282 



NATURE 



[July 21, 1898 



iron procured ? It has been shown that the iron lost from the 

 muscle is insufficient to yield the iron gained by the ovaries, 

 and it is thus probable that the haemoglobin of the blood must 

 be dra\yn on for this element. The liver does not seem to yield 

 iron to the ovaries. 



Pigtnents of Muscle, Ovaries, (V<r.— Miss Newbigin's study of 

 the pigments of the muscle and ovaries show that two lipochromes 

 are present. First, the very widely distributed yellow pigment, 

 lutein ; and second, a bright red lipochrome, which, mixed with 

 the former, gives the characteristic colour to the salmon muscle 

 and ovaries. 



Though it has not been possible to investigate the source of 

 the pigments, the evidence adduced tends to show that the 

 characreristic red pigment is probably not derived from the food, 

 but that it is constructed possibly out of the very widely dis- 

 tributed yellow pigment. Its storage in the muscles and its 

 transference to the ovaries is demonstrated. Its fate in the 

 male fish is still obscure, though the deeper pigmentation of the 

 skin in the male suggests its elimination by that channel. What 

 the purpose of the pigment is, is not clearly indicated, though 

 it seems probable that by colouring the ova it may assist in their 

 concealment during development. 



Nature of the Transference of Material.— These observations 

 throw important light on the nature of the transference of 

 material. They clearly show that nothing of the nature of a de- 

 generation in the muscle takes place. The muscles simply excrete 

 or give out the material accumulated in them, or utilise it as 

 a source of energy within themselves. 



Sotirce of the Energy for Muscular Work, S^c. — The ex- 

 tent to which the fats and proteids lost from the muscles are 

 used for the construction of the genitalia on the one hand, and 

 for the liberation of energy on the other, varies somewhat in 

 males and females. Taking the earlier months— to August, it 

 is shown that in the female 12 per cent, of the fats and 3 per 

 cent, of the proteids go to the ovaries, the rest being available 

 for energy ; while in the male about 5 per cent, of the fats and 

 14 per cent, of the proteids go to the testes. 



The total energy liberated from fats and proteids is possibly 

 somewhat greater in the male than in the female, being to 

 August 1,271,000 kgms. per fish of standard length in the female, 

 and 1,380,000 kgms. in the male. Of the energy thus liberated 

 about 2200 kgms. are required to raise the fish to the height of 

 the upper water of the river, the remainder being available for 

 the much greater work of overcoming the resistance of the 

 stream, and for internal work and for other calls upon the energy 

 supply. 



Of this total available energy in the female, about 20 per cent, 

 is derived from the proteids, while in the male only 9 per cent, 

 is derived from this source. The rest is derived from the fats. 



Food Value of Salmon. — The food value per unit of weight 

 of muscle deteriorates as the season advances. In each fish 

 caught in the estuaries the food value remains almost constant, 

 the larger size of the late-coming fish making up for the deterior- 

 ation of the flesh. The food value of each fish caught in the 

 upper waters is less than that of those caught in the estuaries, and 

 in October and November is only about one-third that of fish 

 caught in the river-mouth. Since the large late-coming fish 

 contain more ova than the smaller fish, their destruction does 

 more damage to the breeding stock. 



Factors Determini7tg Migration. — In considering the question 

 of migration, it must be remembered that the Salmonidae are 

 probably originally fresh-water fish, and that the majority of 

 the family spend their whole life in fresh water. Salmo Salar 

 and other allied species have apparently acquired the habit of 

 quitting their fresh-water home for the sea in search of food, 

 just as the frog leaves the water for the same purpose. When, 

 on the rich marine-feeding grounds, as great a store of nourish- 

 ment as the body can carry has been accumulated, the fish 

 returns to its native fresh water, and there performs its repro- 

 ductive act. 



That the passage of the fish to fresh water is not governed by 

 the growth of genitalia and by the 7iisus generativus, is shown 

 by the fact that salmon are ascending the rivers throughout the 

 whole year with their genitalia in all stages of development. 



From May to August the fish leaving the .=ea have about the 

 same amount of material stored in their muscles. During these 

 months the ovaries are yet small, and do not act as a reservoir 

 for stored material. In October and November the estuary fish 

 have a smaller amount of stored material in their muscles, since 

 the period of rapid growth of the genitalia has supervened before 



NO. 1499, VOL. 58] 



the full accumulation of material in the muscles has been accom- 

 plished. This rapid growth of the genitalia would withdraw 

 material, and prevent its accumulating in the muscle ; and thus, 

 when the necessary amount of stored material was accumulated, 

 it would be distributed between these structures. The late- 

 coming salmon, although the supply of solids in the muscles is 

 smaller, have the ovaries so large that the total store of nutrient 

 material in the fish is just about the same as in those entering 

 the estuaries in the earlier months. 



The state of nutrition is the factor determining migration 

 towards the river. When the salmon has accumulated the 

 necessary supply of material, it tends to return to its original 

 habiiat. 



THE STRAMBERG CORALS.' 

 PROGRESS in the classification of corals has been a passage 

 -'- from fog to fog across lucid intervals cleared by successive 

 systems, which have collapsed under the efforts to improve them. 

 The primaeval darkness of Ellis, Guettard and Esper was first 

 lightened in 1830 by the classification of de Blainville. which 

 was obsolete within four years of its publication. A long 

 series of memoirs by Edwards and Haime, begun in 1848, 

 gradually laid the foundations of a system at once more ade- 

 quate to the wide variations in coral structure, and more 

 natural ; but it was not until 1857-60 that the two authors' 

 complete classification was published in the great " Histoire 

 Naturelle des Coralliaires." The essential features of their 

 scheme were the separation of the Palceozoic corals as the order 

 Rugosa, and the division of the later corals into two orders, the 

 Aporosa and Perforata, characterised respectively by a solid and 

 a porous wall. The classification gave helpful guidance to 

 those who chose to use it ; but many authors preferred to follow 

 de Fromentel, who in 1861 issued a more artificial but simpler 

 system, based on the mode of association of individual coral- 

 lites into compound coralla. The life of Fromentel's classifi- 

 cation was, from its nature, necessarily brief; while that of 

 Edwards and Haime was weak in so many points, that under 

 the numerous amendments of Etallon, Milaschewitsch, von 

 Zittel, and others, the original boundaries became indefinite, 

 and the system once more involved in fog. In 1884, P. M. 

 Duncan restored order by a revision of the genera of Neozoic 

 corals ; he adopted, in the main; the same principles as Edwards 

 and Haime, and his revision is still the most useful handbook 

 to coral classification. It has held this position in spite of 

 repeated attempts to change the whole basis of classification. 

 Thus Pratz in 1882 proposed a scheme founded on the septa; 

 von Heider and Ortmann have advocated another, resting on 

 the formation of the "wall"; and recently Miss Ogilvie has 

 suggested a new arrangement, even more radical in its changes. 

 Miss Ogilvie's views are propounded in two great papers : 

 one in the Philosophical Transactions, in which the general 

 principles are stated ; and the second, a monograph of the Stram- 

 berg Corals, in which her theories are applied in practice. The 

 former work is already known to readers of Nature by an 

 explanation written by the authoress (vol. Iv. p. 280, January 

 21, 1897), so that the general principles need not be considered 

 here. It has been found in coral history that the best test of a 

 theory of classification is its results. Students of the corals 

 have always been ready to welcome any morphological light 

 that offered guidance through the taxonomic gloom, and have 

 preferred to judge it by the help given in practical work. 

 We therefore turn to Miss Ogilvie's monograph to see whether 

 her classification associates similar corals, and separates those 

 which are unlike. . 



The authoress is to be congratulated on her material. The 

 Stramberg Schichten have yielded an instructive fauna, different 

 sections of which have been described in other parts of this 

 work by von Zittel, Cotteau, Bohm, Moericke and Zeise. The 

 beds occur on the boundary between the Cretaceous and 

 Jurassic systems, and their fossils have the usual interest of a 

 transition fauna. Miss Ogilvie has described the corals in 

 detail and with care, and her monograph is illustrated by twelve 

 fine large plates. It is unquestionably a most valuable and 

 extensive addition to our knowledge of the Mesozoic corals, 



1 "Die Korallen der Stramberger Schichten," by Maria M. Ogilvie, 

 D.Sc, Palaeontologische Studien iiber die Grenzschichten der Jura- und 

 Kreide-Formation im Gebiete der Karpathen, Alpen und Apenninen. 

 Part vii. Pala;ontographica Supplement, vol. 111. pp. 73-282, pis. vu.- 

 xviii. (1897). 



