ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 709 



most carefully observed, never reacted to acoustic stimuli. It was 

 certainly deaf from birth, and investigation showed that it could not be 

 regarded as more than a pathological product. It was no variety. An 

 encephalitis, probably daring intra-uterine life, had destroyed a part of 

 the left hemisphere (not the so-called auditory radiation), and occasioned 

 a hydrocephalus interims. Its pressure endangered the systems on the 

 surface of the ventricles. More especially those systems were endangered 

 that were threatened from both sides by compression, owing to their 

 position on the border of the recessus lateralis. The stria acustica was 

 destroyed in this way. 



Eye of Birds.* — Victor Franz gives a detailed account of the 

 macroscopic peculiarities of the eye in a large number of birds, and of 

 the microscopic structure of the bird's eye in general. He shows how 

 the structure is adapted in a manifold way for very rapid and precise 

 accommodation ; adaptations in many parts contribute to the one result. 

 Several general conclusions are drawn — that the differentiation of an 

 organ often increases with its size ; that phyletically young organs show 

 as high a degree of variability as vestigial organs. Convergence even in 

 detail is illustrated by the resemblance between the eye of Podargus 

 strigioides and that of owls. 



Stomach Glands of Lizard.f — A. Arcangeli describes the structure 

 and distribution of the glandular elements in Lacerta muralis. 



Thyroid Gland of Gecko.J — G. Viguier describes the minute struc- 

 ture of the thyroid of Tarentola mauritanica. There are epithelial 

 vesicles enclosing a secretion, and between these there are blood channels 

 lined bv endothelium. 



c- General. 



Integumentary Glandular Organs in Anthropoids. § — August 

 Brinkmann notes that the kind of organ that is common in Bats and 

 Ungulates is all but unknown among Primates. Apart from the 

 mammary glands, which the author of course excepts, the single instance 

 hitherto known is the axillary gland in man. Brinkmann has found a 

 similar gland in the chimpanzee and gorilla, but not in orang or gibbon. 



Action of Extract of Suprarenal Capsule on the Isolated Heart. || 

 A. Panella has experimented with isolated hearts of frog and rabbit, 

 and his most general result is that the active suprarenal principle, which 

 he calls miostenina, increases the energy and frequency of the beats. 



Hibernating Racoon.^" — -S. R. Williams reports that a young 

 racoon (Procyon lotor) was found hibernating in a hollow sugar-tree in 

 South-western Ohio, after a period of low temperature (20° below zero 

 Fahr.). It had a few worn sticks in its stomach, and the intestine was 



* Zool. Jahrb., xxviii. (1909) pp. 73-294 (5 pis. and 122 figs.). 

 + Atti Soc. ToscanaSci. Nat. Pisa, xxiv. (1908) pp. 205-17. 

 % C.R. Soc. Biol., lxvi. (1909) pp. 1064-5. 

 § Anat. Anzeig., xxxiv. (1902) pp. 513-20 (6 figs.). 

 || Atti Soc. Toscana Sci. Nat. Pisa, xxiv. (1908) pp. 3-49. 

 T Ohio Nat., ix. (1909) pp. 495-6 (1 fig.): 



Dec. 15th, 1909 3 B 



