ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 1G3 



results remove the concrescence theory from the region of hypothesis to 

 that of proved fact. 



Chondrocranium of Cercopithecus cynomolgus.* — Dr. Eugen Fischer 

 describes the primordial brain-case in an embryo of this monkey of 25 mm. 

 in length, and points out the close general resemblance to that of man. 

 A point of much interest is the fact that the nasal surface is of con- 

 spicuous breadth, especially at the root. The interest of this fact is that 

 it confirms the hypothesis of Schwalbe, that man and the monkeys are 

 both descended from an ancestor with a broad interorbital septum, and 

 that this has persisted in man, and undergone reduction in the monkeys, 

 especially in the Catarrhine forms. Now the monkey investigated has 

 in adult life a singularly narrow interorbital septum, but in the embryo 

 it is as wide as in a human embryo, so that tho embryo affords a 

 striking: confirmation of Schwalbe's view. 



Epithelium of Epididymis in Mammals.f — Albert Aigner has ex- 

 amined the epididymis from recently killed animals in the case of a 

 number of common mammals. He finds that in the ductuli efferentes 

 the activity of the cilia is so great as to produce a constant current, 

 driving onwards the mass of sperms contained in the ducts ; the sperms 

 do not here display movements of their own. In the ductus enididy- 

 midis, on the other hand, no ciliary movement could be made out ; here 

 the sperms are themselves actively motile. Histological examination 

 shows in both cases what appear to be cilia on the cells, but in the 

 ductus epididymidis basal swellings are absent in connection with the 

 " cilia," and the cells show a tendency to replace this resting tuft of 

 " cilia " by a structureless process. These conditions the author ex- 

 plains as follows: — In the ductuli efferentes both ciliated cells and 

 gland-cells are present, but in the ductus epididymidis only gland-cells, 

 and the so-called cilia of these cells are so modified by the. secretion 

 poured out by the cells that they become irregular processes, incapable 

 of movement. The author believes that the " cilia," so-called, of these 

 cells are not true cilia at all, but are analogous to the cell-prolonga- 

 tions described elsewhere in gland-cells. A search for gland-cells 

 shows that in rabbit, horse, cat, and rat certain cells of the ductuli 

 efferentes display clear signs of secretory activity, but the author is 

 unable to believe that these same cells may also display active cilia. 

 In the ductus epididymidis patches of secretory cells are quite distinct. 

 The general result is thus to emphasise the difference between the 

 ductuli efferentes and the ductus epididymidis. 



Development of Ear in Man.}— Dr. Aug. Hammar publishes a paper 

 on the structures which develop in connection with the first visceral 

 cleft, as the first of a series upon the development of the fore-gut, and 

 the organs connected with it. He finds that the fossa concha) arises 

 from a deepening of the ventral part of the first gill-cleft. The fossa 

 then becomes divided into three regions, a deep median, the cavitas 

 conchre, a lower, the incisura intertragica, and a superior, the cymba 

 conchae. The primary auditory meatus arises in the later part of the 



* Anat. Anzeig.. xx. (1902) pp. 410-7 (1 fig.). 



t SB. k. Aka.f. Wins. Wien, cix. (1900) pp. 555-81 (2 pis.). 



t Arch, Mikr. Anat, lix. (1902) pp. 471-628 (4 pis.). 



M 2 



