FRESH FACTS. 



Ventilation of Eggs. Oskae Schultze. " Ueber den Einfluss des Luft- 

 mangels auf die erste Entwicklung des Eies," Verh. Phys. Med. Ges. Wtirzburg, 

 xxxii. 1899, pp. 191-202, 4 figs. When frogs' eggs are robbed of their normal 

 supply of oxygen for a short time, the development is slowed. In more un- 

 propitious conditions the development stops, but it may recover even after a 

 stoppage of two days if good ventilation is restored. In most cases, however, 

 the inhibition results in malformations, and eventually in death. The result 

 may be due to poisoning with carbonic acid as well as to actual dearth of 

 oxygen, for an organism will form C0 2 even in the absence of supplies of 

 oxygen. It is safe to say that good ventilation is an essential condition 

 of normal development from the time of fertilisation onwards. 



Aplysiopurpurin. C. A. MacMunn. " The Pigments of Aplysia 

 punctata" Journ. Physiol, xxiv. 1899, pp. 1-10, 2 pis. Aplysiopurpurin is an 

 extremely unstable pigment secreted by the dermal glands of Aplysia, and 

 varying slightly in different species. It can be isolated in a pure, or at least 

 an approximately pure condition, by means of precipitation with ammonium 

 sulphate and further treatment described in the paper. The integument of 

 Aplysia, contains pigments which appear to be of an excretory nature,, besides a 

 special violet pigment. 



Genital Organs of Holothurians. L. Bordas. "Recherches sur les 

 organes de la generation de quelques Holothuries," Annales Faculte des Sciences 

 Marseille, ix. 1899, pp. 187-204, 1 pi. In this research, which the author has 

 sent us from the laboratory of Endoume, the structure of the reproductive 

 organs in Holothuria tubulosa, H. poli, II. impatiens, and Stichopus regalis — all 

 abundant in the Gulf of Marseilles — is described. Macroscopically, this is very 

 simple, and almost the same in both sexes. Microscopically, the tubes consist 

 of germinal epithelium on a basilar membrane, then a connective fibrillar layer, 

 then a layer of circular muscle-fibres (outside which there may be longitudinal 

 fibres), and externally a layer of cylindrical ciliated cells. Dr. Bordas commends 

 the edibility of the organs as not inferior to those of sea-urchins, which riiany 

 find appetising. 



Struggle for Existence. F. P. Bedford. " Gecko Cannibalism,'' 

 Nature, lx. 1899, p. 8 (Letter). In a stomach of a young female gecko 

 (Gecko monarchus) there was found a smaller gecko of the same species. As 

 the writer says, "the fact that an animal will prey upon another of its own 

 species, while living under completely natural conditions, and with an abundant 

 supply of its normal insect food, seems worth recording." 



Exterochlorophyll. C. A. MacMunn. "On the gastric gland of 

 Mollusca and Decapod Crustacea : its structure and functions," Proc. Boy. Soc. 

 lxiv. 1899, pp. 436-439. Dr. MacMunn has been forced by his observations to 

 believe that enterochlorophyll is a pigment which primarily has been taken up 



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