,318 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



The special object of Captain Reid's letter was to express 

 astonishment that descendants of the real axolotl were kept 

 in fresh water in the Brighton Aquarium, whereas they oc- 

 cupy the Lake Tezcoco a body of water so salt that even 

 fish can not live in it. 2 A, March^ 1876, 180. 



SPERMATOZOA OF AMPHIUMA. 



Dr. Christopher Johnston, of Baltimore, has made some in- 

 teresting observations on the very large spermatozoa of 

 Amphiuma tridactylum. The length of these was about -^ 

 of an inch. From the junction of the head with the body 

 to the extremity of the tail was a double filament, in lively 

 motion, so that a delicate spiral seemed to wind from the 

 head to the caudal termination so long as the zooid was free ; 

 but the motion was instantly reversed as soon as the head 

 became attached or entangled. When at rest, the spiral 

 resolved itself into a most delicate, undulating membrane. 

 The red corpuscles of the blood of the Amphiuma rival in 

 size the spermatozoa, being -^-^ of an inch in their larger axis, 

 and -gyT of an inch in their conjugate diameter. Monthly 

 Microscopical Journal^ 3Iay, 1876. 



RESEMBLANCES OF PLESIOSAURS AND ICHTHTOSAURS TO OTHER 



VERTEBRATES. 



Professor H. G. Seeley points out, in an extended article in 

 the Journal of the Linmean Society, not only the relation in 

 the bones of these fossil gigantic reptiles to those of other 

 orders of reptiles, fossil and extinct, but also their similarity 

 in certain features to birds and even mammals. 



RAFINESQUE's FISHES OF THE OHIO. 



The work of Rafinesque, entitled "Ichthyologia Ohioensis," 

 etc., has become so rare, and his labors so generally overlook- 

 ed, that Professor D. S. Jordan has published a paper in the 

 Bulletin of the Bufialo Society of Sciences (vol. iii.,No. 3, 1876), 

 giving a list of the genera, sub-genera, and species described 

 in this work, with the names which they should in Mr. Jor- 

 dan's opinion now bear. This is of special importance, as 

 Rafinesque's names for our fishes have priority of date over 

 those of almost all. other authors who have written on the 

 ichthyology of our inland waters, except Lesueur. 



