1879. | Scientific News. 599 
virginiana), born in the garden; 2 collared peccaries (Dicotyles 
torquatus), born in the garden; 1 common gannet (Sw/a bassana); 
I pine snake (Pityophis melanoleucus). ? 
— Phosphorescence appears in the flesh of marine animals 
along with a gelatinous substance which is formed. With the 
microscope (according to MM. Bancel and Husson) one finds two 
kinds of germs; at the surface-cells which no doubt produce this 
mucous fermentation, and in the mucus very small bacteria. The 
cells are thought to act like plants, decomposing carbonic acid of 
the air by day, fixing the carbon and liberating the oxygen in the 
liquid. By night they liberate carbonic acid, and the germ then 
lives and causes destruction of the matters round it , condensing 
cause the phosphorescence. The author considers the phospho- 
rescence ra the lobster due to a fermentation of the kind 
referred t 
iA of phosphorescence, M. Nuesch records in a recent 
regarding luminous bacteria in fresh meat. Some pork cutlets 
he found illuminated his kitchen so that he could read the time 
on his watch. The butcher who sent the meat told him the 
phosphorescence was first observed in a cellar where he kept 
scraps for making sausages. By degrees all his meat became 
phosphorescent, and fresh meat from distant towns got into the 
same state. On scratching the surface or wiping it vigorously, 
the phosphorescence -disappears for a time; and the butcher 
wiped carefully the meat he sent out. All parts of the animal, 
except the ea acquired the phenomenon over their whole sur- 
face. The meat must be fresh; when it ceases to be so, the 
Biore ceases, and Bacterium termo appear. None of 
the customers had been incommoded. It was remarked that if 
a small trace of the phosphorescent matter were put at any point 
on the flesh, of cats, rabbits, &c., the phosphorescence gradually 
spread out from the center, and in three or four days covered the 
piece ; it disappeared generally on the sixth or seventh day. 
Cooked meat did not present the phenomenon, but it could be 
had in a weak manner from cooked albumen or potatoes. No 
other butcher shop in the place was affected. The author is 
uncertain whether to attribute the complete disappearance of the 
phenomenon to the higher temperature of the season, 
phenic acid, or to fumigation with chlorine. ENIA Mechanic. 
— In “Notes on Pterygocera annarice,” by Carl Bovallius (Kel. 
Svenska Vet. Akademien Handlingar, Bd. 4, No. 8, 1878), we ha 
a very full account of this interesting form of Amphipod, a 
Which the author bases a new sub-family. The author also gives — 
