Makch 2, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



117 



result is always due to direct stimulation of subjacent 

 meduUated nerve-fibres. A bundle of sucb fibres, all 

 with the same peripheral connection, may subdivide 

 in the brain, and end in three or four different regions 

 of its surface : to this assumption he adds the further 

 gratuitous one, that only one cerebral division of 

 the nerve-fibre bundle is excitable at any one mo- 

 ment. — (Arch, phy&iol. norm. path. (3), i. 1883, 28.) 



H. N. M. [274 



Properties of saliva. — Why has human saliva 

 the power of saccharifying starch-paste, while that of 

 many animals, even herbivorous as the horse, has 

 not? Under the prevalence of atmospheric-germ 

 theories, some have lately been inclined to believe 

 that human saliva owes its power merely to the fact 

 that it is a good medium for the development of amy- 

 lolytic bacterial organisms. B^champ, as a result 

 of somewhat extended observations, concludes: 1°, 

 that the starch-saccharifying activity of human saliva 

 is not due to chance germs which have entered the 

 mouth from the atmosphere ; but 2°, is due to a special 

 ferment more active than diastase; and 3°, produced 

 by the action on the pure secreted saliva of specific 

 microscopic organisms living in the salivary glands 

 and in the mouth-cavity of man. The 'pure parotid 

 saliva of horse or dog does not convert starch-paste 

 into copper-oxide-reducing substances, nor does it 

 acquire this power when exposed to the air, or when 

 gently warmed along with scrapings from the tongues 

 of those animals; but when scrapings from the inside 

 of the human mouth are added to it, it soon becomes 

 a very eflicacious agent for the saccharification of 

 starch. — (Arch, physiol. norm. path. (3), i. 1883, 47.) 

 H. N. lu. [275 



Fish, 



A new genus of Lepidopodinae. — In 1878 Mr. 

 F. E. Clarke described (Trans. New Zeal, inst, v. 

 294) a new lepidopodine as Lepidopus elongatus. Mr. 

 Clarke established the species for ' eight or ten ex- 

 amples, all taken at Hokitika, on the South Island 

 of the New-Zealand group ' (lat. S. 43°, long. E. 

 171°). Singularly enough the new species has turned 

 up, almost at the antipodes, on the Great Bank of 

 Newfoundland; a specimen having been obtained 

 from the stomach of a halibut, caught at a depth of 

 eighty fathoms. The species has been re-described 

 by Goode and Bean, and referred to a peculiar genus 

 with the name Benthodesmus elongatus. It differs 

 from Lepidopus by the more slender body, more nu- 

 merous dorsal spines, etc. — (Proc. U. S. nat. 7mis., 

 Iv. 379. ) T. G. [276 



Sohedophilus medusophagus in Ireland. — A 

 specimen of this interesting fish, 9J inches long, was 

 caught in August, 1878, in a salmon-net at Portrush, 

 County Antrim, and has been recently described and 

 figured by Dr. Giinther. The illustration differs very 

 much from those previovisly published, but bears 

 internal evidence of being much more correct than 

 the others. No remarks have been made by Dr. 

 Giinther as to the affinities of the species, and hence 

 it is presumable that he still adheres to his classifica- 

 tion of the fish in the family Coryphaenidae. It, how- 

 ever, is evidently a stroniateid, and closely related to 

 the rudder-fish (Lirus or Palinurichthys perciformis) 

 of the United States, and like that species is a pelagic 

 form wnich merely visits the coast. — (Trans, zobl. 

 soc. London, xi. 223, pi. ) T. o. [277 



Delolepis, a n^w genus of Cryptaoanthidae. 

 — The family of Cryptacauthidae has been long con- 

 fined to a single genus of two species, or sub-species, 

 peculiar to the New-England fauna, but has recently 

 received a notable addition from the west coast of 



America. The new species has been detected at 

 Port Wrangel, Alaska, as well as at Kingcombe Inlet, 

 Brit. Col., and differs from the typical species by the 

 development of small cycloid imbricated scales. It 

 has been, therefore, distinguished by Dr. T. Bean as 

 a special generic form, under the name Delolepis vir- 

 gatus. — (Proc. U.S. nat. mus., lY. i65.) T. G. [278 



The Anguilla Kieneri of Giinther a Lycodes. 

 — Some years ago ichthyologists were startled by the 

 announcement, from Dr. Giinther, that ' the young of 

 Anguilla Kieneri, a species hitherto known from the 

 Mediterranean only,' had been found in the North 

 Atlantic at a depth of a hundred and eighty fathoms ; 

 and the specimen in question, inter alia, was even 

 adduced in evidence ' that fishes hitherto known from 

 more southern latitudes occur in the north Atlantic 

 at a moderate depth (of between eighty and two 

 hundred fathoms).' The fish thus identified has 

 been re-examined by Surgeon Francis Day, and 

 proves to have ventral fins, and not to belong to the 

 same order as the A. Kieneri: it is, in fact, a spe- 

 cies of Lycodes, a characteristic type of the northern 

 waters of moderate depths. — (Proc. zobl. soc. Land., 

 1882, 536.) T. G. [279 



Birds. 



Albinos. — Mr. Charles A. Townsend called at- 

 tention to a large number of albino specimens from 

 the ornithological collection of the academy, among 

 which the magpie and merganser had not, as far as 

 he was aware, been before observed in this condition. 

 The collection also included a kingbird, red-tailed 

 hawk, chewink, and red-head duck, all of rare occur- 

 rence in the albino state. Melanism had only been 

 observed by him in one specimen of a meadow-lark. — 

 (Acad. nat. sc. Philad.; meeting Feb. 13.) [280 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Laughter in lower animals. — In a discussion 

 upon specimens of the orang and chimpanzee, M. 

 Dally remarks that young negroes are gay and frolic- 

 some, but no one has ever seen a negro aged over 

 thirty or forty years show gayety, — in which respect 

 there is a strong resemblance between them and 

 the anthropoids, the latter being frolicsome in youth 

 and morose when adult. This statement is startling 

 to persons familiar with the negroes in America, who 

 at all ages are noticeably light-hearted and merry. 

 Nothing is more common here than the broad grin 

 and loud laughter of a white-headed and coal-black 

 negro. Indeed, the contrast between the inveterate 

 and irrational merriment of the blacks, and the pre- 

 vailing anxious, if not sad, expression of our adult 

 white population, would present an argument regard- 

 ing their relative inferiority in precise opposition to 

 that urged by M. Dally. — (Bull. soc. anthrop. Paris, 

 April-July, 1882.) j. w. P. [281 



Hero myths. — Dr. Daniel G. Brinton presents 

 another volume entitled " American hero-worship: a 

 study in the native religions of the western conti- 

 nent." In it he discusses certain myths of the Algon- 

 kian, Iroquoisian, Aztekan, Mayan, andother linguis- 

 tic families of North America. 



The purpose of this volume is, " to show that their 

 chief god was not identified with any objective natu- 

 ral process, but was humane in nature, benignant in 

 character, loved rather than feared, and that his wor- 

 ship carried with it the germs of the development 

 of benevolent emotions and sound ethical principles." 

 This he attempts to do by giving interpretations of 

 the myths in question. The gods are considered as 

 anthropomorphic heroes of light and darkness, and 

 the cardinal points of the compass. 



