NOTES. 



639 



their small, toothless mouth, but it is never- 

 theless important in its prehensile capacity. 

 The condition of the specimen is of course 

 a deformity, but appears to be the result of 

 a want of development of the jaws, and not 

 of accidental violence. Such fishes are 

 often caught in the Ouachita, and occasion- 

 ally even they have been reported without a 

 vestige of an oral orifice. If the latter con- 

 dition really occurs, the fish can only supply 

 itself with food and with water for respira- 

 tion through the branchial fissures, by the 

 alternating outward and inward movements 

 of the opercula. 



Hatehing Frogs nndcr Colored Glass. 



In an experiment made by M. Thury, the 

 eggs of Rana temporaria, a species of frog, 

 were placed under identical favorable con- 

 ditions, with the exception that some of the 

 eggs received light through colorless glass, 

 and others through green glass. The former 

 developed rapidly, and by the end of May 

 had a length of over one and a half inch, 

 and well-developed hind-legs in most of 

 them ; the others were slowly developed, 

 blackish in color, hardly had a length of 

 three-quarters of an inch by the end of 

 May, and were without a trace of hind-legs. 

 By the 10th of June the former had their 

 fore-legs, and some were changed to frogs ; 

 the others, still black, had no trace of legs, 

 and breathed almost exclusively by means 

 of their gills. By the 15th of July the one 

 lot had become frogs ; the others still had 

 no legs, and by the 2d of August they were 

 all dead, without a trace of legs having ap- 

 peared. Some of the young of this lot, 

 transferred to the vessel in which were con- 

 tained the developed frogs, finished their 

 metamorphosis. 



Eqnine Idiocy. A plant known in Cali- 

 fornia as " rattle-weed " is said to produce in 

 animals which eat of it symptoms much re- 

 sembling those of amentia and frenzy. A 

 correspondent of a San Francisco news- 

 paper, writing from Monterey County, de- 

 scribes as follows the effect produced by 

 this plant on a herd of fifty horses on a 

 ranche in the southern part of that county : 

 " They became," he says, " crazy, forsook 

 the farm, and wandered off one by one over 

 the plain, paying no attention to their mates 

 or any thing else. They were too muddled 



in their brains to seek for water, and most 

 of them died of thirst. Although they were 

 wild, and had never been handled, any per- 

 son could walk up to them on the plain and 

 hit them with his hand, when they would 

 jump, perhaps, straight up in the air, per- 

 haps some other way, and act as though 

 they were trying to leap a fence at every 

 step. They seemed to retain their sight, 

 yet would not turn aside for any thing. The 

 poor demented beasts would walk over a 

 precipice without the slightest fear or hesi- 

 tation." 



NOTES. 



The Cincinnati Industrial Exposition of 

 the present year includes a Department of 

 Natural History and Antiquities, and prizes 

 are offered for the best collections in geol- 

 ogy, and mineralogy, conchology, zoology, 

 botany, numismatology, and archaeology. 

 The managers promise that the greatest care 

 will be taken of all specimens sent in for 

 exhibition. The prizes consist of silver and 

 bronze medals. 



A NOVEL form of snow-spectacles has 

 been devised for the use of the British arctic 

 expedition. These spectacles have neither 

 glass nor iron in their composition; they 

 are made of ebonite, and tied on the head 

 by a velvet cord. They somewhat resemble 

 two half walnut-shells fastened over the 

 eye, and the wearer sees through a simple 

 slit in front of the pupil. To give the wear- 

 er a side view, the sides of the eye-box are 

 perforated with minute holes. These spec- 

 tacles are said to be of great service in 

 reading by lamp or gas light. 



The Royal Agricultural Society of Eng- 

 land has the most numerous membership 

 of any similar association in the world. It 

 has on its roll 5,846 names. Its " Transac- 

 tions " are published in half-yearly volumes. 



The Phylloxera vastatrix has made its 

 appaxrance in England. At a meeting of 

 the London Entomological Society, Mr. 

 McLachlan exhibited a portion of a vine- 

 leaf on which were the galls of Phylloxera. 

 The leaf had been plucked in a greenhouse 

 near London. 



Bean's pneumatic-electric apparatus for 

 lighting and extinguishing street-lamps is 

 now in practical operation in a large part of 

 the business portion of Providence, Rhode 

 Island. The principle of this apparatus 

 consists in a combination of compressed 

 and rarefied air to open and close gas-cocks, 

 and an electro-galvanic current, affording a 

 spark to light the gas. It enables a single 



