S3 6 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Wanted Corals to Exchange. — The Museum of Comparative Zoology of 
Cambridge, United States, is prepared to furnish extensive collections of all 
the rocks and loose deposits found upon and about the keys and reefs of 
Florida, also complete collections of the corals, in fresh and well-preserved 
specimens, in exchange for recent and fossil corals from other parts of the 
world. 
The Australian Mud-Jish. — Mr. Gerard Krefft has communicated to the 
Zoological Society a description of a new and very remarkable animal, allied 
to Lepidosiren, recently discovered in the freshwaters of Queensland. Mr. 
Krefft considers, this animal to be an amphibian, and referred it to the genus 
Ceratodus of Agassiz, proposing to call it Ceratodus Forsteri, after Mr.Wm. 
Forster, its discoverer. The figure of the creature shows that it resembles 
the Lepidosiren very closely. 
Curious Malformations in Insects. — Mr. Henry Gillman, of Detroit, Mi- 
chigan, U.S., records some interesting results of observations conducted in 
the neighbourhood of the south shore of Lake Superior. — American Naturalist , 
March. They refer especially to the dragon-fly. In an individual he spe- 
cially observed, the skin had just been cast, and the wings, not having yet 
hardened, were quite soft and delicate to the touch. In one of the wings 
was a lump-like unexpanded portion reducing the size of the limb nearly 
one-half. The malformation was similar in each of the instances noticed by 
him, and was so serious as to prevent the flight of the insect, it invariably 
falling to the ground on being thrown into the air, and being quite unable 
to raise itself. A like deformity, with like results, he had previously found 
to be not uncommon in the Ephemera, which is produced in such countless 
multitudes in the lake region. The only wonder is that creatures so fragile 
that almost the touch of a finger injures them should be brought into 
existence in such myriads, generally unharmed and perfect. He saw two 
examples of a more singular case of malformation in the beautiful pale 
green moon-moth ( Actias luna). The wing was similarly dwarfed or con- 
tracted, a large portion towards the extremity being unexpanded and 
hardened. The colouring matter and fluids which should have passed 
down to perfect the development remained above in greenish blisters, pro- 
truding the skin of the wing on each side. On breaking this the contents 
escaped. By pressing those blisters it was possible to project the coloured 
fluid in any direction within the wing, the motions being quite perceptible 
in the increased brilliancy of colour of the parts where the fluid passed. 
j Rotation of the Embryos of the Frog. — In Ffluyer's Archiv (1870, Heft 2 
and 3) Herr Schenk describes the movements of the embryo in the ovum of 
the frog. The rotation which takes place from right to left requires from 
five to twelve minutes for its accomplishment. He states that it is entirely 
due to ciliary action — (1) because ciliary cells may be seen with the micro- 
scope, (2) because heat increases the rapidity of rotation, and (3) because 
acids arrest the movement. 
