sang Aaa NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 109 
Action of Light on Fertilized Frog’s Ova.—Herr Auerbach recently 
contributed to certain numbers of the ‘ Centralblatt’ the results of his 
observations. According to the ‘Lancet,’ which abstracts his con- 
clusions, he states that during the spring (April 13th to 20th) of the 
present year he had frequent opportunities of observing the spawn of 
the frog, and was particularly struck by the circumstance that even 
the diffused light of day, but especially the direct light of the sun, 
constituted a powerful excitant of the contractions of the protoplasm 
of the egg. If the amount of light falling upon an egg, or, more cor- 
rectly speaking, on the primary segmentation spheres and the secondary 
results of fission, be increased, alterations of form may be seen to 
occur even under the eye of the observer. If the egg be so: placed 
that the white pole is directed towards the light, the contractions 
excited have a tendency to push the black pigment in part over the 
white area, or even to completely cover it, whilst the opposite pole 
becomes whiter. When the first meridianal furrow has been com- 
pleted, this pigmentation of the clear area occurs to a less extent. 
This alteration in the distribution of the pigment must not be con- 
founded with the well-known rotation of the yelk, which depends on 
the centre of gravity being near the white pole. 
NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 
Medico-Legal Microscopy Extraordinary !—Some evidence re- 
cently given in a case of murder, tried in America, and which relates 
to the value of the microscope in medico-legal inquiries, seems to us 
so extraordinary, and indeed so nearly impossible of belief, that we 
shall lay the facts before our readers with a hope to elicit their 
opinion. ‘The case was that of “The People v. Elisha B. Fero,’ who 
was tried for the murder of his wife at the Delaware (U.S.) Assizes 
in September and October last. Among other important and interest- 
ing points in this remarkable case, the question arose as to whether 
certain injuries of the head had resulted from violent bruises inflicted 
on the head. In reference to this, two experts, Drs. Van Derveer and 
Stevens, stated that they formed the opinion that the head was bruised 
t3} by the appearance of the tissues; (2) by cutting into them; and 
3) by a microscopic examination of them. Now it was from this last 
method especially that they formed these conclusions ; and as the whole 
subject has been very cleverly handled by Dr. Charles H. Porter in a 
critical article in the (American) ‘Journal of Psychological Medi- 
cine, * we cannot do better than reproduce the writer’s facts and com- 
ments on the subject, even though they extend to some length, as one 
of the practical applications of the microscope is of the highest 
importance, 
Let us briefly consider the nature of these examinations, which 
* Vol. iv., No, 2. 
12 
