282 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



maturation. There are two essential processes involved. The first is 

 the metamorphosis of the primitive nuclear framework, which passes 

 from a concentrated state to one of fine distribution ; and the second is a 

 reverse process of aggregation. No observation compels one to believe 

 that the nuclear framework is ever wholly lost. The nucleoli are not in 

 any way mere ballast, or like the fifth wheel on a waggon, as Born's results 

 would suggest. On the contrary they are bodies into which, at definite 

 epochs in the maturation, part of the chromatin passes, to undergo 

 definite transformations, and to be restored again in filamentar form to 

 the nuclear structure. 



Lubosch regards the maturation-phenomena of the germinal vesicle 

 as adaptations of the nucleus to altered vital conditions, enabling it to 

 preserve its hereditary equipment. The arrangements involved in this 

 adaptation may secondarily acquire a functional importance which was 

 not primarily implied in their origination. 



Hermaphroditism in Fishes.* — L. Roule refers to a recent memoir 

 by Stephan, and notes that there are records of hermaphrodite and 

 protandrous fishes. He has himself studied the question in reference to 

 Cyprinidse, and cites the cases of a lot of 170 sexually mature red-eyes 

 (Search ii in* erythrophthalmus) taken from an emptied pond. The lot 

 was composed as follows : — 91 specimens, from 2 cm. to 7 cm. in length 

 from the posterior margin of the eye to the base of the tail, were 

 all males ; of 25 specimens, 8 cm. to 9 cm. in length, 13 were males 

 and 12 females ; of 54 specimens, 10 cm. to 11) cm. in length, all were 

 females. Thus, in a chance lot, the number of males was in excess of 

 that of females, and male sexual maturity occurred in forms smaller than 

 those in which female sexual maturity was seen. 



What is the interpretation ? Is there strict unisexuality, with re- 

 latively dwarfed males ? Or is there protandrous hermaphroditism ? 

 As far as the author has been able to judge, histological examination 

 favours the second interpretation. 



Carnivorous Fowls of the Second Generation.! — F. Houssay notes 

 that the structural changes in fowls induced by carnivorous diet are 

 much more marked in passing from the first (graminivorous) set of the 

 birds to their carnivorous progeny, than in passing from the latter to the 

 second exclusively carnivorous generation. In this communication he 

 deals with the second carnivorous generation. 



(1) Some structural features show no change, e.g. quantity of blood, 

 weight of heart, weight of liver. 



(2) Some structural features are on the decrease, e.g. the capacity of 

 the crop, the length of the intestine, the length of the cseca, the size of 

 the whole stomach, of the gizzard, and of the pancreas. 



(2) Some structural features are on the increase, e.g. the weight of 

 kidneys, lungs, and spleen. 



Early Stages in Development of Ornithorhynchus4 — J. T. Wilson 

 and J. P. Hill describe an early stage in an egg of Ornithorhynchus, 



* Comptes Rendus, exxxv. (1902) pp. 1355-7. 



t Tom. cit., pp. 1357-9 (1 fig.). 



X Proc. Roy. Soc. Loudon, lxxi. (1903) pp. 314-22 (2 figs.). 



