THE MOVEMENT OF CHLOROPHYL GRAINS. Dr. B. Frank contributes to some late numbers of the Botanische Zeitung the newest observations on this subject. He confirms the statement of Famintzin and Borodon as to the motion observed in the grains of chlorophyl in the leaves of plants under the action of light, and identifies it with the movement of the protoplasm previously observed by Sachs. The protoplasm alone, he believes, possesses this power of motion, and carries the grains of chlorophyl along with it. It takes place not only in direct sunshine, but also under the diffused light of the sky. Colored rays, as blue and red, also produce decided though less energetic action. EOZOON NOT OF ORGANIC CHARACTER. In a late communication to Nature Mr. John B. Perry, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, ranges himself among the number of those who oppose the theory of the organic origin of the Eozoon canadense, as maintained by Dr. William B. Carpenter, Dr. Dawson, of Montreal, etc. In reference to the so-called eozoon limestone in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Mr. Perry states that this is not a sedimentary rock, but that it occupied pockets or oven-shaped cavities once plainly overarched by gneiss; and that it is foliated, there being a regular succession of leaf-like layers from the walls toward the centres of the cavities, witness to which is borne by a like succession of different minerals; that in some places it ramifies through the surrounding rock in a vein-like way, while in others it exactly conforms with the most abrupt irregularities of the surface; that in one locality which he had repeatedly examined it conforms with the uneven portions of a mass of syenite, with which it is so associated as to reveal its more recent origin; and that, therefore, it is not of nummulitic derivation, but was deposited in a vein-like form, the materials having been probably forced up into the cavities from below while in a vaporous state. BRYOZOA AND PARASITIC CRUSTACEA. Professor Claparède has lately made some interesting communications to the "Society of Physics," of Geneva, upon certain marine invertebrates. One of these has reference to the Bryozoa, a group of animals found both in freshwater and salt, and resembling polyps in living in associations, and in the formation of hard polypidoms, but which are distinguished from them in their external characters, and especially in the absence of any radiated structure. He has investigated this group with special reference to the relations which exist between the different individuals of the same association-relations of nutrition by the intermediation of pores which permit the passage of the nutritious liquid from one individual to another, and the nervous relationships established by a colonial nervous system, as already pointed out some years ago by Mr. Fritz Miller. On different points of the group of individuals there are frequently found fixed bodies called Avicularia, which M. Claparède considers as rudimentary individuals, their object appearing to be that of attracting and retaining the animalcules which serve as food to the Bryozoa. All the individuals of any one colony are not active, some of them, indeed, seeming as if dead, and actually having been so considered. This, however, is an error, these individuals, although having lost most of their organs, yet preserving the branches of the colonial nervous system, and continuing to live at the expense of the juices elaborated by the active members of the society. M. Claparède has shown the mode of retrogressive metamorphosis of these animals, which retrace their steps over the same route of development which they had traversed in their first growth. In a second paper upon parasitic crustaceans of the annelids M. Claparède shows that of eleven species hitherto known, all belong to the order of copepods, although constituting eight or nine genera, divided into very different families. Among these copepods some are free, and others are parasitic; in others the female sex is completely parasitic, the males being free; while, again, the male, very much reduced in volume, lives as a parasite upon its female, which itself is a parasite of some other animal. M. Claparède, in the critical study of the annelids collected by the British deep-sea expeditions-some of them taken at a depth of 650 fathoms-has shown that these animals are very largely the same, generically, with the kinds found nearer the surface of the sea, and even along the shores. Contrary to the opinion of M. Quaterfages, he has ascertained that lumbricoid worms are very common at great depths, and that this group consequently contains species indubitably marine. RARE ECHINUS. In an appendix to a report published by the Museum of Comparative Zoology on the echini collected by Pourtalès, mention is made by Mr. Alexander Agassiz of an interesting species of this group, obtained during the Coast Survey exploration of the Gulf Stream in 1868 and 1869. This, at the time the preliminary report was written, could not be identified by Mr. Agassiz, but he has since then been able to ascertain that they belong to a genus named Keroiaphorus, the type of which had been drawn up on a fishing line from a depth of about 700 feet. It is peculiar on account of its long curved spines, which resemble the antennæ of a certain family of beetles. METHOD OF PREPARING FRUIT SIRUPS. Some rules for preparing fruit sirups given by a German expert are perhaps worth a trial by our readers. To have fruit juices fit for preservation it is necessary, in the first place, to select fully ripe and undecayed fruit; and after mashing the fruit it should receive an addition of five to ten per cent. of sugar, and then be left to undergo a slight fermentation. Pectine is precipitated in consequence of the production of alcohol, and the juice, after filtration, becomes perfectly clear, and is much improved in flavor and color. Raspberries, whortleberries, currants, cherries, etc., may be thus treated, but the delicate flavor of the strawberry requires some modification of the process. In this two pounds of carefully picked strawberries (the wild strawberry of the woods is the best) are put into a glass jar with two and a half pounds of white powdered sugar, and occasionally shaken. The sugar extracts the juice, and the berries shrivel to a dry pulp, and, after filtering, the sirup is A 79OTOGRAPHY. sei sauca puper-recom* N° 1 Ung potographs by → Pay soaking 300 AMA ITIVI Mays in an equal weight là Carter; and aft plari to se e da quart of the liquid 1:22པ་ VADIM If potassium, forty-five 1 SATA A KESstan and coe and a cuz i trimae of betisstem are to be 1. HNL THE Esscired, the whole boilLC 19 MINNES, alowed to stand for a day, Sad De Dunei and Etered through linea. ang u "rary sheets of the paper are imBOSS JI 28 i tal as a time, or can be floated a be them or twenty minutes, and then ning in a dy a a dark room. Should the paper sssume a ises, ecice it will be of no consequence, SIMON DIS DIE WE disappear in the silver bath. The has to be prepared in the proportion of 1m 15, and for every ounce of nitrate of silver ANKYOU BILPRv ani ily a sixty grains of citric acid are to be add ed. The developer is made of fifty grains of pyrogallic acid and eighty grains of citric acid in thirty ounces of water. The time of exposure varies from ten seconds to twenty-five minutes, according to the picture to be copied and the actinic force of the light. LÜTKEN ON GANOID FISHES. Dr. C. Lütken, in a paper on the limits and classification of the ganoid fishes, published in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, as translated by Mr. Dallas, discusses at considerable length the true affinities of this remarkable group of fishes, of which, as is well known, the gar-fish, or gar-pike, of America and the Polypterus of Africa are types, constituting living representatives of a form which, in the earlier geological periods, was the predominant one. rine crustacea; but this salt appears to be the only one necessary; fourth, the smaller individuals, and those which, having just moulted, have the integuments delicate, present less resistance than the others to the influence of liquids of exceptional composition; fifth, the difference between the densities of sea water and fresh-water can not be regarded as the cause of the death of marine crustacea in fresh-water. As a general conclusion, applicable to both groups, Professor Plateau states that the idea of endosmose enables us to explain the absorption of salts by the delicate skin or the branchial surfaces of fresh-water articulates when immersed in sea water. The fact that diffusion and dialysis take place with more energy in the case of the chlorides of sodium and magnesium than in that of sulphate of magnesia explains why it is that the chlorides of sea water are alone absorbed. Dialysis explains why marine crustacea, when placed in fresh-water, lose the salts with which they were impregnated. The conclusion to which Dr. Lütken arrives, in answer to the question "What is a ganoid?" is as follows: Every fish (abdominal, malacopterygian, physostome) with osseous scales, articulated (as in the lepidostei) or interlocked (in the manner of the pycnodonts), or with gular plates in place of the branchiostegal rays, and with the paired fins fringed and scaly (as in the polypteri), or which combine several of these characters, should be classed among the ganoids.rious seeds without accompanying irrigation; TREE-PLANTING ON THE PRAIRIES. M. R. S. Elliott, industrial agent of the Kansas Pacific Railway, has lately been experimenting upon the cultivation, upon the plains, of va the principal trials having been made at three stations along the railroad: the first, Wilson, being 239 miles west of the State line, and 1586 feet above the sea level; the second, Ellis, 302 miles west, and of 3019 feet elevation; and the third, Pond Creek, 422 miles west, and 3175 feet in altitude. Trials were made in these experiments of winter grains, as wheat, barley, and rye; of spring grains, as wheat and oats; of various grasses; of tree seeds, such as ailanthus, chestnut, piñon, elm, etc.; and of various fruit The conclusions arrived at from these in Also that Professor Plateau has lately prosecuted some investigations as to the effect of placing freshwater articulates in salt-water, and salt-water articulates in fresh, the observations having been directed more particularly to the crustaceans. Among the conclusions arrived at are, that sea water has but a slight influence upon the aquatic coleoptera and hemiptera in the perfect state, but that it produces injurious effects upon fresh-trees. water articulates with a delicate skin, or fur-vestigations were, that Lucerne and other valunished with branchiæ. Among crustaceans able forage plants, winter and spring grains, and some species of Gammarus and Asellus resist the trees, may be grown on the plains from seed, action of sea water for several hours, while oth- without irrigation, as far west as the 100th meers perish in a few minutes. The fresh-water ridian, and perhaps even further. articulates that can live with impunity in sea trees may be grown from seeds, cuttings, and water are those in which no absorption of salt young plants, for timber or for fruit, in all parts takes place by the skin; those which die in it of the plains between the Platte and the Arkanin a comparatively short time having absorbed sas rivers; and finally, that the growth of living chlorides of sodium and magnesium, which the storm-shields along the line of the Kansas Paexperimenter found to be the most injurious cific Railway, and of timber for the uses of the salts, the sulphates having no special effect. road, is only a matter of effort and time. When the fresh-water articulates pass, by a slow transition, from fresh to sea water, and repro- INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOLISM ON THE SIGHT. duction has taken place during this transition, In a paper read before the Académie de Médethe new generation resist the action of the sea cine, some interesting remarks were presented water longer than the ordinary individuals of the by Mr. Galezowski upon the influence of alcospecies. holism on the sight. Cases of this form of amIn the investigations upon the marine crusta- blyopia were frequently brought on during the cea of the Belgian coast the conclusions arrived siege of Paris, as the author believed, by drinkat were, first, that the commonest species die in ing alcoholic liquids in the morning on an empty fresh-water after the lapse of a variable time, stomach. The characteristic symptoms are a which, however, does not exceed nine hours; somewhat sudden enfeebling of the sight, which, second, that the marine crustacea, when im- however, then remains for several weeks withmersed in fresh-water, give up to this the salts, out any sensible change; the acuteness of vision especially the chloride of sodium, with which is sensibly diminished, and that of distant obtheir tissues were impregnated. The converse jects, especially, is much lessened, the face of a of this observation was also true, that the fresh-person not being recognizable at some paces' water articulates immersed in sea water absorb these salts; third, that in most cases the presence of chloride of sodium forms one of the indispensable conditions of resistance for the ma distance, in consequence of a sort of white haze appearing to envelop every object. The haze is less apparent toward evening, and the sight consequently then improves. A curious perver ready for use. Heating must be carefully avoided, as it would at once destroy the fragrance of the fruit. As to cherries, the so-called Morello is recommended, and, by leaving the cracked stones in the pulp, a flavor like that of bitter almonds will be imparted. To make sirup of the fruit juice prepared as above indicated, our author advises us never to make use of any metallic vessels or spoons, and always to take best refined loaf-sugar in lumps, five parts of juice to eight parts of sugar constituting a good proportion. The lumps of sugar are moistened with just enough water to cause them to dissolve readily, when the remaining juice is added, and the whole is to be rapidly heated to boiling, which, however, must only be continued for a few minutes. With good sugar no skimming is necessary, and filtering through flannel or other woolen cloth, previously wetted in water containing a few drops of sulphuric acid, and well wrung, will make the sirup perfectly clear. It is best to fill the preserve jars with the sirup when cold; but if it has been done when hot, the vessel must be filled up after cooling, as the vapor condenses on the portion of the vessel left empty, and, running down, dilutes the upper stratum of the sirup, thus making it more liable to spoil. FUNGUS THEORY OF DISEASE. The cause of the so-called infectious diseases has always been an unsolved problem in medical science, and whether it be miasma or contagion, or both, is yet an undecided question. Indeed, the disputants differ as to whether contagion itself is purely chemical in its nature or organicthat is, of animal or vegetable origin. The latter opinion is at present supported by many eminent physicians, and the idea that the spreading of such diseases as cholera, typhus, small-pox, etc., is due to specific fungi, the minute spores of which propagate within the animal organism, has been received with great favor. Professor Grohe, of Greifswalde, assisted by Dr. Black, has instituted a series of apparently decisive experiments on this subject, and they have come to the conclusion that the theory of the vegetable nature of infection has not yet been fully demonstrated. Two species of parasitic fungi, Aspergillus glaucus and Penicillum glaucum, were, after suitable preparation, introduced into different organs of living animals, such as rabbits, dogs, sheep, etc., and from a critical examination of their action the following facts were ascertained: without leaving a trace, whenever the organism does not soon succumb. HABIT OF REDUVIUS. Mr. Meehan, of Philadelphia, reports a curious fact in the natural history of a well-known bug. the Reduvius novenarius. He had previously mentioned his discovery that this insect stored up turpentine in its body, but for what purpose he was then unable to ascertain. He has since discovered that it is used for fastening its eggs to the branches of trees, and sticking them together, and also, in all probability, as a means of protection against enemies and the weather. The eggs of this insect were inserted in groups, and each one set upright, one against another, with the turpentine, like the cells of the honeycomb. He does not think that this matter is a secretion of the insect itself, but believes it to be simply turpentine gathered up and stored away. ILLUSTRATION OF FLUORESCENCE. Professor Flückiger, of Berne, has recently detailed a method of preparing a liquid which exhibits the phenomenon of fluorescence to a very remarkable degree. If one drop of nitrie acid be added to about seventy of the essential oil of peppermint, and the two thoroughly shaken together, the fluid turns to a faint yellow color, and then becomes brownish. After an hour or more it assumes a brilliant blue-violet, or greenish-blue, when examined by transmittedl light. Seen by reflected light, the liquid is of a copper-color, and not transparent. PREVENTING MOULD IN MUCILAGE Solutions of gum-arabic are very liable to become mouldy; and while the introduction of creosote, corrosive sublimate, etc., frequently used to remedy this evil, is objectionable on account of the danger of poisoning, according to the Industrie Blätter sulphate of quinine is a complete protection against mould, a very small quantity of it being sufficient to prevent gum mucilage from spoiling. It is quite possible that writing ink might be protected by the same application from a like difficulty. The use of ammonia for the same purpose is also recommended. TAPIOCA PAPER IN PHOTOGRAPHY. A substance called tapioca paper-recommended as very useful in taking photographs by artificial light-is prepared by soaking 300 1. The spores of some fungi develop into my-grains of tapioca for two days in an equal weight celia within the animal organism. 2. This development occurs not only with spores brought directly into the circulation, but these will also be taken up when introduced into the abdominal cavity. 3. The mycelia thus developed from the spores are the same in all the organs, and only differ in their terminal ramifications from those grown otherwise. 4. Aspergillus and Penicillum have, in the tissues, the same form. 5. The most extensive pathological alterations, which occasion the destruction of the organism, are induced by the vegetation of fungi. 6. Spores taken up into circulation from the abdominal cavity produce most intense pathological effects, but finally disappear entirely, and of water, then adding a quart of water; and afterward for every tenth of a quart of the liquid fifteen grains of iodide of potassium, forty-five grains of chloride of potassium, and one and a half grains of bromide of potassium are to be introduced, and, when dissolved, the whole boiled for ten minutes, allowed to stand for a day, and then decanted and filtered through linen. Twelve to twenty sheets of the paper are immersed in this liquid at a time, or can be floated upon it for fifteen or twenty minutes, and then hung up to dry in a dark room. Should the paper assume a dark color it will be of no consequence. since this tint will disappear in the silver baih. This bath is to be prepared in the proportion of 1 to 15, and for every ounce of nitrate of silver fifty to sixty grains of citric acid are to be add ed. The developer is made of fifty grains of pyrogallic acid and eighty grains of citric acid in thirty ounces of water. The time of exposure varies from ten seconds to twenty-five minutes, according to the picture to be copied and the actinic force of the light. LÜTKEN ON GANOID FISHES. | rine crustacea; but this salt appears to be the only one necessary; fourth, the smaller individuals, and those which, having just moulted, have the integuments delicate, present less resistance than the others to the influence of liquids of exceptional composition; fifth, the difference between the densities of sea water and fresh-water can not be regarded as the cause of the death of marine crustacea in fresh-water. Dr. C. Lütken, in a paper on the limits and classification of the ganoid fishes, published in As a general conclusion, applicable to both the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, groups, Professor Plateau states that the idea of as translated by Mr. Dallas, discusses at consid-endosmose enables us to explain the absorption erable length the true affinities of this remarkable group of fishes, of which, as is well known, the gar-fish, or gar-pike, of America and the Polypterus of Africa are types, constituting living representatives of a form which, in the earlier geological periods, was the predominant one. of salts by the delicate skin or the branchial surfaces of fresh-water articulates when immersed in sea water. The fact that diffusion and dialysis take place with more energy in the case of the chlorides of sodium and magnesium than in that of sulphate of magnesia explains why The conclusion to which Dr. Lütken arrives, it is that the chlorides of sea water are alone in answer to the question "What is a ganoid?" absorbed. Dialysis explains why marine crusis as follows: Every fish (abdominal, malacop-tacea, when placed in fresh-water, lose the salts terygian, physostome) with osseous scales, ar- with which they were impregnated. ticulated (as in the lepidostei) or interlocked (in the manner of the pycnodonts), or with gular TREE-PLANTING ON THE PRAIRIES. plates in place of the branchiostegal rays, and M. R. S. Elliott, industrial agent of the Kanwith the paired fins fringed and scaly (as in the sas Pacific Railway, has lately been experimentpolypteri), or which combine several of these ing upon the cultivation, upon the plains, of vacharacters, should be classed among the ganoids.rious seeds without accompanying irrigation; the principal trials having been made at three INFLUENCE OF SALT AND FRESH WATER ON stations along the railroad: the first, Wilson, be CRUSTACEA, ETC. ing 239 miles west of the State line, and 1586 Professor Plateau has lately prosecuted some feet above the sea level; the second, Ellis, 302 investigations as to the effect of placing fresh- miles west, and of 3019 feet elevation; and the water articulates in salt-water, and salt-water third, Pond Creek, 422 miles west, and 3175 articulates in fresh, the observations having been feet in altitude. Trials were made in these exdirected more particularly to the crustaceans. periments of winter grains, as wheat, barley, and Among the conclusions arrived at are, that sea rye; of spring grains, as wheat and oats; of vawater has but a slight influence upon the aquatic rious grasses; of tree seeds, such as ailanthus, coleoptera and hemiptera in the perfect state, chestnut, piñon, elm, etc.; and of various fruit but that it produces injurious effects upon fresh- trees. The conclusions arrived at from these inwater articulates with a delicate skin, or fur-vestigations were, that Lucerne and other valunished with branchiæ. Among crustaceans some species of Gammarus and Asellus resist the action of sea water for several hours, while others perish in a few minutes. The fresh-water articulates that can live with impunity in sea water are those in which no absorption of salt takes place by the skin; those which die in it in a comparatively short time having absorbed chlorides of sodium and magnesium, which the experimenter found to be the most injurious salts, the sulphates having no special effect. When the fresh-water articulates pass, by a slow transition, from fresh to sea water, and reproduction has taken place during this transition, the new generation resist the action of the sea water longer than the ordinary individuals of the species. In the investigations upon the marine crustacea of the Belgian coast the conclusions arrived at were, first, that the commonest species die in fresh-water after the lapse of a variable time, which, however, does not exceed nine hours; second, that the marine crustacea, when immersed in fresh-water, give up to this the salts, especially the chloride of sodium, with which their tissues were impregnated. The converse of this observation was also true, that the freshwater articulates immersed in sea water absorb these salts; third, that in most cases the presence of chloride of sodium forms one of the indispensable conditions of resistance for the ma able forage plants, winter and spring grains, and trees, may be grown on the plains from seed, without irrigation, as far west as the 100th meridian, and perhaps even further. Also that trees may be grown from seeds, cuttings, and young plants, for timber or for fruit, in all parts of the plains between the Platte and the Arkansas rivers; and finally, that the growth of living storm-shields along the line of the Kansas Pacific Railway, and of timber for the uses of the road, is only a matter of effort and time. INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOLISM ON THE SIGHT. In a paper read before the Académie de Médecine, some interesting remarks were presented by Mr. Galezowski upon the influence of alcoholism on the sight. Cases of this form of amblyopia were frequently brought on during the siege of Paris, as the author believed, by drinking alcoholic liquids in the morning on an empty stomach. The characteristic symptoms are a somewhat sudden enfeebling of the sight, which, however, then remains for several weeks without any sensible change; the acuteness of vision is sensibly diminished, and that of distant objects, especially, is much lessened, the face of a person not being recognizable at some paces' distance, in consequence of a sort of white haze appearing to envelop every object. The haze is less apparent toward evening, and the sight consequently then improves. A curious perver |