410 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 144. 



pin. This pin passes through the body at or near the 

 second abdominal segment, being very close to the 

 ventral surface. 



Microscopical society. New York. 



Oct. 2. — G. F. Kunz stated (Jewellers'' circular) that 

 a necklace was being made by Messrs. Tiffany & Co. 

 of petrified eyes, and that three workmen who were 

 engaged on the necklace had been made suddenly ill, 

 and refused to resume work on such dangerous 

 material. The so-called mummies' eyes are well 

 known, and are, without question, the crystalline 

 lenses of the eyes of a species of cuttlefish (squid). 

 Some of the lenses from the eyes of these cuttlefish 

 measure only 5 mm., bat the majority of them are 

 12ram, in diameter, and some as much as 18mm. 

 The color, really only the result of age, is a dark 

 amber yellow, or golden bronze, externally on the 

 convex side. In all cases they are nearly opaque, 

 and have the appearance of an onion-skin or any 

 other sack like concretion. On the flat side, how- 

 ever, the color is much lighter, and a little play of 

 light is noticeable. The surface is rough, as if an 

 exudation had hardened on it. The structure of the 

 lenses is like that of a peerl, — an aggregation of suc- 

 cessive enveloping layers, which are marked on the 

 surface by sets of concentric rings. It is also plain, 

 from these rings, that the lenses are sections, consti- 

 tuting only about one half of the original lenses of 

 the fish, the intention undoubtedly being to produce 

 additional luminous effect by this series of hemispheri- 

 cal reflectors. The crystalline lens of a human eye 

 would not be so large as even the medium-sized 

 lens exhibited, and is so exceedingly delicate that it 

 can only be preserved at all by the greatest care. In 

 many fishes, and especially the cuttlefish (squid), the 

 lens of the eye contains so much solid matter that it 

 will dry up in a short time, and with very little con- 

 traction, into a hard, transparent mass, which would 

 probably be durable. On the contrary, Prof. Eai- 

 mondi, the ethnologist of Peru, believes these eyes to 

 be human, and Dr. Tschudi of Vienna is said to 

 support him in this theory. The region where these 

 mummy eyes are found is rainless, and the mummies 

 were dried in a sitting posture on the salty sand or 

 the nitre beds, often thousands of them at one place. 

 This being the case, they must have been exposed to 

 the public gaze, and the embalmers would naturally 

 wish to make the appearance of the dead as attractive 

 as possible. Hence it is probable that the cuttlefish 

 eyes, which were inserted into the empty sockets, 

 were cut into two nearly equal parts, in order to 

 obtain greater lustre, and give a natural brightness 

 to the eyes of their dead. The three workmen who 

 were engaged in polishing these eyes were all affected 

 soon after working on them. The sawing and polish- 

 ing were done at different times, and in each case 

 the same result followed, so that the workmen are 

 confident that their illness was caused by the in- 

 halation of dust during the sawing. The youngest, 

 a boy of sixteen, was taken sick after working only 

 a few hours. His illness consisted of headache, bil- 

 iousness, and vomiting, and lasted for one day. An- 

 other workman, a strong, hearty Frenchman, about 

 forty-five years of age, and weighing nearly 200 

 pounds, reported that he was taken sick with nausea, 

 sick headache and vomiting, and noticed a disagree- 

 able metallic taste in his mouth during his entire 

 illness, which lasted four days. The other, a Ger- 



man lapidary, about forty years of age, was affected 

 shortly after working at the eyes with an eruption of 

 pimples over his entire body, and when any of the 

 affected parts were rubbed, a swelling immediately 

 arose. This rash was perceptible for over a month. 

 From the fact that these three cases occurred in one 

 workshop, and soon after work was commenced on 

 the eyes, the men very naturally reasoned that the 

 eyes were the cause of their sickness, and expressed 

 a desire not to resume work on them. In response 

 to inquiry, Professor Baird writes that he never heard 

 that poisonous qualities were inherent in the eyes. 

 If they are really poisonous, it surely cannot be 

 from any preparation used to preserve them, for no 

 preservative was necessary, as would have been the 

 case if they were human eyes. It has been observed, 

 however, that, in this case, certain alkaloids may be 

 generated by the decomposition of the organic con- 

 stituents of the eyes. The United States survey 

 chemists are examining the lenses, to see what al- 

 kaloids, if any, are present. As ornaments these 

 eyes are truly beautiful when the exudation on the 

 cut surface has been removed, and they are finely 

 polished. They vary in color from a light yellowish 

 amber tint to a dark yellow, yellowish brown, or rich 

 amber brown, similar to that from Catania, Sicily. 

 In some cases the colors are found in alternated 

 bands, as in the Mexican fire opals from Querertera. 

 Although the reflections lack the play of colors found 

 in the opal, the tints are warmer and more pleasing. 

 The lustre on the uncut rounded sides is pearly. 

 With a proper gold mounting these eyes would give 

 a very beautiful effect in jewelry, although moisture 

 would be likely to injure the polish. 



Calendar of Societies. 



Biological society, Washington. 



Oct. 31. — Col. Marshall McDonald, Fish-culture a 

 necessity for^the maintenance of the shad fishery ; Mr. 

 Wm. H. Dall, Deep-sea mollusks and the laws illus- 

 trated in their development ; Mr. Richard Rathbun, 

 Remarks on the Wood's Roll station of the U. S. fish 

 commission ; Mr. Romyn Hitchcock, Notes on red 

 snow, with exhibition of specimens. 



Engineers' club, Philadelphia. 



Oct. 17. — Mr. P. F. Brendlinger, A novel and cheap 

 cement testing machine ; Mr. John T. Boyd, The 

 ' Coventry ' locomotive boiler ; Mr. Walter C. Brooke, 

 Appliances for landing mine cars at the top of slope ; 

 Mr. A. Marichal, An instrument for at once describing 

 arcs, of any radii from a few inches to infinity, and 

 for determining the radii of arcs already drawn. 



Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia. 



Oct 27. — Carl H. Eigenman, A review of the 

 American gasterostiedse ; Carl H. Eigenman and 

 Morton W. Fordice, A catalogue of the fishes of Bean 

 Blossom Creek, Monroe co., Indiana; B. W. Everman 

 and Morton W. Fordice, List of fishes collected in 

 Harvey and Cowley counties, Kansas ; B. W. Ever- 

 man and Seth E. Meek, A revision of the American 

 species of the genus Gerres; Seth E. Meek and Robert 

 Newland, A review of the American species of the 

 genus Scorpaena. 



