30 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



more important than the fatty part, favours its interpretation as a 

 ■cervical haemolyrnph gland. Further investigations are demanded. 



Snake Venoms.* — W. Hanria gives a general account of snake venoms, 

 ■and draws particular attention to the differences as to poison-apparatus 

 and venom between the two great divisions — poisonous colubrine snakes, 

 •e.g. cobra, and viperine snakes, e.g. Russell's viper or daboia. He dis- 

 cusses the various physiological actions of the poisons, the antitoxic use 

 ■of serum, and the question of self-immunisation. 



Permeability of Frog's Skin.t — Angelo Andres and L. Pesci have 

 made a number of experiments relating to the permeability, or, as they 

 say, semi-permeability, of the frog's skin. The permeability or semi- 

 permeability is entirely an epidermic function, and persists for some time 

 after death. In frogs with absent or disorganised epidermis the loss of 

 weight increases in proportion to the density of the surrounding medium. 

 In intact frogs the variations in weight are approximately equal in fluids 

 •of equal osmotic pressure. 



Toxotes jaculator in Captivity.^ — N. Zolotnitsky has some interest- 

 ing notes on the habits of this fish.-* He remarks on their inability to 



™ *• 



survive high temperature, on their sensitiveness to changes of tempera- 

 ture, on the mobility of their eyes, on the accuracy of their aim with 

 their water-jets, and on their quickness to learn how to deal with new 

 kinds of food. Thus a blood-worm which clung to the sides of the 

 aquarium and could not be caught, was blown off into the open water 

 .and then captured. Zolotnitsky regards Toxotes as the most intelligent 

 fish he has as yet had to do with. 



Eating Habits of Galeopithecus volans.§ — Nelson Annandale has 

 .some interesting notes on a captive female specimen with a newly born 

 young one. From the way in which it drew the pulp of a banana into 

 its almost closed mouth with its tongue, so that the food mostly passed 

 through the openings in the incisors of the lower jaw, the author was 

 led to conclude that the pectinate teeth act as a strainer by means of 

 ■which fibres and seeds are prevented from entering the food-canal. 



Adrenaline.|| — Dr. Batelli describes his method of extracting the 

 active substance of the suprarenal capsules which Takamine has called 

 " adrenaline." Experiments show that the toxic effects and pressure- 

 effects produced by extracts of the suprarenal bodies are due to this 

 substance, adrenaline, to a large extent at least. But he has not been 

 able to show conclusively that adrenaline passes from the organs which 

 produce it into the blood. 



Hsematolytic Function of Spleen.^" — L. Lapicque transfused blood 

 into dogs, and, as is well known, the supernumerary corpuscles were de- 

 stroyed in a few days. He tried to discover if this was modified by 

 .splenectomy. His result was that the suppression of the spleen made 



* Trans. Liverpool. Biol. Soc, xvi. (1902) pp. 471-84. 



t Eend. R. 1st. Lombardo, xxxiv. (1901) pp. 976-87. 



X Arch. Zool. Exper., x. (1902) Notes et Revue, pp. Ixxxi.-iv. 



§ Proc. R. Pliys. Soc. Edinburgh, xiv. (1902) pp. 444-5. 



H Arch. Sci. Phys. Nat., xiv. (1902) pp. 423-5. 



•jf Coraptes Rendus, cxxxv. (1902) pp. 203-5. 





