ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 681 



which the author found no cilia. This undergoes remarkable degenera- 

 tion — with amitosis, accumulation of waste, and dissolution — down to a 

 zone or girdle of thickened hypoblast in the first third of the digestive 

 region. There is a loosening and emigration of cells, till only isolated 

 islands are left on the wall of the caecum. But in animals about 22 mm. 

 in length there is restitution of the epithelium till no traces of the lesions 

 are seen. The process of restitution seems to be due partly to the 

 activity of the island left on the caecum wall and partly to migrations 

 from the mid-gut. 



Germination and Growth of Artificial Cells.* — Stephane Leduc 

 has produced an " artificial cell " by allowing a drop of sugar solution 

 (with traces of ferrocyanide of potassium) to fall into a solution of 

 sulphate of copper. The drop is covered by a membrane of ferrocyanide 

 of copper, permeable to water, impermeable by the sugar. This mimic 

 cell has the faculty of swelling and growing, and also of giving out 

 prolongations which grow slowly, like radicles and plumules. He dis- 

 cusses the physics of the business. 



Nerve-endings of Nail layer in Man.f — A. S. Dogiel makes a 

 comparison of the nerve apparatus in the skin of the finger-tip and in 

 the cutis of the nail layer. In the stratum papillare of the nail layer 

 are present only unencapsuled nerve-clumps (" Nervenknauel "), inter- 

 papillary nets, and thread nets ; the manifold forms of encapsuled nerve 

 apparatus which are constantly met in the stratum papillare of the skin 

 of the finger tip, as also certain forms of unencapsuled apparatus, e.g. 

 the papillary " Biischel " of Ruffini, are here entirely absent. The 

 superficial and the deep cuticular strata of the nail layer include a 

 large number of tree-like end branchings, and a very limited number of 

 unencapsuled " Knauel " and encapsuled apparatus in the form of 

 modified Vater-Pacini corpuscles ; the typical Vater-Pacini corpuscles — 

 peculiar corpuscles with plate-like endings similar to the typical end- 

 branchings of Ruffini — are not present here. In the epithelial ridges 

 the Merkel's touch corpuscles are absent ; only the inter-epithelial end- 

 branchings are present. 



Nerve-endings. :£ — Romeo Fusari gives an account of the nerve- 

 terminations in the striped muscle of the Ammocoete stage of Petro- 

 myzon branchialis. 



Central gustatory Paths in Brain of Bony Fishes. § — C. Judson 

 Herrick has traced within the brain the gustatory pathways, and mapped 

 out the reflex paths for the various types of gustatory reaction which 

 have been actually observed in the feeding activities of these fishes. 

 The gustatory paths are grouped under the following sections : — Peri- 

 pheral neurones — gustatory neurones of the first order ; nucleus gustus 

 primus ; tractus gustus secundus descendens ; tractus gustus secundus 

 ascendens ; nucleus gustus secundus inferior ; nucleus gustus secundus 

 superior ; tractus gustus tertius. 



* Comptes Rendus. cxli. (1905) p. 280. 



t Arch. Mikr. Auat., Bd. 64 (1904) pp. 173-88 (2 pis.). 



% Atti R. Accad. Sci. Torino, xl. (1905) pp. J 078-88 (1 pi.). 



§ Journ. Compar. Neurol, and Psychol., xv. No. 5 (1905) pp. 375-456. 



