80 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 
tained urea in abundance, whilst in bony fishes, as also in the Stur- 
geon and Lamprey, which make the nearest approach to the Plagio- 
stomi, no urea could be detected. From this it appeared that the 
metamorphosis of materials in the Plagiostomi is quite different from 
that in all other fishes, and the subject was of sufficient importance 
to call for further investigation. 
Last winter the author saw upon a table a large specimen of Raia 
clavata, which had been taken at Marseilles, and sent to Zurich 
during very cold weather. The author was able to procure the salt 
water in which the fish was boiled, and succeeded in preparing pure 
urea therefrom. 
The gills, heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, pancreas, testes, the hu- 
mours of the eye, the lenses and the muscles of a large specimen of 
Raia Batis, which the author subsequently obtained from Havre, 
contained very large quantities of urea, accompanied by the sub- 
stances formerly mentioned. No trace of uric acid could be detected. 
Creatine was found not only in the muscles, but also in the heart 
and the branchiz ; in the muscles it was accompanied by another, 
difficultly solulfle body, which was precipitated in white flakes by 
pernitrate of mercury, and also formed a compound with silver when 
ammonia was carefully added. This body was therefore possibly 
allantoine. ‘The quantity of scyllite which the author obtained, 
principally from the liver, was not sufficient for an elementary 
analysis. 
The author obtained two Torpedos from Professor Lessona of 
Genoa, T. ocellata and marmorata. They were young specimens 
of about 3 inches in breadth and from 4 to 5 inches long, preserved in 
spirit. The alcohol had penetrated all the organs; and therefore, as 
a separate examination of these could lead to no result, the objects 
were pounded with powdered glass and extracted with alcohol. 
The alcoholic extract was treated as already described. Urea was 
present in abundance. Thus the occurrence of urea is proved with 
regard to six fishes of the order Plagiostomi (viz. Scyllium canicula, 
Spinax acanthias, Raia Batis, Kk. clavata, Torpedo marmorata, and 
T. ocellata). As regards the formation of urea in these animals, the 
author indicates that, as no trace of uric acid occurs in the Rays, it 
appears to be most probable that the urea is formed by the further 
decomposition of creatine, the latter taking up water and splitting 
into urea and sarcosine :— 
C® H® N? Ot+ 2HO=C? H? N? O?+ C® H’? NO* 
———__——-—— So’ ——~>——— 
Creatine. Urea. Sarcosine. 
If the above-mentioned body, precipitable by mercury and silver, 
be actually allantoine, the urea might certainly be derived from this, 
by its taking up water and oxygen and becoming decomposed into 
carbonic acid and urea.—Journ. fiir Prakt. Chemie, Ixxvi, p. 58. 
