564 SUMMARY OF CUEEENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



elusion that after one ovary has been removed compensatory hypertrophy 

 occurs in the other, but only if the animal is allowed to becomi 

 pregnant, or at least to have sexual intercourse. The authors rind 

 that not only is sexual intercourse unnecessary for the purpose of 

 inducing compensatory hypertrophy in the ovary, but that ovulation is 

 not essential. Moreover, if one ovary be removed at a very early stage 

 of pregnancy, abortion does not necessarily follow, the remaining ovary 

 being apparently sufficient for the continuance of pregnancy until full 

 time. 



Passage of Ether from Mother to Fcetus.* — Maurice Nicloux has 

 proved in guinea-pigs that ether, like chloroform and alcohol, can pass 

 from mother to fcetus. As with chloroform, the quantity found in the 

 foetal liver is greater than that in the maternal liver, which probably 

 means that the former is proportionately richer in lecithin. 



Infundibular Gland and Choroid Plexus.j — L. Gentes shows that 

 the mode of development (in the Torpedo) is in favour of the interpreta- 

 tion which regards the infundibular gland as a ventral choroid plexus. 



Abnormalities in Hind Limbs of Rana esculenta.J — E. Reichenow 

 reports on a number of abnormalities observed in a collection of several 

 thousand young frogs. One had one hind leg, another had three, and 

 a third had four. He refers to some similar cases recently reported by 

 Woodland, and suggests that a collection should be made of what are 

 certainly not great rarities. 



Vitalistic Theory of Evolution. §— K. C. Schneider, a thorough- 

 going vitalist, who believes in a specific vital energy of a psychical 

 nature, gives an outline of a vitalistic theory of evolution. He combines 

 what seems to him sound in various existing theories. Thus he is in 

 many ways in agreement with Weismann, but replaces his idea of deter- 

 minants by an idea of potencies, and he maintains that of all biological 

 factors the psychical is the most important. He does not find any 

 warrant for believing in the transmission of somatic modifications, but 

 he accepts another piece of the Lamarckiau theory, namely, that great 

 importance must be attached to the independent responses of the 

 organism which is above all things a creative agent. He lays stress on 

 mutations, but still more on what he calls " descensions," that is to say, 

 great changes in organisation, such as the acquisition of a notochord or 

 gill-clefts. To account for these " big lifts " in evolution, he invokes the 

 aid of a self-assertive entelechy or soul or formative principle. 



Inheritance of Manner of Clasping the Hands. || — Frank E. Lutz 

 discusses data concerning the manner in which the different members of 

 families put the right-hand or left-hand thumb uppermost in clasping the 



* C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, lxiv. (1908) pp. 329-31. 

 f Tom. cit., pp. 6S7-9. 



% Zool. Anzeig., xxxii. (1908) pp. 677-82 (4 figs.) 



§ Versuch einer Begriindung der Descendenztheorie. Jena : Fischer, 1908, 

 viii. and 132 pp. || Amer. Nat., xlii. (1908) pp. 195-6. 



