ZOOLOGY ANDJ30TANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 545 



rabbit the red blood-corpuscles are more resistant than the white cor- 

 puscles, and the serum contains in excess a very active anti-hsemoljtic 

 agent. The red blood-corpuscles of the dog are less resistant than the 

 white corpuscles, and more fragile than those of the rabbit. In the 

 serum the " sensibilatrice " predominates over the " antihemolysine." 

 The transformation of the haemoglobin into methasmoglobin is due to 

 the oxidising action of the echidnase in the venom. 



Long- Fast of Python.* — J. Pellegrin recalls some cases of pro- 

 longed fasts in snakes, — 49 months in Pelophilus, 29 months in Python 

 sebse, — and records a new cas ». On the 17th November, 1899, the 

 collection of reptiles at the Museum of Natural History in Paris re- 

 ceived a superb specimen of Python reticulaius, measuring 6*45 metres, 

 and weighing 75 kilogrammes. It refused all food, remained almost 

 quite inert, slowly lost in weight, and after prolonged local death suc- 

 cumbed on the 20th April, 1902, after a fast of 2 years 5 months and 

 H days. It had lost about two-thirds (48 kilogrammes) of its original 

 weight. 



Ciliated Grooves in Brain of Ammocoete.f — A. Dendy has found 

 in the New Zealand lamprey (Geotria australis) and in Petromyzon a 

 pair of conspicuous ciliated grooves lying in the roof of the brain in 

 the neighbourhood of the posterior commissure, extending from the 

 recessus sub-pinealis to the hinder margin of the posterior commissure. 

 They are most conspicuous beneath the commissure itself, in which 

 region they are line 1 by a sharply defined epithelium of very long 

 ■columnar cells, totally different in appearance from the epithelium 

 which lines the remainder of the brain-cavity. Their function is 

 probably to promote the circulation of the brain-fluid. 



Cranial Nerves of Amphiuma.J — J- S. Kingsley has made a study 

 of the topographical relations of the cranial nerves in this Amphibian. 



Systematic Position of Caecilians § — J. S. Kingsley discusses the 

 whole question, comparing the different suggestions that have been 

 made by various authorises. He thinks the facts justify us in accepting 

 Huxley's conclusion, as true to-clay as when it was published in 1878, 

 that none of the Gymnophiona present the slightest indication of an 

 approximation towards the Anura or the Urodela. 



It is admitted that there are certain superficial resemblances to 

 Amphiiima, but the Gymnophiona are certainly not Urodela, and Am- 

 phiuma is not a neotaenic Casciliau. The Gymnophiona form a distinct 

 order, and the only point of union between them and the others must 

 be sought, where VViedersheim looked for it in 1879, in the extinct 

 group of Stegocephali. 



All evidence of structure, as well as the significant fact of discon- 

 tinuous distribution, tends to show that the Gymnophiona are an ex- 

 tremely old group, though no fossil forms are known. They are the 

 most stegocephaline of existing Amphibians, and deserve far more study 

 than has as yet been given to them. 



* Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xvii. (1902) pp. 164-0. 



i Proe. Loy. Soc. London, lxix. (1902) pp. -185-94 (6 figs.). 



X Tufts College Studies, 1902, pp. 293-321 (3 pis.). 



§ Tom. cit., pp. 323-44 (1 fig.). 



