738 SUMMARY OF CUKRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



which had mammary glands full of milk, and the hair moist round the 

 mammae. Be expresses the hope thai sonic American zoologist will 



corroborate or contradict Merriam's account. Isolated cases are known 

 in which a man has been able to produce milk, and Stengel induced 

 lactation by artificial manipulation of the milk glands in a male calf. 



Colour Inheritance in Pigeons.*— J. Lewis Bonhote and P. W. 



Srnalley state some of the results of a series of experiments in which they 

 are engaged. They have reached the following Mendelian conclusions : 

 1. Silver is dilute blue. 2. Blue is dominant to silver. 3. Chequering 

 is dominant to its absence (i.e. a self -colour). 4. Grizzling is dominant 

 to its absence (i.e. a self-colour). 5. Grizzling is dominant to chequering ; 

 the impure dominants may, however, sometimes be easily distinguished. 

 6. A mealy is a grizzled bird with the white wholly or partially replaced 

 by red. 7. Red in a mealy is apparently dominant to white, and hence 

 a mealy is dominant to a grizzle. 8. White and grizzling when they have 

 met combine together and have a common inheritance. 9. Red com- 

 bines with grizzling in the same way as does white. 



Many details, how T ever, do not entirely accord with the Mendelian 

 theory. Some law or series of laws over-rides and modifies (externally 

 at all events) the expected Mendelian results. A consistent deviation 

 from expected proportions occurs. It would seem that some factor 

 exists which has the power to influence but not to alter the gametic 

 inheritance. 



Interchange of Limbs of Chick by Transplantation.! — Florence 

 Peebles finds that it is possible for chick embryos to develop in porcelain 

 cups in a moist chamber at the proper temperature up to the ninth day, 

 although the development is delayed. The leg bud when removed may 

 be grafted on the proximal part of the wing, and the wung bud may be 

 grafted on the proximal portion of the leg without permanently injuring 

 the embryo. The results indicate that when the tip of a young bud is 

 grafted on the proximal portion of another limb it becomes a part of the 

 appendage to which it is attached instead of retaining the character of the 

 part it is destined to become. No regeneration of the limbs takes place 

 after the removal of the buds. 



Influence of Environment on Reproductive Pericd.} — The late 

 Salvatore Lo Bianco left an interesting paper in which he discussed the 

 movements of the sea, the chemical and physical conditions, the horizontal 

 and vertical distribution, the nutritive conditions, and the like, in their 

 influence on the period of reproduction. 



Involution of Tail in Alytes obstetr:cans.§ — P. Wintrebert finds 

 that neither the lateral line system nor any part of the spinal cord or 

 brain has any directive role in the metamorphosis. 



Physiology of Fish-eggs and Larvae. || — W. J. Dakin has continued 

 his enquiry into the physico-chemical relations existing between the body- 



* Proc. Zool. Soc, 1911, pp. 601-19 (4 pis.). 



t Biol. Bull., xx. (1910) pp. 14-18 (2 figs.). 



X MT. Zool. Stat. Neapel, xx. (1911) pp. 129-56. 



§ C.R. Soc. Biol., lxx. (1911) pp. 3-5. 



|| Internat. Rev. Hydrobiol., iii. (1910-11) pp. 487-95. 



