570 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



of van't Hoff's formula to the respiratory exchange in a goldfish. 

 According to van't Hoff's formula, the velocity of a process increases in 

 geometric progression when the temperature is increased in algebraic 

 progression. In the twenty-two days during which the experiments 

 were made, the gas exchange of the fish at a constant temperature 

 remained practically unaltered. The same result was obtained 

 with a narcotized fish (to eliminate voluntary muscular movements). 

 Van't Hoff's rule does not apply. " Discrepancies of the same order as 

 those met with in the present case between the observations and the 

 van't Hoff curves, which are supposed to represent them, are the rule 

 and not the exception with regard to biological processes." 



Brain of a Foetal Gorilla.* — E. Anthony gives an account of this 

 very rare object of study. The probable age was between six and seven 

 months. Compared with the brain of a human foetus of corresponding- 

 age, it was not so high or so globular, the frontal region receded more, 

 the lower orbital plane was less depressed, and the telencephalic flexure 

 was less pronounced. In profile it recalled the endocranial casts of 

 Quaternary man from la Chapelle-aux-Saints and la Quina. Minute 

 details are given of the state of the various parts. 



Morphology of the Coracoid. j — The late R. Lydekker contrasted 

 the two main interpretations of the ventral elements or element in the 

 shoulder-girdle of Vertebrates other than fishes. According to one view 

 the posterior ventral bone in the Monotreme shoulder-girdle is the true 

 coracoid, equivalent to the single ventral element in birds and post- 

 Triassic reptiles. The anterior bone is designated precoracoid or 

 epicoracoid. According to Lydekker (1893) the epicoracoid of Mono- 

 tremes and Mammal-like reptiles corresponds to the coracoid process in 

 man, and the posterior bone should be called metacoracoid. In birds and 

 post-Triassicreptiles, the single ventral element should be also designated 

 metacoracoid. 



"Williston has recently shown that when one of the two ventral 

 elements disappears, it is the posterior that is lost. Consequently, 

 Lydekker pointed out, " the element in birds and post-Triassic reptiles 

 universally known as the coracoid is entitled to retain that designation, 

 as being the homologue of the human coracoid process and its equivalent, 

 the true coracoid of the Monotremes and Mammal-like reptiles." 



Tunicata. 



New Species of Agnesia from Japan.! — Asajiro Oka describes 

 Agnesia Mmeboja from the Bay of Tateyama. It is one of the Corellida?, 

 and the genus is marked by the entire absence of the inner longitudinal 

 vessels on the branchial sac. Its occurrence in Japanese waters is in- 

 teresting from the point of view of geographical distribution, for 



* Comptes Rendus, clxi. (1915) pp. 153-5 (1 fig.). 



t Proc. Zool. Soc, 1915, pp. 235-7 (2 figs.). 



j Annot. Zool. Japon., ix. (1915) pp. 1-6 (3 figs.). 



