368 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



calcium in any form. The iridocytes contain irregular plates consisting 

 of spherical granules, identical with those obtained by the breaking 

 down of guanin-nitrate crystals, while the argenteum is a dense opaque 

 reflecting sub-cutaneous tissue in which no particular structure could be 

 made out. There are also yellow and red lipochromes in special con- 

 nective cells transformed into chromatophores. Similarly the cells 

 which accumulate guanin in their cytoplasm become iridocytes. As 

 metamorphosis progresses large amoebocytes appear wherever iridocytes 

 and argenteum occur. J. A. T. 



Phagocytosis in Tadpole's Tail. — E. R. Clark and E. L. Clark 

 (Anat. Record, 1918, 15, 151-63, 1 pi.) In the transparent tails of 

 tadpoles (of BomUnator, Rana pipiens, and Hyia pickeringii) there are 

 three types of cell which show the power of phagocytosis in relation to 

 granules of carbon and carmin injected into the sub-cutaneous tissue. 

 These are (1) leucocytes (including wandering cells), (2) stellate connec- 

 tive tissue cells, and (3) the endothelial cells of the lymphatics. , The 

 leucocytes actively migrate toward the site of injection, while the 

 mesenchyme cells and lymphatic endothehal cells apparently ingest only 

 those particles which are in close proximity to them. J. A. T. 



Fish-freezing. — J. Stanley Gardiner and Gr. H. F. Nuttall 

 {Pror. C'amhridge Phil Soc, 1918, 19, 185). The method of freezing 

 fish usually employed preserves the fish for an indefinite period, but the 

 product breaks up in cooking, tending to become rather woolly, and 

 loses flavour and aroma. A fresh process has been developed, freezing 

 the fish in brine consisting of about 18 p.c. of salt at a temper- 

 ature of 5'^-20° F. A large fish freezes thoroughly in three liom-s, 

 a herring in twenty minutes. There is no woolliness, no loss of flavour 

 or aroma. The difference is due to the fact that, whereas in dry freezing 

 there is a breaking up of the actual muscular fibres due to the formation 

 of ice crystals, in brine-freezing the ice crystals are so small that the 

 muscular fibres are entirely unaffected, and on thawing return to the 

 normal. J. A. T. 



Telescope-eye of Goldfish. — I. Amemiya {Journ. Coll. Agric. Univ., 

 Tokyo, 1917, 6, 245-59, 1 pi., 2 figs.) Among varieties of goldfish 

 two kinds of " telescope-eyes " occcur, those directed laterally and those 

 directed vertically. These peculiar eyes appear to be in this case the 

 outcome of artificial selection. In deep-sea fishes the telescope-eye is 

 adapted to faint light and is quite different from the goldfish eye. Thus 

 the anterior chamber is spacious in the goldfish, filled up by the lens in 

 the deep-sea type ; the retina in the goldfish is degenerate in the pos- 

 terior region, where it is strongest in the d'eep-sea type ; there is no 

 real accommodation apparatus in the interior of the goldfish eye. Some 

 other differences are explained. J. A. T. 



Caudal Fin of Chaudhniria. — R. H. Whitehouse {Records Indian 

 Museum, 1918, 14, 65-6, 1 fig.). In this eel from Inle Lake the caudal 

 fin is discontinuous, whereas in all other eels it is continuous with the 



