ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 283 



mice, has now continued his work in order to examine a greater number 

 of cases within twenty-two days after parturition, and thus detect 

 variations in the time of occurrence of ovulation. Fifty-two cases are 

 tabulated. One ovulation follows very quickly on parturition, another 

 in sixteen and a half to nineteen days, or, on an average, a few hours less 

 than seventeen days after the first spontaneous ovulation. But this 

 was only shown by -42 p.c. of cases, and considerable individual variation 

 appears to exist. The ovum of the mouse occupies approximately two 

 days in traversing the greater part of the oviduct, but it waits in the 

 last loop for a day or more, so that three days must be reckoned for the 

 complete migration. 



New Protamines from Milt.* — Makoto Yamagawa has isolated a 

 number of new protamines from the sperm of Japanese fishes. Their 

 properties are analogous to those of previously known protamines. 

 Arginine is the chief product of the hydrolysis of the new protamines ; 

 its percentage is generally lower than in previously known protamines. 

 Injection of the protamines produces toxic effects on mice, guinea-pigs, 

 rabbits, and dogs. Their injection into the circulatory system of 

 rabbits and dogs is followed by a considerable lowering of the blood- 

 pressure. They seem to cause the dilatation of blood-vessels, and to 

 hinder or delay the coagulation of blood. 



Inequality of the Testes in Pigeons.t— Oscar Riddle refers to the 

 prevalence of atrophy of the right ovary in birds, the demonstrated larger 

 number of primordial cells in the left gonad in the fowl, and the 

 unequal size relations of the testes in the pigeon (where the right is 

 usually the larger). In hybrid pigeons there are more exceptions to the 

 normal size-relations of the two testes than in pure species. The 

 number of the exceptions seems to increase with the degree of hybridi- 

 zation (width of the cross), there being fewer in specific than in generic 

 hybrids. The testes of pigeons suffer great reduction in size in disease 

 — particularly in tuberculosis. It is probable that the right suffers 

 greater reduction than the left. The testes of the pigeons are charac- 

 teristically different in dimensions, the left being thinner and more 

 elongate, the right shorter and thicker. 



Blastolytic Origin of Independent Lenses. | — E. I. Werber has 

 studied the free or independent lenses seen in teratophthalmic specimens 

 of the fish Fundulus heterocUtiis. Lenses develop without contact 

 stimulus from an optic cup, from indifferent ectoderm which would 

 normally not have given rise to such structures. The teratophthalmia 

 is associated with blastolysis, a dissociation of parts of the blastoderm. 

 In other words, the formation of terata of the eye comes about through 

 destruction of parts intermediate to the earliest primordia of the eyes or 

 of parts of the eyes. The development of the free lenses is due to 



* Journ. CoUege Agric. Univ. Tokyo, v. (1916) pp. 413-59. 



t Anat. Record., xi. (1916) pp. 87-102. 



X Journ. Exper. Zool., xxi. (1916) pp. 347-67 (2 pis. and 2 figs.). 



u 2 



