M. de Blainville on tlie Cheiroptera. 21 



differed from that of Raspail. I first allowed the crystallifer- 

 ous tissue to digest in diluted nitric acid ; I then filtered, and 

 added ammonia ; I collected the white precipitate which was 

 then thrown down, and heated it on a platina dish. Its effer- 

 vescence proved the existence of some vegetable acid, probably 

 the tartaric or oxalic. 



The author subjoins, somewhat incidentally, some observa- 

 tions upon the latex vessels, in connexion with a figure which 

 accompanies his memoir. Their purport is to the following 

 effect. These vessels, described by Schultz and Meyen, are 

 altogether different from the vasa propria^ as M. Mohl has 

 proved. They also contain a juice which is much more muci- 

 laginous in its composition, as well as resinous and gum-resi- 

 nous substances. The vasa propria constitute a part, so to 

 speak, of the vascular bundles, and probably discharge an im- 

 portant function in the movements of the juices. The latex ves- 

 sels, on the contrary, never accompany the other vascular bun- 

 dles; they are invariably separated from them by cellular tis- 

 sue ; and develope themselves by the anastomoses of many cells 

 placed end to end. In fact, they appear to me to belong more 

 to the cellular than to the vascular system. In one of these fi- 

 gures the author has represented these nascent vessels as they 

 appear in the pith of the Ficus Bengalensis. Here they are 

 quadrilateral cellules placed end to end ; nor do they differ 

 from other parenchymatous cellules, unless it be that they al- 

 ready contain a great number of those roundish granules which 

 form the greatest portion of the latex. This mode of formation 

 is in perfect harmony with what we observe concerning the for- 

 mation of other organs, such, for example, as the spiral vessels, 

 which are nothing more than anastomosing cellules placed end 

 to end. M. linger has never hitherto been able to determine 

 any movement of the latex, and he purposes soon to prosecute 

 the investigation of the subject. 



On the Classification and Antiq^dty of the Cheiroptera, By 

 M. de Blainville. 



M. DE Blainville lately read to the Academic des Sciences 

 the result of his researches concerning the antiquity of th 



