august 1899] FRESH FACTS 141 



seem to show that the sense of smell is well developed. He goes the length of 

 saying that birds are endowed with the sense of smell at least equal to that of 

 the dog. 



Nuclei of Mammalian Red Blood Corpuscles. A. Negri. " Ueber die 

 Persistenz des Kernes in den roten Blutkorperchen erwachsener Saugethiere," 

 Anat. Anzeig. xvi. 1899, pp. 33-38. The student who in his practical examina- 

 tion identifies distinctly nucleated red blood corpuscles as mammalian does not 

 win favour in the eyes of the examiner, and this is perhaps well. But Mr. A. 

 Negri, stud, med., has shown that there is still relevancy in inquiring into the 

 possible persistence of the nucleus in the red blood corpuscles of adult mammals. 

 The persistence of a nucleus has been asserted repeatedly, and, we believe, 

 always given up. Perhaps only Petrone has stood to his guns and maintained 

 contra mwidum that to say the nucleus is absent is to confess ignorance of the 

 proper method for its discovery. Negri has worked with Petrone's method, but 

 finds that Petrone's " nucleus " is to be found in the embryo along with, but 

 distinct from, the nucleus which is still evident in the red blood corpuscles in 

 intrauterine life. 



Urns op Sipunculus. S. J. Metalnikoff. " Das Blut und die Excretions- 

 organe von Sipunculus nudus," MT. Zool. Stat. Neapel, xiii. 1899, pp. 440-447. 

 The strange multicellular ciliated bodies which occur in the body cavity and 

 blood of Sipunculids have been much discussed and variously interpreted. 

 According to Metalnikoff, they arise, in part at least, on the internal walls 

 of the blood vessels, and serve to protect the animal from the ill-effects of hard 

 particles which may be ruptured from the gut into the body cavity. The 

 suggestion of Cuenot and others that the urns by their rapid movements help to 

 compensate for the absence of a heart is also accepted. 



Beetles in Self -Defence. L. Bordas. "Les glandes defensives ou 

 glandes anales des Coleopteres," Ann. Fac. Sci. Marseille, ix. Fasc. v. pp. 1-45, 

 2 pis. In this memoir, which our French colleague has been kind enough to 

 send us, it is shown that the majority of beetles (Cicindclidae, Carabinae, 

 Harpalinae, Feroniinae, Brachininae, Dytiscidae, Gyrinidae, Staphylinidae, 

 Silphidae, etc.) possess in the posterior abdominal region a pair of glands, 

 disposed in a cluster or in a tube, producing a secretion which is forcibly 

 ejected in self-defence. These anal or defensive glands belong to the last 

 abdominal segment, and consist of a glandular portion, an efferent canal, a 

 reservoir or receptacle, and an excretory duct. 



Devonian Rocks of Arctic Europe. Th. Tschernyschew and N. 

 Jakowlew. "Die Kalksteinfauna des Cap Grebeni auf der Waigatsch-Insel 

 und des Flusses Nechwatowa auf Nowaja-Semlja," Verhandl. Fuss. Kais. 

 Mineral. Ges. xxxvi. pp. 55-99, pis. vi.-viii. 1899. Many authors have written 

 much on the Palaeozoic rocks and fossils of Waigatsch and Nova Zembla, but 

 their statements have lacked precision, their conclusions definiteness. Two 

 horizons are here determined in Waigatsch. The one, containing Spirifer 

 waigatschensis, n. sp. and five other brachiopods, is paralleled with the upper 

 limestones of the Middle Devonian in the Ural, containing Spirifer anossqfi and 

 Stringocephalus burtini. The other, furnishing Froetus ivaigatschensis, Lichas 

 (Dicranogmus) lindstromi, Leptodomus borealis, Spirifer parvuhis, n. spp., 

 appears equivalent to the limestone of Nova Zembla, which contains Cardiola 

 lehmanni, n. sp. Other fossils, such as Orthoceras cinctum, 0. cf. tentacidare, 

 Whitfieldella didyma, Leperditia nordenskioldi, show that this is not older than 

 Middle Devonian. 



