November 4, 1897 J 



NATURE 



15 



cases, what may be termed a fireside search. The volume 

 containing abridgments of patents belonging to the class 

 of Philosophical Instruments^ and referring to the years 

 1884-88, has been sent to us by the Comptroller-General 

 of Patents. In it we find concise descriptions (usually illus- 

 trated by diagrams) of optical, nautical, surveying, mathe- 

 matical, and meteorological instruments and accessories. Some 

 of the subjects of the patents are very trivial, while others are 

 most ingenious ; so an examination of the whole will be found 

 amusing as well as instructive. The favourite scientific instru- 

 ments upon which human ingenuity exercises its powers seem to 

 be barometers, clinometers and other instruments for measuring 

 vertical angles, magnetic compasses, hygrometers and hygro- 

 scopes, lenses, levels and plumbing instruments, logs and leeway 

 indicators, magic-lanterns and other projecting apparatus, 

 mathematical drawing instruments, microscopes, reflectors, pro- 

 tractors, sounding apparatus, spectacles and eye-glasses, survey- 

 ing instruments, telemeters, thermometers and pyrometers, and 

 stands for cameras and telescopes. The volume thus provides 

 the material for a liberal education in the construction of 

 scientific apparatus, in addition to which it is full of interest to 

 every one with an inventive turn of mind. 



In the current number of the " Annotationes Zoologicse 

 Japonenses" Mr. Nishikawa describes a newly-discovered mode 

 by which the eye of the lower side of a flatfish travels round to 

 the upper side during metamorphosis. Agassiz observed that 

 in the majority of flatfishes the eye of the (eventually) blind side 

 travels round the dorsal edge of the head until it attains its 

 final position, and that not until this rotation is completed does 

 the dorsal fin grow forwards beyond the level of the eyes. In 

 Plagiisia, on the other hand, the dorsal fin is known to grow 

 forwards to the snout while the eyes are still symmetrical, and 

 the right eye attains its final position on the left side of the fin 

 by penetrating, in the course of its rotation, through the soft 

 tissues at the base of the fin. In the fish observed by Mr. 

 Nishikawa the dorsal fin also grows forward before the rotation 

 of the right eye, but this anterior extension does not unite with 

 the head until after the rotation is completed. Its ventral 

 margin is contiguous with the dorsal surface of the head except 

 posteriorly where there is a distinct hole, bounded by the head 

 and the anterior extension of the fin, for the passage of the 

 right eye, which thus travels round the dorsal side of the head 

 without sinking into its tissues. It is clear, as Mr. Nishikawa 

 points out, that the mode by which the change of position 

 is eff'ected in this fish is intermediate between that observed in 

 ordinary flatfishes, which are destitute of an anterior extension 

 of the dorsal fin at the time of transformation, and that which is 

 exhibited by Arnoglossus and Plagusia, in which types the 

 anterior extension of the fin coalesces with the head before 

 rotation of the eye, and requires to be perforated for the passage 

 of that organ. The genus of the Japanese fish could not be 

 ascertained with certainty, but it is believed to be closely 

 related to the genus Plagusia. 



The forty-third annual report dealing with the work of the 

 Australian Museum, Sydney, during the year 1896, has just 

 come to hand. The most important presentations to the 

 Museum during the year was the Dobroyde collection of 

 Australian birds and eggs, containing several thousand skins 

 *Lnd eggs — the result of forty years collecting. This was 

 purchased by the Government of New South Wales from 

 Mr. J. S. Ramsay, and transferred to the custody of the 

 Trustees of the Museum. Another valuable donation is a mass 

 of meteoric iron weighing, just over 44 lb., found on the 

 Nocoleche Holding, near Wanaaring, New South Wales, and 

 presented to the Museum by Mr. G. J. Raff"el. The semi- 

 fossil remains of a Dugong, discovered in the excavations for a 

 canal, near Sydney, have also been presented to the Museum. 



NO. 1462, VOL, 57] 



This is the first instance of the discovery of Dugong remains so 

 far south. Among other noteworthy acquisitions are : The bower 

 or playground of Newton's Bower-bird {Prionodura newtoniana), 

 types of the Honey-ants of the Horn Central Australian Exploring 

 Expedition, and a further collection of bird skins from the same, 

 some ancient Peruvian urns, a collection of Australian Coleoptera, 

 and the remains of the Asiatic elephant Jumbo. Mr. Charles 

 Hedley, one of the officers of the Museum, who was permitted 

 to accompany the Royal Society's Coral Reef Boring Expedition, 

 succeeded in amassing an interesting collection during his stay 

 on Funafuti, particularly of invertebrate and ethnological sub- 

 jects. The collections are now in process of description by the 

 scientific staff" of the Museum. A commencement has been 

 made at the works for extension of the Museum buildings, for 

 which a sum of 6000/. was voted by the New South Wales 

 Parliament in 1895. The old ant-eaten roof has been removed, 

 and a new roof, built of steel, wood and copper, has been 

 constructed. While this was in progress a thorough inspection 

 of the building was made to ascertain the extent of the ravages 

 of the "white ant," with the result that further depredations 

 were discovered. These terrible termites were found to have 

 penetrated under the floor of the ethnological hall, and com- 

 pletely destroyed the woodwork of that structure as of the roof. 

 It is not surprising to read that discoveries of this kind gave 

 the curator, Mr. R. Etheridge, jun. , plenty of cause for anxiety 

 during last year. The chief change in the staff" of the Museum 

 is the appointment of Mr. W. J. Rainbow to succeed the late 

 Mr. F. A. A. Skuse as officer in charge of the entomological 

 collections. 



The difficulty of the problems which await the investigator 

 into the chemistry of the enzymes is well illustrated by the 

 results, published in the current Berichte, of an attempt made 

 by A. Wroblewski to isolate diastase. The greater part of the 

 substance usually known as diastase was found to be a carbo- 

 hydrate, which yielded arabinose when boiled with acids. The 

 active constituent, on the other hand, was found to have all the 

 properties of a protein, although the author could not be sure 

 that he had prepared it in an absolutely pure state. The proteid 

 nature of the enzyme follows from the facts that the residue left 

 after removing the inactive carbohydrate shows all the charac- 

 teristics of a proteid body, and at the same time exerts the 

 diastatic action on starch. This research affords, for the first time, 

 a definite experimental basis for the enrolment of this enzyme 

 among the proteids, although many investigators had taken this 

 view of its nature on general grounds. 



The Bulletin of the Bussey Institution, vol. ii. part 6, pub- 

 lished under the authority of Harvard University, consists of 

 a paper by Prof. F. H. Storer, on some of the chemical sub- 

 stances in the trunks of trees, which serves to show that other 

 substances besides starch are stored up in large quantities as 

 reserve food-material in the winter, to be converted into sugars 

 in the spring. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a White-crested Tiger Bittern {Tigriosoma 

 leucolophiim) from West Africa, presented by Dr. J. F. Dell ; an 

 Alligator {Alligator mississippiensis) from Southern North 

 America, presented by Mr. J. H. Renals ; a Common Cham- 

 aileon {Chamaleon vulgaris) from North Africa, presented by Mr. 

 G. E. Gratton ; two Great-billed Rhea {Rhea macrorhyncJta) 

 from North-east Brazil ; a Pennant's Parrakeet (Platycercus 

 pennanti) from Australia, deposited ; six Common Rhea {Rhea 

 americana), bred in Holland ; a Many-coloured Parrakeet 

 {Psephotus multicolor') from Australia, purchased ; a Sambur 

 Deer {Cervus arislotelis, 9 ), a Hog Deer {Cervus porcinus, 9 ) 

 from India, received in exchange ; three Shaw's Gerbilles 

 {Gerbi litis shawi), born in the Gardens. 



