72 General Notes. [ January, 
of eyes: simple ocellus, compound ocellus (larval insects), aggre- 
gate (Isopoda) and compound eye. A brief description of each 
is given. Discarding all previous theories of vision by compound 
eyes, it is held that “ a continuous picture, a mosaic of erect mag- 
nified central portions of the several subcorneal images, falls upon 
the retina.” Kraepelin (Ueber die geruchsorgane der Glie- 
derthiere), Osterprogram der Realschule des Johanneums, Ham- 
burg, 1883, gives an historical sketch of the olfactory organs of 
Arthropods, followed by a bibliographic list (59 numbers) grouped 
according to the languages in which the articles were written. 
He criticises the results of others, and compares them with his 
own observations on several crustacea, beetles, chrysopa, Orthop- 
tera, butterflies, flies and Hymenoptera (Psyche, 296). In the 
Annales des Sciences Naturelles (xvir, Nos. 5 et 6) is an interesting 
article by J. H. Fabre on the division of the sexes in the Hymenop- 
tera; it gives the results of many- years observations on the subject 
which we refer to more at length elsewhere. The Transactions 
of the American Entomological Society (xu, No. 2) contain sev- 
eral papers by Dr. Horn, viz: Descriptions of new North Ameri- 
can Scarabaeide; Contributions to the Coleopterology of the 
United States; Descriptions of new Cerambycide, with notes; 
Synopsis of the Throscide of the United States; while Mr. F. 
Blanchard discusses the species of Canthon and Phanzus of the 
United States, adding notes on other genera; and Mr. W. H 
Ashmead remarks on the cynipidous galls of Florida, giving 
descriptions of new species. 
ZOOLOGY. 
Livinc AND Deap Protoprasm—Dr. Oscar Loew read an 
important paper before the British Association on a chemical dif- 
ference between living and dead protoplasm. Protoplasm, it was 
found, contains certain aldehyde groups, which account for the 
extreme mobility and readiness of change in living protoplasm. 
These aldehyde groups can be reduced by alkaline silver solution. 
Spirogyra, one of the lower algz, acts on this solution in a pecu- 
liar way. Living protoplasm reduces the salt, while dead proto- 
plasm does not. e specific gravity of the protoplasm of Spyro- 
yra was increased, and was found to contain silver deposited in 
its interior. Argyria, or the effect of nitrate of silver on the 
human subject in certain diseases, was found in these alge. 
Thus was shown a specific chemical difference between living and 
dead protoplasm. Ordinary poisons, such as prussic acid and 
strychnine, seem to have no particular effect on lower organisms, 
while the poison irresistible by all protoplasm is hydroxylamyl. 
Professor Burdon-Sanderson said that this investigation had more 
‘importance than might at first appear, for it had arisen out of the 
epoch-making paper of Pfliger. Pfliiger concluded that there 
must be a chemical change in the transition from living to dead 
F} 
