i 
ZOOLOGY. 313 
of our canaries had a bad cold, her quick ear having detected a 
wheezing sound like that of a catarrh. It had continued already 
for several days. Being myself very unpleasantly affected by the 
odor of some flowers, I guessed the cause to be the contiguity 
of the hyacinths growing in glasses, and now filling the room 
with perfume. These flowers, which were close to the cage of 
the sick bird, were now taken from the room and the bird showed 
immediate relief, and in a day was well.—S. Locxwoop, Feb- 
ruary 14 
PHOSPHORESCENCE. — Professor Panceri, of the University of 
Naples, has just published a memoir on this highly interesting 
subject, in the fifth volume of the Atti della Reale Accademia delle 
Scienze fisiche e matematiche, 1871, under the title “Gli Organi 
luminosi e la Luce delle Pennatule.” It consists of two parts, one 
anatomical, the other physiological. He notes the existence of 
special organs which have the power and apparently the function 
of producing phosphorescent light, and finds that the light is only 
emitted by the polyps and the zooids, while the phosphorescent 
organs, as he terms them, consist of eight “cordoni luminosi,” 
which are attached to the outside of the stomach of the polyps 
and zooids, and are prolonged in each case as far as their mouth- 
papillæ. These threads (cordoni) are principally composed of a 
tissue built up of vesicles or cells and possessing all the Sapa 
of fat; albuminoid cells are likewise met with in it. This 
matter generates light, not only by the direct excitation of a 
polyps and the zooids themselves, but by excitation of the whole 
trunk of the Pennatula. In the latter case the author has made 
the remarkable discovery that the progress of the light developed 
in succession over the several parts of a polyp gave a striking 
indication of the direction, progress, and rapidity of the excitation 
applied to the Pennatula, and he has found these latter calculable, 
a fact of the greatest interest to physiologists. Professor Panceri 
further states that the phosphorescent substance produces light, 
after its removal from the body of the polyp, if subjected to 
mechanical treatment such as friction and compression, or the 
action of chemical agents, electricity or heat. And this is the 
case when the substance is extracted, not only from the living 
animal, but some short time after its death. The author, in 
earlier investigations of the phosphorescence of other fatty 
