EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS, 
429 
from the light. On calling him to come near he appeared to be ashamed. He 
evinced an extreme sensibility to the stimulus of light, from which he almost 
constantly kept his eyes guarded by shading them with his hands. He told me 
he could see better than his neighbours in imperfect darkness, and best by moon¬ 
light, like the “ moon-eyed” albinos of the Isthmus of Darien. He is morbidly 
sensitive to heat: for this reason, and on account of the superstitious respect 
with which the Malays regard him, he is seldom employed by his friends in 
outdoor labour, although by no means deficient in physical strength. The 
credulous Malays imagine that the Genii have some furtive share in the produc¬ 
tion of such curiosities, though this they tell as a great secret. To this day the 
tomb of his grandfather, who was also an albino, is held sacred by the natives, 
and vows ( niyats ) are made at it. Both his parents were of the usual colour. His 
sister is an albino like himself. Albinos, I believe, are not common on the 
peninsula, nor are there any tribes of them, as according to Voltaire, existing in 
the midst of Africa. In the only two instances I recollect observing, the eyes 
were, in both, of a very light blue; the cuticle roughish and of a rosy blush, very 
different from that of the two African albinos seen and described by Voltaire, 
and quoted by Lawrence.— Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 
BOTANY. 
6. On Vegetable Acids. —It is very probable that the acid of Turnips, 
Cucumbers, &c., is simply acetic acid. Many other plants exist in which parti¬ 
cular acids have been discovered, the composition of which is unknown; but it 
may be affirmed, with much probability, that, if all those acids were carefully 
examined, they would be reduced to a very small number. M. Liebig, in his 
Annal. der Pharm ., for Nov. 1837, recommends naturalists to examine this 
subject; reminding them that the acid of fruits changes after their arrival at 
maturity; that, for example, the fruit of the Mountain-ash contains, during the 
first month, tartaric acid; later, tartaric and citric acid; and, finally, malic acid 
only.— Bibliotheqne Universelle de Geneve. 
GEOLOGY. 
7. Fossil Salamander. —M. Paravey has written to the French Academy ot 
Sciences, that a fossil Salamander, in the collection of Prof. Van Breda, at 
Leyden, about three feet long, contains, in the part corresponding with the 
abdomen, the fragments of Frogs, Eels, &c., thereby affording a proof that ante¬ 
diluvian species fed upon the same substance as the Salamanders of our times. 
A large Salamander brought by M. Siebold, from Japan, still lives in the 
museum at Leyden, and is principally fed with Frogs. The above-mentioned 
traveller brought the male and female into Europe, but the latter was devoured 
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VOL. III.—NO. XXIII. 
