250 NATURAL SCIENCE. Oct.. 



of the African dipnoid Protopterus annectens, encased in the blocks of 

 mud in which, during the dry season, these singular fishes bury 

 themselves. They had been obtained for the museum from one of the 

 West African rivers, at a distance of nearly 500 miles from the sea, 

 through the exertions of Mr. Ridyard, of Liverpool. The fish had 

 been in their mud-cocoons for over five months, having been kept in 

 England for more than two months. Dr. Forbes prepared in the 

 large lecture room of the University Museum glass jars of tepid water 

 and into these the cocoons were placed in the presence of visitors. 

 The hard rock-like clay became softened, and one of the fish soon came 

 out in a lively condition and swam about freely. Mr. Forbes stated 

 that while some specimens in his possession had emerged in five 

 minutes, others had taken at least an hour. Of course, living 

 specimens have been brought to Europe in this condition before now 

 — there are at present a number of specimens in the reptile-house of 

 the Zoological Gardens — but we fancy that very few of the members 

 of the Association have had before, or are likely to have again, so 

 interesting a practical demonstration of the habits of these animals. 



The Pla(?ue Bacillus. 



An authoritative account of the bacillus of the Oriental plague is 

 at length to hand from the pen of its discoverer. Professor S. Kitasato 

 of Tokio. We learn from the Lancet of August 25 that it is a capsuled 

 bacillus, scarcely, if at all, motile, and exhibiting a tendency to bipolar 

 staining. It is present abundantly in the blood and internal organs, 

 and especially in the spleen and bubonic swellings of victims of the 

 disease. It can be grown readily on suitable cultural media at the 

 temperature of the human body, and rodents inoculated with pure 

 cultures die in from two to five days, with symptoms and pathological 

 changes resembling those of the natural disease in man. Rodents 

 seem, indeed, to be highly susceptible, rats and mice having died in 

 large numbers in Hong Kong during the epidemic, as they are related 

 to have done during the historic visitations of the disease in this 

 country. 



All these facts are in complete harmony with what might have 

 been anticipated, and the excellent work done by Professor Kitasato 

 in Koch's laboratory in Berlin should leave little room for doubt that 

 his discovery is a genuine and an important one. As was natural, 

 however, the supremacy of this particular organism has not been 

 allowed to pass unchallenged, and other claimants for the doubtful 

 honour of being the real cause of the plague have been put forward 

 by Dr. Yersin and others. Final judgment as to the respective merits 

 of the rival microbes must be postponed till fuller details are forth- 

 coming. No doubt securely bottled samples will in time arrive in this 

 country, where it is to be trusted they will be kept under lock and 

 key. Professor Kitasato has, however, already shown that the powers 



