C14 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



origin in spring and summer to numerous elements of the hyaline leu- 

 cocyte series (a lympho-poietic role). 



Lateral Line System in Tadpoles of Alytes and Rana.* — P. Win- 

 trebert lias made a number of experiments which show that excitation 

 of the latei'al nerve is not followed by any motor reaction. The terminal 

 apparatus and caudal nerves of the lateral line system do not include any 

 fibre of general irritability. According to the author, the system has 

 not to do with taste or smell or the like, but is " a system of external 

 defence, allied to the auditory system, whose integrity is necessary for 

 equilibration." 



Regeneration in Newts.f— Gustav Wolff brings forward evidence 

 to show that the regeneration of the hind limb of Triton cristatus is 

 dependent on the nervous system. He dwells especially on the remark- 

 able fact that if an abnormal limb, say with two toes, be cut off, the 

 same kind of monstrosity is regenerated. His conclusion applies only to 

 the case with which he has experimented, for Wolff is careful to point out 

 that the regeneration of the lens, for instance, takes place without nervous 

 stimulus. 



Function of Cerebellum in Fishes.} — V. Franz brings forward 

 evidence in support of the view that the cerebellum plays a very im- 

 portant role in connexion with locomotion in water, for the precise 

 regulation of the voluntary muscles. It is more than an equilibrating 

 organ : it is a "precision-organ." It appears to be a universal centre 

 for all sorts of sensory stimuli. Just as in terrestrial animals the 

 pallium (of the cerebral cortex) is a new central organ in addition to the 

 olfactory centre, so the cerebellum in aquatic animals has been added on 

 to the auditory centre. 



Reduction and Oxidation in Animal Tissues.§— P. G. Unna dis- 

 cusses at length the problem of the localization of these two processes, 

 his general thesis being that the reduction-areas are those tissue-elements 

 which contain catalase, but no peroxydases, and that oxidation-areas are 

 those (notably the nuclei) which contain peroxydases, but no catalase. 



Equilibration in Aquatic Animals. |] — Albrecht Bethe discusses this 

 problem with reference to a variety of types, both with and without 

 statocysts, and distinguishes those which are by construction stable in a 

 given position from those " labile " forms which keep themselves in the 

 normal position by a co-ordination of many movements. He notes, in 

 reference to young fishes, that in some cases the newly-hatched forms are 

 automatically stable, and that they thus get a start in the acquirement 

 of equilibrating co-ordination. 



Summer Plankton of West of Scotland and Irish Sea.1"— W. A. 

 Eerdman shows that the abundant vernal phyto-plankton dies away in 



* C.R. Soc. Biol., lxxi. (1911) pp. 100-2. 



t Festschrift R. Hertwig, iii. (1910) pp. 67-80 (1 fig.), 



t Biol. Centralbl., xxxi. (1911) pp. 434-45. 



§ Arch. Mikr. Anat., lxxviii. (1911) Festschrift Waldever, pp. 1-73. 



| Festschrift R. Hertwig, iii. (1910) pp. 81-92 (10 figs.). 



«j Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.) xxxii. (1911) pp. 23-38 (8 figs.). 



