Pwdre Ser

Abstract

IN case no other reader of NATURE should do so, may I direct Prof. McKenny Hughes's attention to a caper by M. Melsheimer on “Meteorgallerte”, published in the Jahresber. d. westfäl. Provinzialver. f. Wissensch. u. Kunst (Bd. xxxvi., 1907–8, Münster, 1908, pp. 53–5), an abstract of which appeared in the Centralblatt f. Bakteriologie (Abt. ii., Bd. xxvii., Nos. 10–12, p. 237), published on June 22 of this year? The author appears to have paid attention to these masses of jelly, which are to be found in winter on meadows and other open places, for a period of years, and has come to the conclusion that they are the swollen oviducts of frogs. Herons eat female frogs in winter, and the oviducts become mixed in the crop with fish remains, which may become luminous. The contents are thrown up undigested, and become gelatinous when moistened. It is also possible that the heron may, during flight, discharge the gelatinous mass in a luminous condition, and hence the idea that the jelly is of meteoric origin.