596 



NATURE 



[October 20, 1892 



now becomes a small, almost black ball, varying in size from a 

 mustard seed to the finest dust shot, according to the size of the 

 piece of leaf that had been manipulated. The size of the piece 

 of leaf is from an \ by \ of an inch, by i by i of an inch. I do 

 not wish it to be understood that only one class of workers 

 manipulate the leaf, for all seem to take to it very kindly on 

 emergency. Even the smallest workers will bring their tiny ball 

 to where the fungus bed is being prepared. These balls, really 

 pulp, are built on to an edge of the fungus bed by the larger 

 workers, and are slightly smoothed down a-> the work proceeds. 

 The new surface is then planted by the smaller workers, by slips 

 of the fungus brought from the older parts of the nest. Each 

 plant is planted separately and they know exactly how far apart 

 the plants should be. It sometimes looks as if the plants had 

 been put in too scantily in places, yet in about forty hours, if 

 the humidity has been properly regulated, it is all evenly covered 

 with a mantle, as if of very fine snow. It is this fungus they eat, 

 and with small portions of it the workers feed the larvae." 



Mr. O. p. Hay records in the latest volume of the Proceed- 

 ings of the U.S. National Museum a curious habit of horned 

 toads. Some years ago two boys from Texas, whose family had 

 moved into his neighbourhood, showed him a few lizards 

 belonging to the genus Phrynosoma, and popularly called horned 

 toads. The boys declared that these little animals, when teased, 

 would sometimes squirt blood out of their eyes. Mr. Hay did 

 not think much about the matter at the time, but was lately 

 vividly reminded of it in the department of reptiles in the 

 National Museum. Near his desk there was a specimen of 

 Phrynosoma coronatum, which had been sent from California by 

 a member of Dr. Merriam's exploring party. About August I 

 it was shedding its outer skin, and the process appeared to be a 

 difficult one, since the skin was dried and adhered closely. One 

 day it occurred to Mr. Hay that it might facilitate matters if he 

 gave the animal a wetting ; so, taking it up, he carried it to a 

 wash-basin of water near by and suddenly tossed the lizard into 

 the water. " The first surprise," says Mr. Hay, " was probably 

 experienced by the Phrynosoma, but the next surprise was my 

 own, for on one side of the basin there suddenly appeared a 

 number of spots of red fluid, which resembled blood." He 

 immediately recalled what the boys had told him of the ability 

 of horned toads to squirt blood, and he concluded that this was 

 a good time to settle the question whether this fluid was blood 

 or not. A microscope was soon procured and an examination 

 was made, which immediately showed that the matter ejected 

 was really blood. A day or two afterwards Mr. Hay was hold- 

 ing the lizard between his thumb and middle finger, and 

 stroking its horns with his forefinger. All at once a quantity 

 of blood was thrown out against his fingers, and a portion of it 

 ran down on the animal's neck ; and this blood came directly out 

 of the right eye. Mr. Hay has since found that the phenomenon 

 has been noticed by other observers, and , while he was pre- 

 paring his paper, his attention was called to the fact that more 

 than twenty years ago Mr. A. R. Wallace read before the 

 Zoological Society of London letters from a correspondent in 

 California, who described this creature as squirting from one of 

 its eyes " a jet of bright red liquid very much like blood." 



Messrs. Percival and Co. announce the following works :— 

 •'Geometrical Drawing," by A. J. Pressland ; "Lessons on 

 Air," by A. E. Hawkins; " The School Euclid," an edition of 

 Euclid, Books i.-vi., with Notes and Exercises, by Daniel 

 Brent ; and a series of elementary text-books entitled " The 

 Beginner's Text-books of Science," of which Mr. G. Stallard is 

 the general editor. 



Messrs. George Bell and Sons have published a second 

 edition of Mr. A. J. Jukes- Browne's '■ Student's Handbook of 

 Physical Geology." The author explains that in preparing this 

 NO. 1199, VOL. 46] 



edition he has spared no pains to make it a trustworthy hand- 

 book for those branches of the science to which it relates. 



Messrs. Whittaker and Co. have issued for the benefit 

 of amateur coil-makers a practical manual on "Induction 

 Coils," by G. E. Bonney. The author's object has been to 

 place in the hands of his readers " a cheap and handy volume 

 giving a general insight into the construction of ordinary spark 

 coils, medical coils, and batteries for working them." There 

 are more than a hundred illustrations. 



Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co. have issued a new 

 edition, revised and largely re-written, of the well-known 

 " Outlines of Psychology," by Prof. James Sully. 



Messrs. Chapman and Hall will shortly publish a work 

 by Rev. H. N. Hutchinson, entitled " Extinct Monsters." It will 

 be illustrated by Mr. J. Smit, who has made twenty-four restora- 

 tions of antediluvian animals. The book is not intended for 

 geologists only, but for all who are interested in the study of 

 animal life. Dr. Henry Woodward, F. R.S., keeper of 

 geology, Na tural History Museum, contributes a preface. 



The new number of Records of the Australian Museum 

 (Vol. III., No. 2) opens with a paper, by Mr. J. Douglas 

 Ogilby, on some undescribed reptiles and fishes from Australia. 

 To the same number Mr. C. Hedley contributes a paper on the 

 structure and affinities of Panda Atomata, Gray. Mr. A. North 

 has a note on Manucodia comrii, Sclater. 



The University College of North Wales has published its 

 calendar for the year 1892-93. 



Glycol aldehyde, CHjOH.CFIO, the hitherto almost unknown 

 first aldehyde derived from glycol, forms the subject of a com- 

 munication to the current number of the Berichte by Prof. Emil 

 Fischer and Dr. Landsteiner. This substance acquires addi- 

 tional interest when the ordinary sugars are defined as aldehyde- 

 or ketone-alcohols, for it then becomes the first member of the 

 series. Prof. Fischer now shows how glycol aldehyde may 

 readily be obtained, discusses its properties, and points out that 

 by its polymerisation a new sugar is obtained, tetrose, the first 

 .synthetical sugar containing four atoms of carbon. The only 

 evidence hitherto published of the existence of glycol aldehyde 

 is that afforded by the work of Abeljanz and Pinner. The 

 former chemist considered that he had obtained it by heating 

 di-chlor-ether with water, and by the action of sulphuric acid 

 upon mono-chlor-hydroxy -ether. But upon repeating the work 

 of Abeljanz, Prof. Fischer finds that the substance considered, 

 upon very slight evidence, to be glycol aldehyde is another com- 

 pound altogether. Pinner afterwards attempted to obtain it by 

 decomposition of a substance discovered by him, glycol acetal, 

 with acids, but Prof. Fischer finds that this reaction only occurs 

 under condit ions such that the glycol aldehyde is itself also de- 

 composed. In view of the formation of glyceryl aldehyde by the 

 action of baryta upon acrolein dibromide, a reaction now of his- 

 torical importance as being the one which led Prof. Fischer to the 

 first synthesis of grape sugar, it was thought probable that glycol 

 aldehyde might be similarly obtained by the action of baryta 

 upon the mono-bromine derivative of aldehyde, CHjBr.CHO. 

 Mono-brom-aldehyde, however, had never been hitherto ob- 

 tained, so Prof. Fischer and Dr. Landsteiner first sought a 

 method for its preparation. They eventually obtained it, as a 

 viscid colourless liquid of powerful tear-exciting odour, by 



/OC2H5 

 heating mono-brom-acetal, CHgBr.CHc^ , with anhy- 



^OCgHg 



drous oxalic acid. When the mono-brom-aldehyde thus 



