ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 521 



nervous influence, like the function of the lungs in higher animals. 5 ^ If 

 the expansion of the bladder exceeds a certain point, then a particular 

 set of nerve fibres (corresponding to the Vagus fibres of the lungs) is 

 irritated, and an opening of the " oval " * follows, and an exit of oxygen 

 into the blood results. If the cubic content of the swim-bladder 

 becomes too small, then a set of nerves functioning in an opposite 

 manner is excited, and the red body is induced to the secretion of oxygen. 



Notes on Dipnoan Cranium. f — K. Fiirbinger finds that the bone 

 which lies concealed in cartilage in the occipital region, first noted by 

 Huxley and termed by him " exoccipital," is, from a consideration of its 

 relations, particularly to the spinal nerves, to be regarded rather as a 

 neural arch. On one example he found the neural spine of this arch. 

 The author was able to establish the same origin for this bone in an 

 adult Lepidosiren and also in a young Protopterus of 5*5 cm. length. 



Chimseroids.J — Samuel Garman describes the interesting Japanese 

 form Rhinochimccra pacifica, which requires the establishment of a new 

 family Rhinochirnasridas, including Harriotta ; similarly CaUorhynchus 

 requires a special family Callorhynchidas, and Chimcera another. The 

 author indicates how Rhinochimccra agrees with and differs from the 

 other types : it has an ancestral feature in its long proboscis, its teeth 

 resemble the embryonic and ancestral forms more than those of the 

 other recent genera of Chimasriformes ; the brain is nearer to that of 

 CaUorhynchus than to that of Chimcera ; the notochord is provided with 

 rings like that of Chimcera ; the lateral canal system of Rhinochimcera 

 and Harriotta are made up of pseudo-tubules, tubes narrowly slit out- 

 wardly, that of CaUorhynchus consists of tubes, that of Chimcera is a 

 system of grooves. 



Garman refers to the great interest of Chirnasroids, whose " line of 

 descent extends to Devonian times and away beyond and back to a 

 meeting with that of the Plagiostomia near the point at which the latter 

 separated from the bony fishes." Certain peculiarities of the ChimEeroids, 

 especially of skull and brain, are perhaps best accounted for by suppos- 

 ing the group to have been derived from a short-snouted and short- 

 faced stock. 



Pisciculture.! — Louis Eoule discusses under the title " Piscifacture " 

 what can be done in the way of collecting ova, preventing waste of ova, 

 ensuring fertilisation, hatching the embryos, rearing the larvae, lessening 

 the elimination of young forms, and liberating the young fry in closed 

 areas or in the open sea. There does not seem to be anything new in 

 his essay, but it discusses the possibilities and the difficulties in a lucid 

 manner, and includes some useful hints from an expert embryologist's 

 standpoint. 



Evolution of Atherinae in Fresh Water.||— L. Eoule describes how 

 Atherina lacustris evolved itself out of A. boyeri, and A. riaueti in the 



* Pfliigers Arch, fur Phys., Band xciv., p. 93. 



t Anat. Anzeig., xxiv. (1904) pp. 405-8. 



X Bull. Mus. Zool. Harvard, xli. (1904) pp. 245-72 (14 pis.). 



§ Mem. Acad. Sci. Toulouse, iii. ser. 10 (1903) pp. 390-402. 



|| Comptes Bendus, cxxxviii. (1903) pp. 1276-7. 



Oct. 19th, 1904. 2 o 



