3 o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is large, and the mouth opens wide. The brilliant colors of the Choe- 

 todons, properly so called, are here wanting ; the body is olive-brown 

 or yellow, and bears broad, round, or oblong spots, or vertical stripes 

 of black color ; the eye is rose-color and brilliant ; the belly, silvery- 

 white. 



According to Cuvier and Valencienne, " though the mouth of this 

 fish differs immensely in its organization from that of Chelmon, it, 

 too, can shoot drops of water to a great height, and can hit, with 

 almost unerring aim, insects and other little animals on aquatic plants, 

 or even on the herbage at the water's edge. The inhabitants of 

 sundry regions in India," add these authors, " and particularly the 

 Chinese in Java, keep these fish in their houses for the sake of the 

 amusement afforded by witnessing their performances, offering it ants, 

 and flies on a string, or on the end of a stick, brought within 

 range. . . . The species is known in the Indian Archipelago under 

 the Malay name of iJcansumpit." 



Bleeker, in a recent work on the Toxotce, tells us that at Batavia 

 this fish is no longer kept, as it appears to have been a century ago, 

 either by Europeans or by the Chinese. He further says that neither 

 from Chinese nor from natives, whether at Batavia or elsewhere, has he 

 been able to obtain any confirmation of the accounts which have been 

 given concerning its skill in seizing its prey. According to him, the 

 celebrity enjoyed by the archer-fish is undeserved, and rests upon a 

 misapprehension ; in short, he shows from the very texts of Pallas 

 and Schlosser that Hommel's observation applies to the long-beaked 

 Chelmon, of which we have spoken above, and that like habits have 

 been gratuitously attributed to the two species, they having been re- 

 garded as generically identical. La Nature. 



-+*+- 



TEMPERAMENTS. 



By ELY VAN DE WAEKER, M. D. 



EVERY adult human being carries about with him an atmosphere 

 of individuality. By this means is the gregarious animal called 

 man enabled to preserve in himself such an isolation from the mass 

 of his fellows that he can gain and hold whatever may be his share 

 of prosperity and remembrance. In this individuality lie his powers 

 of offense and defense the buckler and spear of his ego ; and in it 

 also is expressed the sum of his mental and physical traits in such a 

 manner that, once having known, we may remember him. There are 

 two elements that enter into the formation of this distinctive and 

 memorable quality, mental and physical. These factors enter un- 

 equally into the formation of this individual total. The element that 



