354 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



Mr. E. J. Sheppard exhibited slides showing ovo-testis in the frog, 

 and the extrusion of nuclear material m Liliwn croceum. He said he 

 hoped the Society would excuse him for bringing this specimen of 

 extrusion of nuclear material to-night, but ho had done so because it 

 was exhibited in a new species. So far as he knew, this was the fourth 

 species in which it had been shown ; he had previously shown it in three. 

 The present shde had been lent to him by a gentleman who wrote to 

 him as a result of the remarks he, the speaker, made some time ago, and 

 which were published in the Journal. It was curious that in all four 

 cases the phenomenon was displayed during the synaptic stage. Any- 

 body who was familiar with the subject of mitosis knew that the synaptic 

 stage was associated with the reduction of chromosomes. He could not 

 account for this, but it was curious that it should be, in every case, 

 associated with the synaptic stage. The present beautiful preparation 

 was made by a Manchester gentleman, to whom he had referred ; it 

 exhibited the fine threads of the synaptic stage in a much better way 

 than did his own preparations. 



The preparation of ovo-testis of a frog he regarded as a very re- 

 markable specimen ; for his own part, he did not know that such a 

 thing existed. He thought such a thing as that ought to be con- 

 sidered in relation to the extrusion of nuclear material in the germ- 

 cells of these various lilies. He thought there must be some tendency 

 towards atavism, or a harking-back with regard to fertilization. Whether 

 tbat was so he did not know, but merely offered it as a suggestion. The 

 slide was submitted to Professor Hickson for examination, who wrote in 

 reply stating it was ovo-testis. Professor Hickson in his letter said that 

 the extrusion of chromatin in the anther-cells was interesting to him, as 

 it corresponded with the extrusion of chromatin from the egg-nucleus of 

 several Alcyonarians and of Pelagia, as described by a German whose 

 name for the moment he had forgotten. 



Another point of interest in regard to the extrusion of nuclear 

 material was contained in a letter which had been sent to him by a 

 gentleman of his acquaintance in Southampton. That gentleman who 

 sent him the slide in consequence of his (Mr. Sheppard's) remarks in 

 the Journal, said he hud found this associated with a petaloid condition 

 in the anthers. In all the work Mr. Sheppard had done, he had never 

 noticed any abnormality in any of the anthers ; the most he had noticed 

 had been a slight S-curve in the anther, so minute as to scarcely call for 

 notice. The gentleman wrote : — 



" I am returning the preparation of Lilium showing nuclear ex- 

 trusion, which is exhibited to an extraordinary degree in this specimen ; 

 in some eases the whole of the chromatin seems to be given up to the 

 adjoining cell. I see that this slide is labelled ' abnormal nuclei,' but 

 possibly the phenomenon may prove to be normal. 



" With regard to the suggestion that this phenomenon seems to be 

 associated with a petaloid condition of the anthers, I rather question 

 this, and even if such were the case, it does not seem to carry us much 

 farther towards an explanation. Morphologically, I suppose all anthers 

 are modified petals, and thus far are petaloid, and prima facie it does 

 not appear likely that stamens with an atavistic tendency towards a more 



