190 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1286- 



However, antedating even Bowring, the syn- 

 chronous flashing of fireflies on the Meinam 

 Eiver had been described by another. In' 

 1690, Engelbert Kaempfer left Batavia as 

 physician to the Dutch Embassy to Japan. 

 For softie unexplained reason this embassy 

 went to Nagasaki via Siam, and describing his 

 return down the Meinam Eiver from Bangkok 

 in 1690; Kaempfer wrote: 



The Glowworms (Cicindalae) represent another 

 shew, which settle on some Trees, like a fiery 

 cloud, with this surprising circumstance, that a 

 whole swarm of these Insects, having taken pos- 

 session of one Tree, and spread themselves over 

 its branches, sometimes hide their Light all at 

 once, and a moment after make it appear again 

 with the utmost regularity and exactness, as if 

 they were in a perpetual Systole and Diastole.s - 



Another account is taken from John Stra- 

 chan's "Explorations and Adventures in Kew 

 Guinea," London, 1888. This account is not 

 strictly in line with that preceding, since it 

 seems to be of synchronous movement rather 

 than flashing, but at any rate it seems worth 

 while to quote Strachan briefly. Of the man 

 and his book no information is at hand. On 

 page 38 he WTites of fireflies observed near the 

 Fly Eiver: 



• We sat gazing enraptured on a pyramid of liv- 

 ing light, suspended, as it were, by threads of 

 fairy gold. On a huge black walnut [?] tree there 

 had gathered myriads of fireflies, which, moving 

 through the dark foliage as if to the time of some 

 enchanter's music, presented a scene of exquisite 

 loveliness, which it is impossible to describe. As 

 the fairy mass revolved, now up, now down, then 

 round as to the measured time of a dance, my 

 companion in ecstasy exclaimed "Captain, I would 



way for British trading ships. He ascended the 

 Meinam Eiver to Bangkok and on this journey wit- 

 nessed the scene described above. His book was 

 published at London in two volumes in 1857. Our 

 reference is to Vol. I., pp. 233-234. 



3 Kaempfer, Engelbert, ' ' The History of Ja- 

 pan with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam, ' ' 

 translated by John Caspar Scheuchzer, 2 vols., folio, 

 London, 1727. This is best available to the gen- 

 eral reader in the elegant reprint in three volumes 

 of the 1727 edition by James McLehose and Sons, 

 Glasgow, 1906. Our reference is to pages 78-79 

 of Volume I. of this edition. 



work twelve months for nothing to see such a sight 

 as this. ' ' 



The last notice that has come to light is 

 distinctly of synchronous movement but it 

 may not be amiss to quote it here. Burbidge 

 on one of his trips to Kina Balu, the great 

 mountain of Borneo, found the natives of 

 Kalawat, a village near its base, raising bees 

 in hives of hollow tree trunks set under the 

 projecting roofs of their huts. Of these bees, 

 Burbidge says : 



The kind of bee kept is very small, much smaller 

 than that common in England, and I was much 

 struck at the peculiar manner in which they 

 wriggle their bodies simultaneously as they con- 

 gregated in groups on the hive near the entrance. 



The above accounts are those that have been 

 found in the course of reading for other ends, 

 but it is more than likely that a systematic 

 search through large numbers of books of 

 travel in the East Indies would bring to light 

 other accounts. At any rate those given indi- 

 cate that there is a " literature " even though 

 small of this remarkable phenomenon. 



E. W. GUDGEE 



American Museum op Natural History, 

 New York City 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 

 THE ORIGIN OF NERVE CELL PIGMENTS 



The determination of the origin of the two 

 recognized pigments of the nerve cell, the 

 melanin and the lipochrome, has equal appli- 

 cation to other somatic cells and correlates 

 their normal and abnormal occurrence. The 

 subject is therefore one of general biologic 

 int-erest. 



The melanin pigment is produced by func- 

 tional depression of some duration in any 

 cells. It has been fully excluded experimen- 

 tally from normal function and overfunction, 

 and also from the natural senescence which 

 ultimately results from function (senility of 

 excitation). In short, the nerve cell by its 

 specific diSerentiation is never hampered in 

 its normal processes by the permanent accu- 

 mulation of waste products of metabolism. 



The histogenesis of the melanin is from 

 nuclear material, both intranuclear and the 



