640 SUMMARY OF QUERENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



apparently ihe homologue of the " gill-snail " in Heterotis and various 

 members of the family CharacinidiB. In BypopJiihalmichihys the organ 

 is not spirally coiled, but is made up of four distinct parts, each attached 

 to a gill-arch and each infolded. No suggestion as to function has as 

 yet been made. 



Life-history of Littoral Fishes.*— Prof. W. C. MTntosh discusses the 

 breeding-habits cf such common fish as the shanuy, gunnel, viviparous 

 blenny, and so on, with the object of showing that, however the habits 

 may (lifter, the number of adult individuals remains fairly constant, and 

 that there must therefore in all cases be an enormous destruction of 

 eggs and youug larvae. The paper also includes some notes on Annelids. 



Biology ar;d Ethology. f — E. AVasmann maintains that it is justi- 

 fiable to use the term "Biology " for a scientific account _of the habits, 

 inter-relations, and conditions of life of organisms ; and that there is 

 not much reason to prefer the term "Ethology," still less Haeckel's 

 " Oekologie." It seems to us a historical question, and our reading of 

 the history is that " Biology " had originally a much wider significance 

 from which there is no reason to depart. For " Biologic " in Wasmann :- 

 sense, the British term " Bionomics " seems adequate. 



Tunic ata. 



Excretory Organs of Tunicates.J — Wilhelm Dahlgriin has investi- 

 gated these organs in a number of simple and colonial forms. The 

 organs occur in their simplest form in the Botryllidse, where they con- 

 sist of a large number of isolated cells, oval in form, and containing 

 brown granules. There are in addition somewhat similar cells in the 

 blood, which take up zoochlorellae from the blood, and live in symbiosis 

 -with them. In Ciona intestinalis the conditions are equally simple. In 

 the sub-family Aseidiina the cells are collected together into a definite 

 organ, and form numerous vesicles. The cells excrete a fluid which, 

 within the cavity of the vesicle, is converted into a brown amorphous 

 substance. In the most highly differentiated members of the family, 

 crystalline rods also appear at the ends cf the cells. In the Cynthiadaj 

 the cavities of the vesicles contain numerous crystals produced by the 

 lining cells, as well as concretions. The most elaborate form of excretory 

 organ occurs in the Molgulidae, the separate vesicles of the Cynthiada? 

 being here united into a largo sac, containing crystals, concretions, and 

 micro-organisms. 



INVERTEBRATA. 



Mollusca. 



7. Gastropoda. 



Notes on Acmsea testudinalis.S — Prof. M. A. Wilicox notes that 

 the nephridium is, like that of Patella, a large sac, beset, especially in 

 the anterior part, with numerous out-pocketiugs, enwrapping the viscera 



* Ann. Nat. Hist., xlv. (1001) pp. 210-32 (I pi.)- 

 t Biol. Ontralbl., xxi. (1901) pp. 301-400. 

 X Arch. Mikr. Anat,, lviii. (1901) pp. 008-10 (2 pis.). 

 § Zool. Anzcig., xxiv. pp. G23-4. 



