May 14, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



775 



a poorer variety of grape was fermented by 

 the aid of the ferment peculiar to a choicer 

 kind it became a wine having many of the 

 characteristic properties of the better kind ; a 

 solution of sugar and water, to which appro- 

 priate yeast food and then wine ferment was 

 added, was fermented and submitted to distilla- 

 tion ; the result resembled brandy. When ordi- 

 nary malt-wort is sterilized, and then, instead 

 of being fermented with the usual saccharomy- 

 ces cerevisise, or brewers' yeast, is fermented 

 with the saccharomyces ellipsoidcus, or fruit 

 yeast, the resulting liquid resembles a fruit wine, 

 and the liquid distilled therefrom a brandy. In 

 his recently patented process Sauer ferments a 

 sterilized malt- wort by a pure culture of a fer- 

 ment derived from the bloom of the sherry or 

 the Tokay grape, modifying the old process in 

 certain important details, and obtains wine 

 specimens of which were submitted to the 

 audience and pronounced to be scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable, if at all, from the genuine articles. 

 Dr. Kelly suggested that possibly the substitu- 

 tion of a properly selected grape or other wine 

 yeast for that now employed in the process of 

 bread making might be found to modify very 

 agreeably this article of daily consumption. 

 V. K. Chesnut, 



Secretary. 



ZOOLOGICAL CLUB, UNIVEESITY OF CHICAGO — 

 MEETING OF APRIL li, 1897. 



The results of a study of the marine fauna of 

 San Diego Bay, Cal., during January, February 

 and March of the current year were presented. 

 Specimens of most of the forms alluded to in 

 the lecture were exhibited, among others Re- 

 nilla amethystina, five new species of Polyclads, 

 specimens of the Annelids Phyllodoce, Polyoph- 

 thalmus and a huge Amphitrite, with its giant 

 commensal Polynoe, specimens of several Crus- 

 taceans (two species of Callianassa, Limnoria 

 terebrans, with wood showing its borings, Polli- 

 cipes polymerus and its egg masses, etc.). Sev- 

 eral species of Polyplacophora, Opisthobranchs 

 and specimens of Octopus punctatus were ex- 

 hibited. Special attention was devoted to the 

 Dicyemidse, collected from the kidneys of over 

 100 Octopus. It was shown that three species of 

 this peculiar group of parasites may be recog- 



nized on the Pacific coast, each belonging to a 

 different genus and all new to science. There 

 is a species of Dicyema to which the name D. 

 coluber may be given and which, like its 

 European congeners, has four metapolar cells 

 in its calotte. A species of Professor Whitman' 

 genus Dicyemennea and named D. Whitmanii 

 has five metapolars. The third species belongs 

 to a new genus which will be called Dicyemodeca 

 (D. sceptrum, n. sp.). It has six metapolars an 

 the parapolars are very short and broad, clasp- 

 ing the bases of the inflated metapolars like a 

 collar. All the Pacific Dicyemidse observed have 

 orthotropal calottes. Some new facts concerning 

 the sequence of the two peculiar forms of embryo 

 during the life of the parent Dicyema were pre- 

 sented. In its youth Dicyema produces only 

 the so-called vermiform embryos, but later only 

 infusoriform embryos are developed within the 

 axial cell. This is the reverse of the sequence 

 formerly advocated by Professor Whitman, and 

 would seem to indicate a relationship of the 

 Dicyemidae to certain Plathelminths; the series 

 of vermiform embryos being perhaps compara- 

 ble to the sporocyst and redia generations, the 

 infusoriform embryo to the cercarian stage of 

 the Trematodes. According to this view the 

 adult of Dicyema is still to be found. 



Of the Chordata several forms were exhibited 

 — specimens of a huge red Cynthia and masses 

 of Ciona intestinalis from the piles at Coronado, 

 also several specimens of Branchiostoma (Amphi- 

 oxus) elongatum (one measuring 90 mm.), dredged 

 near the entrance to San Diego Bay. Consid- 

 erable attention was paid to the viviparous 

 Teleosts, more than forty species of which 

 (Scorpaenidse and Embiotocidse) occur at San 

 Diego. These are all shore fishes and have 

 become viviparous in adaptation to their littoral 

 habitat. If the eggs were laid loosely in the 

 water and allowed to float like the pelagic fish 

 eggs they would readily drift ashore and perish; 

 if attached to the rocks or bottom they would 

 easily be destroyed by predaceous members of 

 the very rich littoral fauna, unless guarded 

 by the parent fish, as in the case of Porichthys, 

 or hidden away under stones, as in the case 

 of some of the Pacific shore fishes. When 

 it is remembered that many of the viviparous 

 Teleosts (especially the Embiotocidae) live in 



