32 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



liow far the structure helps toward an understanding of the problems of 

 the performance of the function. For the present it seems clear that the 

 laws of morphological structure and of physiological structure, though 

 they must be fundamentally correlated, are . much more different than 

 many are accustomed to think of them. 



Structure of Bone in its Functional Aspect.* — Dr. J. Wolff has 

 returned to this subject, which he discussed in his ' Gesetz der Trans- 

 formation der Knochen ' (Berlin, 1892). The leading idea, that the 

 architecture corresponds in detail to what is demanded by the prevalent 

 strains and stresses, was suggested by Bourgery and Ward, and after- 

 wards developed by the mathematician Culman, and also by H. von 

 Meyer. To Wolff, however, belongs the credit of showing how, in the 

 transformation of bones, in response to altered function, the same archi- 

 tectural principles, so to speak, are observed. In normal and abnormal 

 conditions alike, the bone is mechanically correlated to the needs of the 

 case. 



Utility of Phosphorescence in Deep-Sea Animals, f — Mr. C. C„ 

 Nutting advances the hypothesis that all the more important organisms 

 upon which fixed Ccelentera feed (small Crustaceans, Protozoa, &c.) are 

 likely to be attracted by light, that phosphorescent light affects them in 

 this manner, and that, therefore, the utility of the phosphoresence of so- 

 many fixed Ccelentera is to help them to secure their food. 



Grouping of Hairs on the Skin 4— Dr. J. C. H. de Meijere con- 

 siders one of Maurer's arguments for deriving hairs from integumentary 

 sense-organs. The argument is that both are distributed over the skin 

 in groups, the members of which arise from a single primordium. 

 According to de Meijere the simplest grouping of hairs is in threes, 

 of which the mid-hair exceeds the laterals in length and thickness, but 

 the members of the group do not arise from a single primordium. He 

 gives detailed illustrations, showing that Maurer's hypothesis does not 

 fit the facts as regards the grouping of hairs. 



Pneumaticity of Mammalian Skull.§ — Dr. Simon Paulli begins a 

 series of memoirs on this subject with a discussion of the comparative 

 morphology of the bones of the olfactory capsule. The present paper 

 is devoted especially to the olfactory region in Monotremes and Mar- 

 supials, and to the contrast between these and other mammals. He 

 finds that in Ornithorhynchus the peripheral olfactory organ is much 

 reduced, while in Echidna it reaches a high degree of developments 

 In the latter the cribriform plate is horizontal, a position which is 

 necessitated by the great development of the olfactory lobes, and which 

 modifies the position of the other bones of the olfactory region. Neither 

 in Echidna nor in Ornithorhynchvs are there any pneumatic spaces. 

 Among Marsupials these have been found only in Phascolarctus, and in 

 that animal the form of the nasoturbinal and of the fifth endoturbinal 

 is in consequence much modified. These observations lead the author 

 to the conclusion that the olfactory capsule usually displays adaptive- 



* Virchow's ArcMv, civ. (1899) p. 256. See Biol. Centralbl., xix. (1899) 

 pp. 738-44. + Amer. Nat., xxxiii. (1899) pp. 793-9. 



X Anat. Anzeig., xvi. (1899) pp. 249-56 (2 figs.). 

 § Morphol. Jabrb., xxviii. (1899) pp. 147-78 (1 pi. and 16 figs.). 



