189.;.] Zoology. 67 



characters, when at least three sorts of sugar are tested (with exclusion 

 of muscle sugar). (7) Not only must the formation of gas be deter- 

 mined but also the progress of the same, the total quantity, and the 

 quantity of C0 2 . (8) For the differentiation of species and varieties 

 it is of value to determine by titration the total amount of acid in 1 per 

 cent sugar bouillon, as well as the germicidal power of such cultures on 

 the bacteria themselves. (9) The division of bacteria into acid and 

 alkali producers must be given up and the conditions govering the pro- 

 duction of acid investigated more critically for each species. (10) The 

 existence of f-rmentable carbohydrates in the digestive tract and in the 

 fluids of the ho.lv is probably very favorable to the establishment and 

 multiplication of pathogenic bacteria (both facultative amerohic and 

 obligate, especially the latter). — Erwin F. Smith. 



Algal Parasite on Coffee.— Under the title Cephalenrus coffeoz, 

 eine neue parasitische Chroolepidee, Dr. F. A. F. C. Went describes in 

 Ccntrb.f. Bak. u. Par., Allg., Bd. I, No. 18-19, 1895, p. 681, an alga 

 which he has found attacking the Liberian coffee at Kagok-Tegal in 

 Java. This parasite appears on the leaves and berries in the form of 

 round orange-brown spots which look bristly to the naked eye. The 

 alga not only forms a thallus on the surface but sends its threads deep 

 into the intercellular spaces of the host. The presence of the parasite 

 in and on the leaf causes an interesting, protective hypertrophy of the 

 surrounding tissue, the further progress of the alga being soon limited 

 by a dense encircling mass of thick-walled, non-lacunose tissue, devel- 

 oped out of the palisade cells and spongy parenchyma of the leaf. No 

 algal threads were found in this tissue. The berry not being able to 

 defend itself in this way suffers most, becoming gradually brown and 

 finally black and wrinkling and drying prematurely, so that the seed 

 does not ripen. All parts of the alga are subject to the attacks of a 

 fungus, which also appears to be capable of growing in the berries apart 

 from the threads of the alga, but the relation of which to the latter and 

 to the causation of the disease is left by the author in a rather unsatis- 

 factory state. The paper is accompanied by a lithographic plate show- 

 ing details of the alga and sections of the normal and hypertrophied 

 tissue.— Erwin F. Smith. 



ZOOLOGY, 

 •ius. — Although the discovery of certain peculiar 

 rine dates so far back as 1859, but little is known 

 M. Barrois has been investigating the subject 



