October 28, 1922] 



NA TURE 



57: 



Galilee. These fishes are perch-like in form, and 

 affinities, so much so that the average American angler, 

 especially if a small bov, would call them perches. 

 However, ichthyologists to-day place them in a family 

 called Cichlidae, though they were formerly called 

 Chromida?. By one name or another, accounts of 

 them may be found in systematic works on fishes. 



The first ichthyologist to study these fishes in their 

 habitat was L. Lortet, who made trips to the Holy 

 Land in 1875 and 1880, and in 1883 published an 

 extensive memoir based on the results gained at first 

 hand. Lortet says 1 (p. 106) : 



" The fishes of the lake of Tiberius, very good to 

 eat, serve as a pasturage for the myriads of crested 

 grebes (Podiceps cristatus) and of pelicans. Frequently 

 the grebes snatch at the eyes of the chromids, and 

 with one stroke of their long sharp beaks lift out as 

 cleverly as would a skilful surgeon the two eyeballs 

 and the intro-orbital partition. These unhappy fish, 

 now blind, of which we have taken numerous examples, 

 have thus the entire face perforated by a bloody canal 

 which cicatrises rapidly. It is only the larger indi- 

 viduals who are thus operated on by the grebes, for, 

 not being able to avail themselves of the entire fish, 

 these voracious birds take the precaution to snatch 

 only the morsel of their choice." 



The explanation of this we find on his next page, 

 where we are told that these chromid fishes habitually 

 swim at or near the surface of the water. 



Canon H. B. Tristram made collections of fishes in 

 the sea of Galilee in 1864, thus antedating Lortet by 

 eleven years, but his book, " The Survey of Western 

 Palestine. The Fauna and Flora of Palestine," was 

 not published until 1884 by the Palestine Exploration 

 Fund. 2 On page 164 he refers to the Chromidas as 

 found in the lake of Galilee in " amazing multitudes " 

 and continues : 



" All these Chromidae are frequently found with 

 their eyes extracted, and their foreheads pierced by 

 the Grebes, which prey on them, but they seem to 

 thrive perfectly well in spite of this mutilation, and to 

 flourish in a state of absolute blindness." 



Of Chromis tiberiadis, the most abundant form. 

 Canon Tristram 3 writes : 



" I have seen them in shoals of over an acre in 

 extent, so closely packed that it seemed impossible for 

 them to move, and with their dorsal fins above the 

 water, giving at a distance the appearance of a 

 tremendous shower pattering on one spot of the 

 surface of the glassy lake. They are taken both in 

 boats and from the shore by nets run deftly round, 

 and enclosing what one may call a solid mass at one 

 swoop, and very often the net breaks." 



Dr. E. W. G. Masterman, 4 in chapter 2, " The 

 Inland Fisheries of Galilee," of his book, " Studies in 

 Galilee " (Chicago, 1909), thus describes the ordinary 

 activities of the fishermen of the lake of Tiberius : 

 "... their movements being directed by a man 

 stationed on a point of the shore high above the water, 

 who from his vantage ground is able to detect the 

 presence of a shoal of musht (Chromids)." The fisher- 

 men, proceeding to the point indicated by the look-out, 



1 Lortet, L. " Poissons et reptiles du lac Tiberiade, etc.," in his " Etudes 

 Zoologiques sur la fauna du lac Tiberiade, etc." Archives Museum Histoire 

 NatureUe de Lyon, 1883, vol. 3. 



3 The Palestine Exploration Fund is interdenominational in its organisa- 

 tion and sources of income. It has H.M. King George V. for its patron, and 

 is supported by voluntary subscriptions. Its purpose is the thorough study 

 of the archaeology, geology, geography, history, natural history, etc., of 

 Palestine. 



3 Dr. H. B. Tristram, Canon of Durham Cathedral, because of ill-health 

 (lung trouble) lived in Algeria during the winters of 1855-1857. He went 

 to Palestine in rS6o and remained for some years studying the fauna and 

 flora, the resulting data being incorporated in his 455-page quarto volume, 

 the standard work on the natural history of the Holy Land. In rS7o he was 

 nominated for but declined the Anglican Bishopric of Jerusalem. He was the 

 author of seven books on Palestine. 



* Dr. E. W. G. Masterman is, and has been for a number of years, honorary 

 general secretary of the Palestine Exploration Fund in Palestine. 



NO. 2765, VOL. I io] 



quickly run a net around the school. However, he 

 tells us that the bottom everywhere is obstructed with 

 large stones, and that the fishermen have continually 

 to dive to free the net. This is possibly if not prob- 

 ably the explanation of Peter's leaping ovebroard. 



From the excerpts given, it is plain as to the purport 

 of the proffered explanation, if in the East, where 

 customs change but slowly, we may interpret the past 

 in terms of the present. Fish which go in schools at 

 the surface of the water ; fishermen who have not yet 

 struck a school ; Jesus on high ground looks over the 

 lake, sees a school and points it out to the fishermen ; 

 they cast their nets in the direction indicated and 

 draw them in full to the breaking point. 



E. W. Gudger. 



American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York City, Sept. 27. 



Arabic Chemistry. 



i. May I be allowed to direct the attention of those 

 interested in the history of chemistry to an important 

 paper by Prof. Eilhard Wiedemann of Erlangen ? 

 It is entitled " Zur Alchemie bei den Arabern " and 

 is published in Heft V. of the " Abhandlungen zur 

 Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Medizin," 

 Erlangen, 1922. It contains a translation of the 

 passage concerning alchemy in the " Kashfu'l-Zunun " 

 of Hajji Khalifa, with many biographical details of 

 the chemists mentioned. Several of these details 

 have been provided by Prof. Brockelmann, the 

 author of the monumental " Geschichte der arabischen 

 Litteratur," and are entirely new. There is also a 

 list of the most important works (with a few extracts) 

 of the famous Aidamir al-Jildaki (t 1361). 



It is perhaps ungenerous to offer any criticism of 

 so useful a contribution to chemical history, but I 

 feel that Prof. Wiedemann's explanation of 'Urn 

 al-mizan (science of the balance) as Beziehung und 

 Abwdgung des richtigen Masses should not be allowed 

 to go unchallenged. As I have pointed out in the 

 current number of Science Progress (October 1922), 

 the term " Science of the Balance " as applied to 

 alchemy refers to the proper adjustment of the 

 qualities of a substance, that is, its hotness and dryness, 

 etc., and is not used in a quantitative sense, even by 

 Al-Jildaki, and certainly not by Jabir ibn Haiyan, 

 who, I believe, originated it. 



A work by Al-Jildaki which seems to have escaped 

 the notice of Prof. Wiedemann is " Zahru'l-Kimam," 

 a commentary on an alchemical poem (" QasidatuT- 

 Nuniyya ") of Abu'1-Asba' 'Abdu'l-'Aziz ibn Tammam 

 al-Traqi (wrongly named, Abu Casba by Berthelot, 

 " La Chimie au Moyen Age," tome hi. p. 4). Ibn 

 Tammam al-Traqi was a contemporary of Al-Jildaki, 

 who thought very highly of him. 



ii. Berthelot (op. cit. p. 5) says, " Plusieurs des 

 auteurs alchimiques arabes ont ete traduits en latin, 

 aux xir 8 et xin e siecles, et ces traductions existent 

 en manuscrit dans les grandes bibliotheques d'Europe. 

 Un certain nombre d'entre elles ont meme ete im- 

 primees . . . dans les collections intitulees Theatrum 

 chemicum, Bibliotheca chemica (etc.). ... A cote 

 d'ceuvres authentiques, je veux dire r^allement 

 traduites 011 irnitees de l'arabe, telles que la Turba, 

 les ecrits attribues a Rosinus, Morienus, Avicenne, 

 etc., il en existe d'autres, fabriquees de toutes pieces 

 en Occident, comme les pretendues ceuvres des 

 faussaires latins qui ont pris le nom de Geber." 



The first part of Berthelot's statement is un- 

 doubtedly correct, although Berthelot himself was 

 not able to discover the Arabic texts of any of the 

 works he mentions as of probable Arabic origin. 



