592 



NATURE 



[Oct. 20, 1 88 1 



regions are divided by deep sea and by coast-lines, whicb, as the 

 eastern and soutliern coasts of India, do not afford the necessary 

 conditions for the development of corals, whilst the extension to 

 the east is much facilitated by lo.v grounds and favourable coast- 

 lines. Nevertheless, however different as to the species which 

 inhabit then, both regions have a close likeness as to certain 

 species, and bjth mi^ht be cjnsidered as having formed a single 

 region, probably at the ti-ne when the great plateau of the Su ida 

 Islands was a continuation of the conlinent, and when Mada- 

 gascar and Ceylon were in clo3e cmnectio ,. As to the 

 inhabitants of greater depths and of colder water — as the Gor- 

 gonidi, the AnthozoEe, and the I'rimnoids — the sane species are 

 widely spread throiiLihout the Paciiic and the Indian Ocean, 

 showing thui that the differentiali jn of shallow-water forms 

 goes on mo.e rapidly than thai of the deep-water ones. 



A Chemical Difference between Living and Dead 

 Protoplasm. — From vari lus experiments (chiefly with proto- 

 pla^m of plants, also with Infuoria) Herren Loew and Bokorny 

 i^i\A[Pjiuger s Arch.) t lat living protoplasm possesses in an eminent 

 decree the properly of reducing th; noble metals from soluti ms, 

 and that this property is lost when death occurs. " It may %\eU 

 be inferred," say the authors, "that the mysterious phenomenon 

 denoted by the name of 'Life' depends e-^sentiaUy on these 

 reducin^j atom-groups. In the present state of science we ex- 

 plain these 'groups in motion,' these springs of life phenomena, 

 as allehyde groups, but would by wi means exclude some 

 different and better m xle of explanation." 



Rattlesnake Poison. — Dr. Lacerda Filhohas published the 

 results of his experiments on the poison of the rattlesnake ( Crotahis 

 horridiis) in the Archivjs do Miisett nacijnal do Rio dt Jandro, hi. 

 I. The poiion of Crotalics horridiis acts upon the blood by de- 

 stroying the red-blood corpuscles, and by changing the physical 

 and chemical quality of the plasma. 2. The poison contains some 

 mobile bodies .similar to the micrococcus of putrefaction. 3. 

 The bliod of an animal killed by the snake's bite, when inocu- 

 lated to another animal of the same size and species, cau es the 

 death of the latter within a few hours, under the .'^ame s-ym- 

 ptoms and the same change > of the blood. 4. The poise n can 

 be dried and preserved for a long time without losing its specific 

 quality. 5. Alcohol is the best antidote to the poison of 

 Crolaliis horridu, known until now. 



The SreRM'JGONiA of Aecidiomycetes. — According to 

 r-cent observations by Prof. Kathay (Vienna Acad. Am.] the 

 spermo^onia of Uiedinea; or Aecidio iiycetes may di charge their 

 c intents without the acti m of external moisture, of rain or dew 

 (the only way, as apparently supposed by A. de Bary). The process 

 may occur in dry and hot sunny m eather, and as follows : — These 

 spermogonii produce in their interior not only mucilage and 

 spermatia, but also sugar. In virtue of the latter they separate 

 water by "oimotic action," and this v\ater causes the inclosed 

 mucilage to swell, and thereby afford exit from the cavity. The 

 author's ob-eivations were made upjn the sperraogonia of 

 Gymn -'Sfji\iv jiitm conicum and Piucinia suaveolens. 



Pelagic Fauna of Gulf Stream. — Alexander Agassir 

 gives an interesting acc:)unt of his exploratims of the floating 

 fauia of the Gulf Strea n in the vicinity of the Tortuga;. The 

 party remained at this statim fjr some five weelis, being allowed 

 to select quarters at Fort Jeff:;rson. Unfortunately during the 

 greater part of their stay the strong northerly winds interfered 

 greatly with the surfac; fauna. Had the souh-easterly winds 

 prevailed the fauna would have been driven against theTortugas. 

 The few favjurable diys showed, however, a wealth of pelagic 

 animals which had been hardly anticipated, and which proved 

 how excellent a s'ati:)n this wjuld be to investigate the fauna 

 from. It als> has the im uense advantage of su iplying the 

 naturalist, -and at his very do ir, with not only the common 

 specie, of reef-building corals, but with the varied invertebrate 

 faun I to be found in such places. Leaving a full enmneration of 

 the species for another occasion, in the letter we now notice 

 (Bulletin of the Mus. Comp. Zoology, vol. ix. No. 3) A. Agassiz 

 menti ms in a general way the presence of a couple of species of 

 Firoloidea, of Phyllirhbe, of several Appendicularife, of a small 

 Pyrosoma, of a Doliolum, two s,ieciesof Salpa, and half a dozen 

 species of Pteropods. The nuaiber of pelagic foraminifera was 

 greatly di app linting ; not once was a species of Glo'oigerinamet 

 with, and the Radtolarians appear to have also been scanty. A 

 list of the CteiiophoriE, Disco phora:, Siphonophorfe, and Hy- 

 droids met with is a|)pendcd by Mr. Fewkes. Many of ttie 

 species are indicated as new. 



Retarded Development in Insects. — In a paper by 

 Prof. C. V. Riley, at the recent meeting of the Americin Asso- 

 ciation, the author records several interesting cases of retarded 

 development in insects, whether as summer coaia or dormancy 

 of a certain portion of a given brood of caterpillars, the belated 

 issuing of certain imagines from the pupa, or the deferred hatch- 

 ing of eggs. One of the mo it remarkable cases of this last to 

 which he calls attention is the hatching this year of the eggs of 

 the Rocky Mo, lUtai 1 Locust or Western Grasshopper (Caloptenus 

 sprctus) that were laid in 1S76 around the Agricultural College 

 at Manhattan, Ivans. The e eggs were buried some ten inches 

 below the surface in the fall of 1876 in grading the ground 

 around the chemical laboratory, the superincumbent material 

 being clay, old mortar, and bits of stone, and a plank side-walk 

 being laid above this In rem iving and regrading the soil last 

 spring Mr. J. D. Graham noticed that the eggs lo )ked sound 

 and fresh, and they readily hatched upon exposure to normal 

 influences, the species being determined by Prof. Riley from 

 specimens sub.nitted by Mr. Graham. Remarkable as the facts 

 are, there cm be no question as to their accuracy, so that the 

 eggs actually remained unhatched during nearly four years and a 

 half, or four years longer than is their wont ; and this suggests the 

 significant question, How much longer the eggs of this species 

 could, under favouring conditions of dryness and reduced tem- 

 perature, retain their vitality aid power of hatching? Putting 

 all the facts together. Prof kiley concludes that we are as yet 

 absolutely incapable of offering any satisfactory exjilanation of 

 the causes which induce exceptional retardation in development 

 a.nong insects. The eggs of Crustaceans, as those of Apiis and 

 Cypris, are known to have the power of resistin.^ drouth for 

 six, ten, or more years without losing vitality, while in some 

 cases they seem actually to require a certain ammnt of desicca- 

 tion before they will hatch. Yet the fact remains that diflferent 

 species act differently in this respect. In short, nothing is mire 

 patent to the observing naturalist than that .species, and even in- 

 dividuals of the same species, or the progeny of one and the same 

 individual, act very differently under like external ondiiions of 

 existence : in other words, tint te.nperature, moisture, food, &c., 

 influence them differently. Hence, as has b;en shown by 

 Semper to be the case with other animals, sj it is with insects, 

 changes in thi external canditions of existence will not affect 

 the fauna as a whole equally, but will act on individuals. We 

 can understand how this great latitude in susceptibility t ) like 

 conditions may and does, in the case of exceptional seasons, 

 prove beneficial to the species by preserving the exceptional indi- 

 viduals that display the power to resist the, unusual change; 

 but we shall find our -elves baffled when we come to seek an 

 explanation of the ciu-e or causes of such retardation, unless 

 we acce;it certain principles of evolution. In the innate pro- 

 perty of organisms ti vary, and in the coaipjex phenunena of 

 heredity, we may find a partial explanatian of the facts, for the 

 exceptional tendency in the present may be looked upon as a 

 manifestation through atavism of traits which in the past had 

 been mire conmonly po sessedand more essen iai to the species. 



PHYSICAL NOTES 

 A SINGULAR case of the production of sound by natural causes 

 is recorded by M. Reuleaux {Pioc. of the Nat. Hist. Soc. of 

 Prussian Rhineland and Westphalia), He observed it while hunt- 

 ing in the Roderbacherthal, near the highest point of the Rhine 

 province. The ground is, in the main, gently undulating and 

 densely wooded. The valley, spacious on the eastern side, 

 narrows ra|iidly at one part to a sort of pass, through which, 

 for about one kilometre, the Rod.'rbach flows westw,ards. A 

 sout-west wind was blnving, and M. Reuleaux, coming along 

 the hillside from the east, heard what appeared to be the strokes 

 of a fine deep-toned bell in rapid succession. There was no 

 such bell in the neighbourhood, and sime other sounds soon 

 hetrd sati-fied him that the effec.s were of natural origin. Tones 

 were heard growing in force to a maximum, then dying away ; 

 they were like tho.se of organ pipes at first, but their "clang" 

 came to resemble that of a harp or violin. At the m mth of the 

 pass, whence the sounds seemed to raliite, there was a strange 

 agitation in the air, and mix'ure of sou ids, some of which 

 abruptly stopped. M. Reuleaux supposes bodies of air in vor- 

 tical motion (trombcs) to h ive been carried alo ig from the pass, 

 and the sounl to have been due to conflict between the outer 

 and the inner air at the mouth of such trom'>es, producing oscil- 

 lations. There was a marked difference of temperature between 



