ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, .MICROSCOPY, ETC. 701 



additional ovaries ; and that the presence of a successfully grafted ovary 

 in an abnormal position, whether from the same or from another 

 individual, is sufficient to arrest the degenerative changes in the uterus 

 which usually take place after complete extirpation of the ovaries. It 

 may be concluded that the ovarian influence is chemical rather than 

 nervous in nature. 



Mendelian Characters among Short-horn Cattle.* — James Wilson 

 maintains that the modern short-horns are descended from two races, 

 the White Roman and the Red Saxon, the " red " including red, red 

 with little white, and red and white. Statistics taken from the " Short- 

 horn Herd-book " are summed up in the following table : — 



•438 reds crossed by reds produce 



3 whites whites 



135 whites reds 



514 roans roans 



1008 roans reds 



74 roans whites 



These figures do not come out in Mendelian ratios with perfect 

 accuracy, but the discrepancies can be explained as the result of three 

 causes : (1) that it sometimes requires a close examination to distinguish a 

 red from a roan calf ; (2) white short-horns, being of smaller money value 

 than roans or reds, are often left unregistered ; (3) among unscrupulous 

 breeders the substitution of a coloured calf for a white one is not 

 unknown, a white calf's pedigree being bestowed upon a roan or a red. 



Another set of data — consisting of entries by careful breeders in 

 vol. lii. of the " Herd-book " — shows an approximation to Mendelian 

 ratios, bearing out the historical inference that the roan short-horn is a 

 hybrid between two races, one white, the other "red." This second 

 table is : 



95 reds crossed by reds produce 

 1 white white produces 



78 reds whites produce 



370 roans roans 



426 roans reds 



53 roans whites 



1023 



New Views concerning Fertilisation and Maturation.f — Julius 

 Ries argues in favour of various new views, e.g., that the spermatozoon, 

 as a whole, enters the ovum and moves there ; that the astrospheres 

 arise from the residue of the tail ; that the division of the centrosome is 

 associated with a division of the tail of the spermatozoon ; that the 

 ovum-centrosome passes out with the polar bodies. 



Spermatozoa of Seals.! — E. Ballowitz describes the minute structure 

 of the ripe spermatozoa of Phoca vitulina, but he does not find any 

 peculiarity. They closely resemble the spermatozoa of Carnivores, 

 especially of the dog. 



• Scient. Proc. R. Dublin. Soc, xi. (1908) pp. 317-24. 



+ MT. Nat. Ges. Bern, Nos. 1629-1664 (1908) pp. 43-57 (15 figs.). 



X Anat. Anzeig., xxxiii. (1908) pp. 253-6 (6 figs.). 



