82 
NATURE 
[May 27, 1886 | 
examination, both microscopic and chemical, of the nests 
used for soup at the Health Exhibition of 1884. Since 
then I have had, by the kindness of Mr. W. T. Thiselton 
Dyer, Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, the oppor- 
tunity of examining various specimens of the nests, 
Fig.2 
Borneo nest. No alga present (mag. 200 diam ). 
obtained from other places than the first-named, and 
differing from one another in quality. 
The results of my experiments on these nests do not 
modify in any essential particular those which I had 
obtained before from the first ones examined. After pro- 
longed soaking all alike became gelatinous in texture, and 
Celebes nest. Alga present (mag. 200 diam.). 
then were easily seen to be made up of laminz affixed by 
their faces to each other. Whether the observation was 
made by teasing with needles or by cutting sections, this 
laminated structure was very evident. Fig. 1 is a section 
of a nest from Celebes, enlarged about 50 diameters. 
The lamin are fairly regular in disposition, and show 
no trace of any vegetable structure between them or in 
their substance. Here and there may be noted small 
granular bodies resembling epithelium cells. These are 
seen more distinctly in Fig. 2, which is a section of a nest ~ 
of inferior quality from Borneo enlarged 200 diameters. 
Another nest, also from Celebes, but marked as being 
of inferior quality showed the presence of alga. A sec- 
tion of this, taken from the part where the greatest 
quantity was found, is shown at Fig. 3, the enlargement 
being again 200 diameters. The presence of the alga in 
this inferior nest seems at first to bear out Mr. Layard’s 
suggestion, but an examination of the mode in which it 
is disposed in the nest-substance does not confirm his 
view of its being here even an agglutination of alge 
because the supply of saliva had failed. The alga-cells, 
though fairly numerous, are not in large quantity when 
compared with the amount of nest-substance, nor are 
they regularly placed in layers as would be the case if 
agglutinated as suggested. Their somewhat scanty 
amount and their irregular position would be better 
accounted for on the theory of their being accidental 
constituents. In many sections debris of one kind or 
another mixed with the secretion is not at all infrequent, 
small feathers being the most numerous. In the nest in 
question the alga was not present throughout, many 
sections showing none, others a little, the quantity vary- 
ing very much. The amount found may perhaps be con- 
nected with the feeding of the birds, and result from 
debris of food remaining in the mouth, and so mixed up 
with the secretion next produced. 
The nest-substance gave no micro-chemical reactions 
that could connect it at all with cellulose, so that it 
could not be formed by the partial digestion of the alga 
and regurgitation of the resulting matter. On the other 
hand, it did give very striking evidence of its close 
relationship with the body mcm described by various 
authors,' and well known as a product of the animal 
body. The reactions obtained with the first material 
used (that from the Health Exhibition) were confirmed 
completely by the experiments made upon the nests from 
Kew. Jos. R. GREEN 
Physiological Laboratory, Cambridge 
NOTES 
Mr. ApDsamM Sepcwick, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer of 
Trinity College, Cambridge, has been nominated by the Presi- 
dent and Council of the Royal Society to be recommended for 
election by the Society on June 4, in place of the late T. R. 
Lewis, one of the selected candidates, who died soon after the 
selection was made. 
SINCE our last week’s note the eruption of Mount Etna has 
gone on increasing in violence. Acorrespondent of the Standard 
sends some valuable notes on the progress of the eruption. 
Under date Catania, May 19, 8.40 a.m., he writes :—“ The erup- 
tion of Mount Etna assumed alarming proportions last evening 
at 5 o'clock. Earthquake shocks were felt in all the communes ” 
in the immediate vicinity of the volcano, At Zafferato, where 
the shocks appear to have been attended with upheaval of the 
soil, the disturbance is described as being so severe that the 
panic-stricken inhabitants fled from the neighbourhood. In the 
district of Bronte heavy showers of sand descended, and a 
gigantic column of thick black smoke was seen to emerge from 
the central crater of Etna towards the west.” ‘‘1o0 a.m. An 
eruption has occurred near Nicolosi, to the north-west of Monte- 
grosso, quite as severe in character as that of 1883. The lava 
has begun to stream down towards Nicolosi, accompanied by 
severe shocks of earthquake. 10.55 a.m. In addition to the 
® Bichwald, ‘‘ Ueber das Mucin besonders der Weinbergschnecke,” Aznad. 
Chem. Pharm., cxxiv. 1865, pp- 177 to 211. Obolensky, ‘‘ Ueber Mucin 
aus der Submaxillardriise,” Pfluger’s Avchzv, vol. iv. p. 336. 
