44 



HA RD WICKE'S S C1ENCE- G OSS J P. 



diameters, making a picture of about eight feet on 

 the screen, so accurate that the granular appearance 

 of the protoplasm could be distinctly seen. 



Enock's Entomological Slides. — Mr. Frede- 

 rick Enock is working out a novel and interesting 

 scheme. He is issuing a series of slides, showing the 

 mouth-organs of British Ilymenoptera, especially 

 bees. These are accompanied by explanatory draw- 

 ings, so that a person can see at a glance the name 

 of each part. The specimens are mounted naturally, 

 so that there is no distortion, and they are seen in 

 their natural colours. The heads are specially pre- 

 pared for the paraboloid — the most suitable objectives 

 for showing them being the two-inch, inch and a- 

 half, and one-inch. The drawings are very neatly 

 and artistically done, and the slides are superbly 

 mounted. 



Cole's Microscopical Studies.— The parts of 

 the " Studies in Microscopical Science " for Decem- 

 ber are as follows : — Section I. " Structure of the 

 Sexual Organs of Reproduction in Angiosperms ; " 

 2. "On the Disposition of the Organs in the In- 

 vertebrata " (illustrated by a transverse section of the 

 common earthworm) ; 3. "Pathological Histology" 

 (illustrated by section of the lung, showing Carci- 

 noma) ; 4 has a beautiful plate of the Trichina 

 spiralis, showing longitudinal and transverse sections 

 X 250. 



have become normal. The following was the dental 



formula at the time of the animal's death : — 



In. 



2, 2 



3» 2 



2, 2 , 

 2, 2' 



ZOOLOGY. 



Abnormal dentition in Slender Monkey. — 

 In the early part of the present year we received at 

 the Bristol Museum, from the Clifton Zoological 

 Gardens, the body of a young female monkey belong- 

 ing to the common Indian species Scmnopithecus 

 cutellits, ¥. Cuvier, the skull of which, now prepared 

 and placed in the .Museum, is remarkable from 

 possessing a single supernumerary incisor. In the 

 lower jaw there are two incisor teeth on the right 

 side and three on the left. The presence of this 

 extra incisor had caused the first or median left 

 incisor to occupy a central position in the front of 

 the mandible. Seeing that all these incisors are 

 equally grown and well -formed, it seems impossible 

 to decide which of the three on the left side is the 

 redundant one. When the animal died the dentition 

 was in a transitional state, consisting partly of milk 

 and partly of permanent teeth. The alveoli of the two 

 pairs of permanent incisors, as well as of the third 

 pair of molars in both upper and lower jaws, with 

 their contained teeth, are distinctly visible. Hence 

 it is obvious that the extra incisor cannot be accounted 

 for by the supposition of a mixture of permanent and 

 persistent milk teeth. It also appears that if this 

 monkey had lived to full age its dentition would 



of which the incisors are deciduous and the remainder 

 permanent teeth. It is well known that supernumerary 

 teeth are occasionally developed in monkeys, as well 

 as in man and other mammals. In a general way, 

 however, when abnormal variations of this kind 

 arise, they are symmetrically arranged. Asymme- 

 trical variations are very much rarer ; and although 

 cases similar to the above have no doubt been noticed, 

 I cannot at the moment find any record of a pre- 

 cisely analogous one. — E. Wilson, F.G.S., Bristol 

 Museum. 



Sense-Organs of the Brachiopoda. — Pro- 

 fessor Sollas has shown that the csecal processes 

 occupying the canals in the brachiopod shells are 

 extensions of the outer epithelium of the mantle. 

 At the outer end, which lies immediately beneath 

 the chitinous periostraction, each terminates in a 

 large cell, invested by smaller cells. The large cell 

 is continued into a nerve-fibril, which runs axially 

 down the csecal process, and enters the nervous 

 layer of the mantle. This is the structure of a 

 sensory end-organ, which seems to transfer luminous 

 radiations. 



Noctiluca, etc. — I have just been up the Persian 

 Gulf, laying a cable ; and while we were proceeding 

 from Jask up the Gulf, in lat. 26 25' N., and long. 

 56 11' E., we encountered immense numbers of the 

 minute phosphorescent Noctiluca miliaris, the centre 

 reddish speck of which caused the water to appear in 

 places as if covered with clotted blood. It was of the 

 most intensely red colour, appearing in streaks and 

 blotches all round. I caught quantities of it for 

 examination. The water in places, when fished up 

 in a bucket, seemed one mass of them, though in a 

 small quantity they lost a good deal of their intense 

 colour. Mixed up with them were a few pieces 

 of the Trichodesmium Ehrcnbcrgii, but very little. 

 There were also quantities of sea-snakes and Medu- 

 sae. The sea was quite calm, and at^night the steamer 

 stirred up the most brilliant green waves I ever 

 saw. — D. Wilson-Barker, F.R. Met. Soc, Commander 

 o/T.S.S. " Daciar 



The Colouring of Land-Shells. — After some 

 conversation with a friend of mine on the absence 

 and variety of colour in some of our land and fresh- 

 water shells, I was led to try the following experi- 

 ment. I took two specimens of Helix aspersa and 

 five of //. ncmoralis. The two former I placed in 

 a glass jar bedded with grass, which from time to 

 time was removed ; four of the //. ncmoralis I placed 

 in a similar jar ; number five I accidentally left in a 

 cardboard box. After three weeks I noticed that the 

 If. aspersa were losing all colouring matter from 



