52 
NATURE 
[ Way 20, 1886 
slight inaccuracies of thought and language occur. Is it 
really the case, for example, that rate of interest (p. 181) 
is totally independent of ¢zme ? 
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Chlorophyll 
In ashort note in NATURE (vol. xxxii. p. 342) I mentioned 
the discovery ofa colourless substance produced by the action of 
reducing agents on chlorophyll and regenerating, on being 
exposed to the air, the original green solution. I may be 
allowed to add to my previous statement that if this reaction 
is not pushed too far and the resulting substance is duly con- 
centrated, it is not colourless, but of a reddish-brown by day- 
light, of a splendid ruby red (very different from the well-known 
port-wine red colour of chlorophyll) by limelight. Its spectrum 
is chiefly characterised by the total absence of band I., and the 
presence of a broad band corresponding exactly to band II., and 
the two intervals between I. and II., and between II. and III. 
Band IV. seems also to be present, though somewhat altered in 
its position and intensity. 
The presence of a slightest trace of oxygen is immediately 
announced by the appearance of the I. chlorophyll band, so 
a. BEC. D, E, b. 
20 JO go 50 60 70 SO 90° 700 
ns 1 
L. TH, | I. z 
Z | | 
I. a 
i) 
— 
IAA 
| 
| | HAN 
[= 
that the reaction may be considered as a most sensitive test for 
oxygen. On further exposure to the air, as already mentioned, 
chlorophyll is regenerated. This new substance being evidently 
a product of reduction of chlorophylline, the green-colouring 
matter of chlorophyll isolated and described by me in 1869, it 
may be called protochlorophyiline, or simply protophylline. 
Its solutions can be kept in sealed glass tubes containing H, 
or CO,: ¢ this latter casein a dark place, for on being exposed to 
light they turn green. Can it be inferred from these facts that 
the oxidation takes place at the expense of CO,—that carbonic 
acid is actually reduced under the joint action of light and of a 
chlorophyll solution? The question, if answered in the affirma- 
tive, is of so great importance, that I am now taking all the 
pains to arrive at a definite conclusion. 
The optical properties of protophylline seem to indicate its 
presence in freshly-prepared chlorophyll solutions. Indeed the 
difference presented by the spectrum of a freshly-prepared green 
solution and that of Mr. Stokes’s modified chlorophyll may be 
easily accounted for by the presence in the former of the broad 
protophylline band intercepting the rays of light in the two 
intervals between the bands I. II. and III., as just mentioned. 
To the presence of different quantities of srotophylline may be 
likewise attributed the varying relative intensity of the bands 
Ii. II. 1V.,—a fact that has attracted the attention of many 
observers, 
At all events, it cannot be doubted that the study of this 
curious substance, though attended with considerable difficulties, 
all the operations taking place in a total absence of oxygen, 
and under the continual+control of the spectroscope, will 
throw a new light on that most important of physiological 
problems—the part played by chlorophyll in the decomposition 
of carbonic acid by the living plant. C. TIMIRIAZEFF 
Moscow University 
The Stone Age in the Malay Peninsula 
In NaTuRE, vol. xxxiii. p. 377, there is a notice of a paper 
by M. de Morgan, published in Cosmos, on the Stone Age in 
the Malay Peninsula. Will you permit me to offer a few remarks 
with reference to this matter. In the first place, it is said that 
M. de Morgan came into contact with three native races, which 
he respectively names Sakayes [Sakaij, Seumangs [Sémang], 
and Rayats [Ryot]. I have put in brackets the commonly- 
accepted spelling in the Straits. It is funny what peculiar mis- 
takes travellers make when passing through a country the 
language of which they do not understand, ryot being the word 
used in the Straits to express those followers or retainers of a 
native chief who are not actually his debt slaves, but who owe 
him more or less of feudal allegiance ; Malays here invariably 
use the word when speaking of the following of a Sakai chief. 
The word ryot is, I believe, also used in the same sense in 
India. With reference to the tribes of whom M. de Morgan 
speaks as living in the recesses of the mountains, and whom the 
Sakaies called ‘‘ fire apes,” I cannot help remarking that I have 
never heard the Sakaies speak of them myself, nor can I find 
that any other Government servant here has heard of them 
either ; still we are in pretty constant communication with 
certain of the Sakaies of these hills, and for my part I have at 
different times stayed for longer and shorter periods at the 
clearings of some of the chiefs whom M. de Morgan visited, 
and moreover I have employed most of the same Malays who 
followed M. de Morgan. By the bye, these were Sumatran 
Malays, and they told me some very extraordinary tales about 
the wild tribes before I started up country with them; these 
foreign Malays are especially addicted to telling marvellous tales 
of the wild tribes of the mountains, but so far I have not 
been able to verify their information in the least degree either 
from the Sakaies themselves or from native Malay sources. It 
would be interesting to know what equivalent was used for the 
expression ‘‘ fire apes.”” Was it a Malay word or a Sakai word ? 
With reference to the Stone Age I quite agree with M. de 
Morgan in believing that at a not very late period—probably 
just before the Malay invasion—there were tribes living 
in the interior who were not acquainted with the use of 
iron; up to the present moment I have been able to col- 
lect twenty-two stone implements. I have sent drawings 
and notices of these to the Anthropological Institute. I 
may, however, here mention that of these twenty-two speci- 
mens one is the half of a stone bracelet; the rest are all 
chopping-tools of different descriptions, used, I think we may 
fairly conclude, by a race of boat-builders, who most likely con- 
structed dug-outs, much like the Malays of the present day. I 
adduce this supposition from the fact that of my twenty-one 
specimens two are perfect gouges, and six others are of the 
description which Dr. Evans has classed under adzes. The 
cutting-edges of nearly all my specimens have been considerably 
damaged by use. The high polish which M. de Morgan’s speci- 
mens—and mine also—exhibit is, I think, accounted for in a 
great measure by the fact that they are used and very highly 
prized by the Malays as whetstones ; the women preserve them, 
especially to sharpen their razors on, with which they shave the 
heads of their children during the periods ordered by custom or 
religious law ; and the men were, until lately, very anxious to 
procure them to sharpen the iron spurs used in cock-fighting. 
As almost all of the specimens procured by me have been pur- 
chased of Malays who have inherited them from their ancestors, 
and prized them as heir-looms, it is, I think, reasonable to sup- 
pose that in their original condition some of them, at least, were 
considerably rougher than when they came into our hands ; this 
supposition is further confirmed by a remark made to me the 
other day by a Malay chief. He said that he once had a thun- 
derstone given to him which was so rough that he had to wear 
it down on his emery-wheel before he could use it as a whet- 
stone. I haye one specimen which has no cutting-edge, but is 
squared off at each end and is almost spindle-shaped. I have 
