1*40 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



serious metabolic disturbances which cause death ; second, tiny may be 

 absorbed rapidly from the general peritoneal surface; or third, they 

 may be walled off by peritoneum and then absorbed. The material 

 from the absorbed yolks or eggs is apparently utilized in body meta- 

 bolism, for autopsy showed that all the birds which were in good health 

 were very fat. 



The removal of the greater portion of an oviduct does not cause the 

 atrophy of any remaining portion. The whole or any remaining part 

 of an oviduct sewed at the funnel, or ligatured at any level, or with 

 parts removed, passes through growth and cyclic changes, co-ordinated 

 with changes in the ovary, exactly as a duct which has not been touched. 

 The stimulation of the advancing egg is necessary for the discharge of 

 the secretion of the duct, since a duct closed at any level functions only 

 to the point where the passage is interrupted. 



When any portion of the ventral ligament is removed it is not 

 replaced, but all the remaining portions develop. The forward portion 

 of the ventral ligament is necessary for the reception of the yolk by the 

 funnel. The muscle-bundles which arise from the muscular cord in 

 the ventral ligament along the uterus are probably an important part of 

 the normal apparatus which expels the egg. 



Some previous results may be recalled. The secretion of albumen 

 occurs in the isthmus and uterus as well as in the generally recognized 

 secretory region of the oviduct. There is some good evidence that the 

 effective stimulus to secretion is mechanical. The amount of secretion 

 by the duct depends in part on the intensity of stimulation, as is shown 

 by double-yolked and triple-yoked eggs. The muscular activity of the 

 walls of the oviduct are undoubtedly responsible for the shape of 

 the egg. The excision of one-fourth of the albumen-secreting region 

 and an end-to-end anastomosis of the remaining parts does not cause 

 permanent loss of function in the oviduct. The bird began to lay again 

 in four months, and the eggs were nearly normal. There seems to be 

 a compensatory action on the part of the duct. 



Development of Visual Cells in Amphibians.* — Guiseppe Levi 

 has studied this in larva? of Salamandrina perspicillata, Bufo viridis, 

 and Triton tseniatus. The external division of the cell, with the 

 characteristic appearance of a pile of disks, is not of chrondriosomic 

 origin, but probably represents a cuticular formation. The truncated 

 ellipsoid body in the internal division of the cell is derived from a 

 concentration of a mass of chonclriokonts ; when it has acquired its 

 definitive form it still retains its original chrondriosomic constitution. 



Development of the Nerves of the Eye-muscles.f — D. Pedaschenko 

 has studied this in various Lacertilian types and in dogfish. The 

 earliest primordia are simple groups of elongated cells or nuclei, like the 

 adjacent mesenchyme elements. There is every stage between a chain 

 of cells and irregular clumps of protoplasm with crowded nuclei. 

 Except a portion of the trochlear the primordia of these nerves to the 



* Anat. Anzeig., xlvii. (1914) pp. 192-9 (2 figs.), 

 t Anat. Anzeig., xlvii. (1914) pp. 145-80 (9 figs.). 



