518 SUM.MA.RY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



tail ; and AmMy stoma punctatum, with five legs. The features present 

 in the last specimen are discussed, with reference to their bearing on 

 the problems of variation in the length of the pre-sacral region and of 

 asymmetrical sacra. 



Albumin Extracted from Frog's Ova.* — J. Gallimard gives an 

 analysis of "ranovin," an albumin extracted from frogs' eggs. It is 

 complex, slightly acid, peculiar to the species (Rana esculenta), and 

 related chemically to the "clupeovin" extracted from the eggs of 

 herring and the " vitellins " of various birds' eggs. The general result 

 that the albumins of various ova differ according to the species is of 

 some interest. 



Oviducal Gland of Elasmobranchs.t — J. Borcea states that this 

 gland consists of two parts, a dorsal and a ventral. The former is 

 developed most towards the right side, and the latter towards the left. 

 In each part there are two zones : a superior, secreting albumen, and an 

 inferior, secreting the horny substance of the shell. In each zone there 

 is an external part composed of secretory tubes, and an internal lamellar 

 apparatus for receiving, conducting and disposing of the secreted pro- 

 ducts. Mucin is secreted in- the part beneath the gland, which assists 

 the egg-shell down the oviduct. 



Descriptions of Bolca Fishes. f — C. R. Eastman reviews the litera- 

 ture of these fishes, and gives descriptions, with synonomy of type 

 specimens preserved in various museums. A list is also given of all the 

 types and figured specimens in the Paris Museum of Natural History, 

 which is the largest single collection of these fishes at present existing. 

 The writer concludes that not only does the Eocene fish fauna bear an 

 overwhelmingly modern aspect, but many of its types are as highly 

 specialised as they are to-day ; and forms which at the present day are 

 widely aberrant have representatives as far back as the Middle Eocene. 

 It is evident that an " expression point " (to use Cope's apt term) was 

 reached in the evolution of ichthyic life exactly corresponding to, and 

 contemporaneous with that which is so well recognised in mammalian 

 life, although the cause of the phenomena is in each case unknown. 



Pelagic Fauna of the Lake of Bret.§ — Charles Linder has made 

 a careful study, involving twenty-eight explorations, of the small Lac de 

 Bret, not far from Lausanne. It is a small moraine lake, of Glacial 

 origin, only about a mile long, with a maximum depth of 18 cm., but it 

 contains no fewer than thirty-one representatives of the zooplankton, 

 and is also very rich in littoral forms. The memoir is a good example 

 of careful and methodical faunistric survey. 



Origin of the Marine (Halolimnic) Fauna of Lake Tanganyika. || 

 W. H. Hudleston discusses, as far as the available data permit, the 

 "Tanganyika problem." The zoological aspect is mainly studied by 



* Cornptes Rendus, cxxxviii. (1904) pp. 1354-5. 



t Tom. cit., pp. 99-102. 



I Bull. Mus. Zool. Harvard, xlvi. (1904) pp. 1-36 (2 pis.). 



§ Revue Suisse Zool., xii. (1904) pp. 149-258 (1 pi.). 



|| Geol. Mag. Decade V., i. No. 7 (1904) Supplement, pp. 337-82. 



