554 
gested, — one, represented by the Mastodon ohioticus, 
being characterized, by the absence of inferior incis- 
ors; and the other, to which might be referred the 
genus Tetracaulodon, having these teeth, 
March 27.— Dr. Joseph Leidy called attention to a 
specimen of a lizard, apparently Eumeces chalcides, 
which is remarkable for the small size of its linibs, 
They are, indeed, so small as to be almost invisible, 
thus giving the creature the appearance of a little 
snake; yet each limb has five well-developed toes. 
The specimen was from Petchaburi, Siam, where the 
natives regard it as a snake, and, as is common in 
such cases, consider it venomous. 
April 1.—Dr. Joseph Leidy called attention to a 
mass composed of the tubes of Serpula dianthus from 
Barnegat Bay. The accumulation of the material is so 
great as to almost form a reef extending out from the 
bay. The locality is a famous one for sheep’s-head- 
fishing, the fishes probably finding their food-supply 
in the worms. It was suggested that other marine 
animals may congregate there for the same reason, 
so that the locality is probably one specially worthy 
of the attention of zoological students. —— Referring 
to some observations of Kerner respecting the thaw- 
ing-out of chambers in ice by living plants in the 
Alps of Europe, Mr. T. Meehan confirmed them by 
some observations made during the last winter on 
Eranthis hyemalis. At the end of January the plant 
was in flower after a few warm days, when a driving 
snow-storm prostrated the little stems, and covered 
them nearly a foot deep, in which condition they re- 
mained till early in March. After they had been 
three weeks in this condition, the snow was carefully 
removed, when it was found that the stems had be- 
come perfectly erect, a little chamber in the snow 
having been thawed out about each flower-stem. 
There was, however, no other evidence of growth. 
The few buds which were unopened when the snow 
came, were still unopened when the snow thawed 
away, after five weeks imprisonment; and the idea 
conveyed was, that plants would retain life without 
growth for an indefinite time, when under a low tem- 
perature, such as a covering of ice or snow afforded. 
April 15.—Dr. Charles S. Dolley of Johns Hop- 
kins university spoke of a form of so-called paren- 
chymatous or interstitial digestion described by 
Korotneff as occurring in Salpa and Anchinia. It 
had been asserted that a large amoeboid cell existing 
in the intestines of these animals takes up the nutri- 
tive particles and passes them on into the tissues, and 
that in other related forms a plasmodium performs 
the same function. Dr. Dolley had observed the ap- 
pearance in the intestines of Salpa, which had been 
described by the Russian author, but he would sug- 
gest an entirely different interpretation thereof. In 
Salpa we find a large branchial sac, representing the 
true pharynx, at the posterior portion of which is 
the stomach. The endostyle, or thickened bottom 
of a fold or groove of the branchial sac, throws out 
a supply of mucus, which covers the surface like a 
curtain, and in which nutritive particles finding their 
way into the animal are embedded. The food is car- 
ried back by cilia, and the mucous sheet is wound up 
SCIENCE. 
[Vou IIL, No. 65 
into a thread, which can, be traced into the oesopha- 
gus, and from there to the stomach. In Dr. Dolley’s 
opinion, this mucous exudation is the amoeboid cell 
described by other observers, it having been found 
laden with nutriment in some three thousand sections 
of Salpa. When food is not present, the appear- 
ance indicated cannot be observed. —— Dr. N. A, 
Randolph described a test for the presence of small 
quantities of peptone in solution. If the acid nitrate 
of mercury (Millon’s reagent) be added to a cold 
aqueous solution of potassium iodide, a red precipitate 
of mercuric iodide always appears. When, however, 
either peptone or the biliary salts are present in note- 
worthy amount, the precipitate of nascent mercuric 
iodide assumes the yellow phase. In order to render 
the test sensitive to the presence of minute quanti- 
ties of the substances in question, he had found it 
necessary to limit the amount of potassium iodide 
employed. ‘Thus, to each five cubic centimetres of 
suspected fluid, which must be cold and either neu- 
tral or faintly acid, are added two drops of a satu- 
rated solution of potassium iodide, the two liquids 
being well mixed. Four or five drops of Millon’s re- 
agent are now added, and the contents of the vessel 
well stirred or shaken. Under these circumstances, 
the presence of peptone in amounts of less than one 
part in five thousand is readily shown. By the ex- 
ercise of great care in the performance of the test, he 
had been able to demonstrate the presence of peptone 
in a solution containing but one part of that body in 
seventeen thousand parts of water. 
interfering with this reaction are, alkalinity of the 
fluid examined; heat, which has the same influence 
upon the nascent mercuric iodide as have peptone 
and the biliary salts; and the presence of certain 
compounds, as potassium ferro-cyanide, which pre- 
vent the production of the mercuric iodide. The re- 
action described presents certain advantages from the 
fact that it is uninfluenced by the bodies usually 
found in the various organic fluids, although useless 
as an isolated test, inasmuch as it responds to two 
entirely different compounds, peptone and the biliary 
salts. —— Mr. Meehan referred to his former commu- 
nications on the subject of the relation of heat to the 
sexes of flowers. He exhibited catkins and flowers 
of the European hazel (Corylus avellana) just ma- 
tured, and which, for the first time in several years 
past, had perfected themselves contemporaneously. 
The past winter had been distinguished by a uniform 
low temperature the entire season. In other years a 
few warm days in winter would advance the male 
flowers so that they would mature weeks before the 
female flowers opened: hence the females were gen- 
erally unfertilized, and there were few or no nuts, 
Under this law, it was evident, amentaceous plants 
could not abound to any great extent in countries — 
or in localities favorable to bringing forward the male 
flowers before there was steady warmth enough to — 
He thought this was likely to 
be the reason why so many coniferous trees under 
advance the female. 
culture in the vicinity of Philadelphia bore scarcely 
any fertile seed in their cones, —a fact which had 
often been remarked in connection especially with 
rs 7 
The conditions - 
