AucustT 24, 1899] 
NATURE 
389 
written for students on the continent, where the method 
of malting differs somewhat from ours. The printing, 
paper, and binding of the book are particularly good. 
Ae B: 
By Shelford Bidwell, 
Curtosities of Light and Sight. 
(London: Swan 
M.A., LL.B.,F.R.S. Pp. xii + 226. 
Sonnenschein and Co., Ltd., 1899. 
MANY readers will be glad to possess this collection of 
essays, in which Mr. Shelford Bidwell describes some of 
the experiments which the scientific world owes to his 
ingenuity. The five chapters in the volume are based 
upon notes of lectures delivered to various audiences ; 
and their subjects are: light and the eye, colour and its 
perception, some optical defects of the eye, some optical 
delusions, and curiosities of vision. Each subject is pre- 
sented with freshness of style, and elucidated by many 
simple and convincing experiments. To the popular 
lecturer on science, who desires to know how to produce 
curious and instructive optical effects, the volume will be 
very acceptable, and every physical experimentalist may 
confidently turn to it for inspiration. But though the 
curiosities of colour phenomena, and of sight generally, 
are chiefly described in the book, many questions of deep 
interest to students of both physical and physiological 
optics are discussed, so that the volume appeals to 
scientific as well‘as popular readers. 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 
pressed by hts correspondents. Neither can he undertake 
to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 
manuscripts tntended for this or any other part of NATURE. 
No notice ts taken of anonymous communications. | 
A Curious Salamander. 
THE artificial propagation of food fishes is an important part 
of the work of the United States Fish Commission, and for this 
purpose it has a number of hatcheries or ‘‘ stations” scattered 
throughout the Union. At each of these stations especial at- 
tention is given to the rearing of the fishes best adapted to the 
region in which that particular station is placed, as it would be 
useless to breed salmon or trout for the warm, 
sluggish streams of the South, or to put bass 
and carp into the cold, swift rivers of New 
England or of Michigan. The sea stations are 
devoted to the study of marine zoology, and the 
propagation of shad, mackerel, cod, lobsters and 
similar organisms that cannot be bred in fresh 
water ; while hatcheries have been put on the 
banks of several lakes at which whitefish, land- 
locked salmon, lake trout and the like are 
reared. 
A few years ago a station was established 
near the town of San Marcos, Texas, for the 
culture of black bass and ‘‘crappies.” A prime 
essential for fish hatching is a copious supply 
of water, and the supply should be as uniform 
in amount, temperature and composition as it is 
possible to obtain. If there be much sediment 
in the water, it will be deposited on the eggs 
and suffocate them; and sudden variations in 
temperature may also be fatal. As the rainfall 
in western Texas is untrustworthy, the Commis- 
sion determined to bore an artesian well to 
supply the water for its new station. 
The well was bored successfully and a flow of twelve-hundred 
gallons per minute obtained from a depth of 188 feet. There 
are several such wells in this region that give this amount or 
more, but soon after the San Marcos well was opened a number 
of living animals began coming up with the water. So far, four 
kinds of Crustacea and a salamander have been seen, and of 
these quite a number have been obtained. The Crustacea are 
new to science and were described by Dr. James E. Benedict, 
of the Smithsonian Institution. They are white and perfectly 
blind. Most of the shrimps and crab-like animals have eyes 
NO. 1556, VOL. 60] 
2.— Tyfhiomolge Rathbuni, } life. 
set on the extremities of stalks that project above the surface. 
The shrimps from this well have the stalks, but the eyes have 
disappeared. 
The most remarkable creature that has come from the well is 
the blind salamander, the 7yphlomolge Rathbuni. The name 
Fic. 1.—Typhlomolge Rathbuni, seen from above. (Photographed 
by W. P. Hay.) 
is compounded from the Greek typhios, blind, and mo/ve, a kind 
of salamander ; while the second term was given in honour of 
Mr. Kichard Rathbun, the Assistant Secretary of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, and for many years the Chief of the Division 
(Photographed by W. P. Hay.) 
of Scientific Inquiry 01 the Fish Commission. This animal is 
a new species and a new genus. It was described by Dr. L. 
Stejneger, of the Smithsonian Institution. The Zyphlomolee is 
from three to four and a half inches in length. It has a large 
head, protruding forward into a flattened snout that bears the 
mouth. The eyes are completely covered by the skin, and are 
visible from the outside only as two black specks. Just behind 
the head are the gills. These are external and stand out in 
festoons about the neck, instead of being covered by a lid as in 
fishes. The skin isa dingy white, and the sharp contrast between 
