EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 429" 



from the light. On calling him to come near he appeared to be ashamed. He 

 evinced an extreme sensibility to the stimulus of light, from which he almost 

 constantly kept his eyes guarded by shading them with his hands. He told me 

 he could see better than his neighbours in imperfect darkness, and best by moon- 

 light, like the " moon-eyed" albinos of the Isthmus of Darien. He is morbidly 

 sensitive to heat : for this reason, and on account of the superstitious respect 

 with which the Malays regard him, he is seldom employed by his friends in 

 outdoor labour, although by no means deficient in physical strength. The 

 credulous Malays imagine that the Genii have some furtive share in the produc- 

 tion of such curiosities, though this they tell as a great secret. To this day the 

 tomb of his grandfather, who was also an albino, is held sacred by the natives, 

 and vows (nigats) are made at it. Both his parents were of the usual colour. His 

 sister is an albino like himself. Albinos, I believe, are not common on the 

 peninsula, nor are there any tribes of them, as according to Voltaire, existing in 

 the midst of Africa. In the only two instances I recollect observing, the eyes 

 were, in both, of a very light blue ; the cuticle roughish and of a rosy blush, very 

 different from that of the two African albinos seen and described by Voltaire, 

 and quoted by Lawrence. — Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 



BOTANY. 



6. On Vegetable Acids. — It is very probable that the acid of Turnips, 

 Cucumbers, &c, is simply acetic acid. Many other plants exist in which parti- 

 cular acids have been discovered, the composition of which is unknown ; but it 

 may be affirmed, with much probability, that, if all those acids were carefully 

 examined, they would be reduced to a very small number. M. Liebig, in his 

 Annal. der Pharm., for Nov. 1837, recommends " naturalists to examine this 

 subject ; reminding them that the acid of fruits changes after their arrival at 

 maturity ; that, for example, the fruit of the Mountain-ash contains, during the 

 first month, tartaric acid ; later, tartaric and citric acid ; and, finally, malic acid 

 only. — Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve. 



GEOLOGY. 



7. Fossil Salamander. — M. Paravey has written to the French Academy of 

 Sciences, that a fossil Salamander, in the collection of Prof. Van Breda, at 

 Leyden, about three feet long, contains, in the part corresponding with the 

 abdomen, the fragments of Frogs, Eels, &c, thereby affording a proof that ante- 

 diluvian species fed upon the same substance as the Salamanders of our times. 

 A large Salamander brought by M. Siebold, from Japan, still lives in the 

 museum at Leyden, and is principally fed with Frogs. The above-mentioned 

 traveller brought the male and female into Europe, but the latter was devoured 



vol. m. — NO. xxiii. 3 L 



