his part, he finds that almost the only specific 

 distinction between the horse and the ass is to be found in 

 the orbital apophysis of the frontal bone. This, in the ass, is 

 very much wider than in any of the horses, and its external 

 surface and anterior border are decidedly rugose, in place of 

 being smooth, as in the horse ; and its edge, w hich in the 

 horse is an arc of a circle, in the ass is in the form of the cap- 

 ital letter V. The external orbital meatus is also much lar- 

 ger in the asses ; but it is difficult to frame a positive diag- 



