638 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Toxic Properties of the Saliva of certain Non-poisonous Colu- 

 brines.* — A. Alcock and L. Rogers have experimented with Cerberus 

 rhyncops, Dipsas forstcnii, Dryophis mycterizans, Zamenis mucosus, and 

 Tropidonotus piscator, and have found, even from a few experiments, 

 strong reason to believe that the difference between poisonous and " non- 

 poisonous " Colubrines is not a radical one, but is only one of degree, 

 and that the parotid secretion of some of the " harmless " Colubrines 

 is to a certain extent poisonous when injected subcutaneously. 



Venom of Snakes.f — C. Delezenne finds that the venom of snakes 

 (cobra, Bothrops) contains a diastase having the same properties as 

 enterokinase, or the kinase of leucocytes and microbes. He asks whether 

 it may have digestive importance, and whether it is distinct from the 

 principle which gives the venom its toxicity. 



Systematic Position of Pleuronectidse.J — G. A. Boulenger proposes 

 tbe establishment of a division of the suborder Acanthopterygii, under 

 the name of Zeorhombi, defined as aberrant, strongly compressed Perci- 

 formes, with very short praecaudal region, modified in the direction of 

 the flat-fishes, and characterised by the combination of an increased 

 number (7-9) of ventral rays, with absence of hypural spine (by wbich 

 Beiycidse are excluded), or by asymmetry of the skull in the forms in 

 which the spine of the ventral fin has been lost. This division would 

 include Zeidas, Amphistiidse, and Plenronectidae. In short, the author 

 seeks to derive the Pleuronectidas from an ancestral type to which Zeidse 

 and Arnphistiidaa are related. 



Vertebrae of Terrestrial Carnivores.§ — E. Stromer von Eeichenbach 

 has made a monographic study of the morphology and systematic sig- 

 nificance of the vertebras of terrestrial carnivores, including some 

 extinct forms. The atlas — which has the most complex functions — gives 

 the best clue to systematic relations ; the other vertebrae seem to be 

 relatively insignificant in this respect. 



Zoologischer Jahresbericht.|| — We have received the last volume 

 of the Naples Zoologischer Jahresbericht (for 1901), conforming in 

 plan, excellence, and punctuality, to its predecessors. 



Bonelli, an early Italian Lamarckian.1T — L. Camerano gives an 

 interesting account of Franco Andrea Bonelli, who professed zoology at 

 Turin from 1811 to 1830, and maintained, as documentary evidence 

 shows, what would now be called a well-defined Lamarckian position in 

 regard to evolution. 



Tunicata. 



Heart of Diplosomidse.** — A. Pizon has made some interesting 

 observations on the extraordinary vitality of the heart in these com- 



* Proc. Roy. Soc. London, lxx. (1902) pp. 446-54. 

 t Comptes Rendus, cxxxv. (1902) pp. 32S-9. 

 X Ann. Nat. Hist., x. (1902) pp. 295-304. 



§ Zoologica, xv. (1902) pp. 1-276 (5 pis. and many tables of measurements). 

 || Berlin, 8vo, viii. and about 400 pp. not consecutively paginated. 

 \ Atti Accad. Sci. Torino, xxxvii. (1902) pp. 455-64. 

 ** Comptes Rendua, cxxxiv. (1902) pp. 1528-30. 



