148 



NATUKAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



PENIKESE — A Reminiscence. 



By One of its Pupils. 



Copyright secured 189? . 

 were nocturnal in their habits, and committed exten- 

 sive injury to gardens, which they are fond of inhabit- 

 ing; that slugs do not hibernate, though they become 

 torpid. 



This, however, formed but a small portion of a 

 single lecture: yet is there not here, even, abundance 

 of food for thought and incentive to search still furth- 

 er into the mysteries of Nature? 



Professor Morse is, evidently, an ardent evolution- 

 ist; yet in spite of his natural inclination to protract 

 his lectures into some abstruse features of evolution, 

 or of Darwinianism, there is always much valuable in- 

 formation in them that is carefully noted and remem- 

 bered by every person present. Sometimes he tells 

 us about that most wonderfully curious appendage of 

 the bivalves or lamellibranchs, the crystalline style, 

 and of how it has no attachment to the body, — this 

 leads to an investigation, and our discoveries are 

 marvelous. 



One of his talks is devoted to pearls, and we learn 

 that pearls are formed by the retention by the mantle 

 of foreign particles, the irritation of which causes a 

 pouring out of the secretions of its body substances — 

 thus pearls grow. But while we are jotting this down, 

 we hear the equally surprising fact that, though with 

 the majority of shells both sexes are combined in the 

 same animal, with the Unios, or fresh-water bivalve 

 shells, the sexes are distinct and comprised in differ- 

 ent individuals; — but he failed to tell us how gener- 

 ally, or in what special families, this bisexual arrang- 

 ment exists throughout the molluscous kingdom — 

 this, then, would be a capital point for investigation 

 for some enthusiastic naturalist or specialist in this 

 department, for I do not believe that it has ever been 

 fully or accurately determined. 



At still another time we learn that the shell itself 

 does not obtain its color from the color of the food 

 which the animal eats, as many formerly supposed. 

 Of many samples given, the Professor laid particular 

 emphasis upon that of the fnunera, which eat green 

 food and yet had a red shell. It is with such inform- 

 ation as has been given above that we fill our note 

 books and our heads, — we cannot take down all that 

 he tells us, much as we would like to do so; there 

 might be a few favored individuals present to whom 

 the mysteries of shorthand or takegraphy would re- 

 ward their possessors with all the words and ideas of 

 our Professor; but we an editorial we, applying to 

 nearly everyone of us in the room, are not so far ad- 

 vanced in this peculiar branch of education but that 

 our notes embrace but a small part of the hour's dis- 

 course, no matter how diligently we may struggle 

 with pen and pencil and abbreviated English. You 

 will doubtless smile as you read a page of my origin- 

 al notes — corrected simply as to its language: 



"There is no muscular movement in the opening 

 of the valves of a bivalve shell, but simply in _ its 

 closing; in the one case the ligaments, contracting, 

 push the shell open, in the other it pulls it from the 

 inside. Lines of growth upon a shell indicate its 

 age. The muscles of the margin of a bivalve shell 

 are to enable the animal to draw in its mantle. To 

 preserve molluscs, first kill the animals by immersing 

 salt-water species in fresh water and vice versa, and 

 then place in alcohol. In dissecting such animals, 

 dissect under water, or water in which a small quan- 

 tity only of alcohol has been put; if intervals occur 

 during the work, replace the specimen in alcohol. 



What is ciliary motion? Ciliary motion ten foot 

 square would exert a force equal to ten tons. It is 

 ciliary motion that induces a current, and brings the 

 food within reach of the palpi (or small feelers, as 

 they are sometimes called), which act freely at a 

 short distance only from the mouth; these feelers se- 

 cure the food, mould it into pellets, and convey it to 

 the mouth. " 



At this point, in. one 'of our lectures, sometime yet 

 before the close, of theihour, one of the men brought 

 in a huge skate fish and lay it upon our table. All 

 exercises were postponed, in perfect good nature, 

 while Professor Putnam explained to us the differ- 

 ence between it andj>an immense sand-shark, over 

 which one of the scholars was just then working. He 

 told us, that the sharp tubercles of the skate were 

 identical with the small, rough ones of the shark;that 

 the skate was higher in its position in the class than 

 the shark, as its embryo passes through the form of 

 shark before becoming an adult skate; that if one 

 were to flatten a shark they would obtain the general 

 appearance, in form, of the skate; a fish having spir- 

 acles, indicates that it lives near the bottom of the 

 water; that neither the shark nor the skate possessed 

 scales, and were, therefore, of a different order from 

 that of the majority of fishes; and that the character 

 and structure of the scales of fishes determined, to a 

 large extent, the relative position not only of whole 

 groups of fishes, but even of many individuals in each 

 group. 



Later, in the same day, Professor Packard added 

 largely to our stock of information. Many of us had 

 sought to study up the subject of Animalculae, in fact 

 all of us were more or less interested in it; and forth- 

 with, jars, bottles, and dishes of various sorts were 

 filled with water, and large quantities of the very best 

 material that could be obtained, for breeding and 

 keeping them. Our hitherto rusty microscopes now 

 fairly gleamed, in expectation of the marvels soon to 

 be laid open, through them, to our wondering gaze. 

 Professor Packard knew all about such things. He 

 told us to "search in fresh water, rain water, water 

 abounding in mosses, and marine pools for our sub- 

 jects of study and investigation." Somebody brought 

 in to us specimens of worms and small parasitic crus- 

 taceans, — and of where and how to find others and 

 how to preserve them, he told us: "You will find 

 them in dissecting fishes and reptiles, in nearly every 

 portion of the body and in the viscera; tape and sun- 

 dry specimens of minute worms and flukes are found 

 in the body. Place them at first in weak and then 

 transfer them to strong alcohol. A species of round 

 worm inhabits the flesh and muscles of certain fishes. 

 With the more common species of salt water worms, 

 allow them first to die in fresh water, and then pre- 

 serve like the others. One species floats upon the 

 surface of the ocean, when it is calm. The best 

 time to collect such specimens is from sunset to nine 

 or ten o'clock at night," etc. But it is quite impos- 

 sible to put upon paper all the notes which we col- 

 lect for our note books; yet we hunt everywhere, — 

 we fill bottles and jars, and our tables, shelves, and 

 the floor, even, is filled with them: specimens, speci- 

 mens, specimens, everywhere. Our professors lec- 

 ture to us of nothing else; our time is spent in secur- 

 ing and dissecting them,- — yet the more we learn the 

 more there seems to be to learn about them. 



(To be continued.) 



