ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY. ETC. 301 



The alcoholic extract of the liver of Aplysia shows the spectrum of acid 

 chlorophyll. 



In Aplysia there are four kinds of hepatic colls — which are described 

 at length — (1) chlorophyllous absorbing cells, (2) secreting cells with 

 small drops, (3) secreting cells with large drops, and (4) spherular cells 

 which in one stage are characterised by numerous non-calcareous refrac- 

 tive spheres. In Pleurobranchxa, the chloropbyllous and spherular cells 

 ar: not represented; in Helix, there are absorbing, secreting, and spheru- 

 lar colls ; in Cephalopods (Octopus, Eledone, Sepia) there are secreting 

 cells with drops coloured brown, spherular cells like those of Gastero- 

 pods, and cells with red granules of unknown import ; in Ostrea edulis 

 there are only secreting cells with pigmented drops like those of 

 Cephalopods. In none of the forms studied was there evidence of 

 excretory function in the hepatic cells. The epithelial cells of the 

 stomach and caacum in Cephalopods — though characteiustically ciliated 

 — are full of absorbed fat-globules. 



Poisoning- from Conus.* — R. G. Corney notes that doubt has been 

 cast on tho opinion that the " bite " of certain species of Conus is poison- 

 ous, and reports a case from Fiji which is much to tho point. The 

 patient, a European subject, was extracting tho animal (Conns geogra- 

 phicus) from its shell, and received a puncture which was soon followed 

 by numbness, loss of speech, paralysis, and so on, with recovery in two 

 days. The condition resembled that which might be looked for after 

 poisoning with curare. 



Arthropoda. 

 o. Insecta. 



Copulation of House-Fly.f— Prof. A. Berlese gives a fine illustration 

 •of the careful scientific analysis of a familiar scene, the copulation of 

 Musca domestica. After a description of the male and female repro- 

 ductive organs, with admirable figures of the complex penis and ovi- 

 positor, Berlese discusses the copulatory process, in regard to which 

 the most remarkable fact is perhaps the relatively slight activity of the 

 external organs of the male and the very great activity of those of 

 tho female. Apart from preliminaries and the actual mounting on the 

 female, the male is relatively passive in the act. For it is the female 

 that introduces her ovipositor into the genital atrium of the male. 



Development of Nerve-Cord.} —Dr. K. Escherich concludes from 

 his study of tho embryos of Lucilia, that the ventral nerve-cord arises 

 from two genetically distinct systems — the paired lateral cords and the 

 impaired median strand. In Lucilia and in Muscidse generally the two 

 systems become intimately combined, but in the larval and imaginal 

 stages of most other insects the distinctness of the median strand is 

 evident, as Leydig and others have pointed out. 



Note3 on Galls. § — D. Manuel Fernandez de Gatta discusses the 

 Levantine galls on Quercus infectoria produced by Diplolepis gallse 



* Nature, Ixv. (1902) p. 193. 



t Kev. P.itol. Vegetale, ix. (1900-1901, published 1902) pp. 345-5G (12 fi>*s) 

 X Biol. Centralbl., xxii. ((1902) pp. 179-81 (4 figs.). 

 § Boll. Soc. Espan. Hist. Nat., ii. (1902) pp. 81-0. 

 June 18th, 1902 x 



