SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
189 
then calcareous granules appear and multiply quickly, effacing all traces of 
the original constitution.’ None of these phenomena were presented by the 
Trichince observed by him. The ordinary course of experiment to decide 
whether the Trichince are really alive consists in heating the trichinized 
meat to 40° or 45° C. (104° or 113° F.), and then examining whether the 
encysted larvae show any signs of movement. If not, the meat is regarded 
as ^innocuous ; but M. Chatin holds that this conclusion must be accepted 
with reserve, seeing that the action of heat only reproduces one of the con- 
ditions necessary for the ulterior development of the parasites. His own 
test consisted in the administration of small quantities of trichinized salt 
pork to two guinea-pigs. On the fourth day diarrhoea set in, and rapidly 
increased; on the eighth day one of the animals died, and the other on the 
fifteenth day. Examination showed all the signs of acute enteritis ; and 
further, the intestine contained numerous adult, sexually mature Trichince. 
The females showed normally developed embryos, which were also met 
with free in the contents of the intestine. In the guinea-pig that survived 
till the fifteenth day, young Trichince had already got into the muscles, but 
had not yet become encysted. 
M. Bouley ( Comptes Rendus,7\h March, 1881) seems to think that there is 
little danger of the spread of trichinosis in France, and accounts for this 
supposed immunity by the fact that such provisions as might communicate 
the parasite are thoroughly cooked in that country, the Trichince not 
being able to survive exposure to a temperature of 70° C. (158° F.). In 
spite of such encouraging statements, the French public appear to prefer 
having their pork untrichinized, and M. Bouley himself has been appointed 
by the Government to organize a system of inspection at Havre. 
A Gigantic Japanese Cuttlefish . — M. Hilgendorf describes ( Sitzungsber . 
Gesellsch. Naturf. Freunde zu Berlin , 1880) a gigantic Cuttlefish, which was 
captured in the Japanese sea in 1873, and exhibited in Yedo for money as a 
curiosity. It did not attain the size of the specimens obtained some years 
ago off the coast of Newfoundland, some of which were estimated to exceed 
50 feet in total length, including the long tentacular arms, while indis- 
putable measurements of one specimen give the length of the body as 
9^ feet, and that of the long arms at 30 feet, making nearly 40 feet in all.* 
The Japanese Cuttlefish was, however, a sufficiently formidable animal; the 
length of its body (the head estimated) was about 7^ feet, and that of the 
longest arm preserved, 6J feet. The long tentacles had been cut off, but M. 
Hilgendorf estimates that when they were perfect, the total length of the 
animal must have been at least 20 feet. He was at first inclined to refer this 
Cuttlefish to the genus Ommastrephes, but, on further consideration, makes 
it the type of a new genus, and names it Megateutliis Martensii. The 
generic name is already preoccupied by Mr. Savill Kent’s Megcdoteuthis, 
proposed for one of the Newfoundland specimens, and it is a question 
whether the characters indicated by M. Hilgendorf are sufficient to separate 
the Japanese species generically from Architeuthis, Steenstr. Nevertheless the 
record of the occurrence of a gigantic squid in the Japanese seas is of interest. 
The Organs of Taste in Fishes. — M.E. Jourdan has presented some remarks 
upon this subject to the French Academy {Comptes Rendus, 21st March, 
1831). — Schulze nearly twenty years ago described certain cyathiform bodies 
* See some observations of Prof. Terrill’s, p. 190. 
