ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MIGKOSCOPY, ETC. 27 



Phylogeny of Vertebrate Eye * — A. Froriep discusses the question 

 of the possible descent of the vertebrate eye from the eyes of ascidian 

 larvffi. His evidence points to the conclusion that the tlieory of direct 

 descent must be rejected. At the same time, there is much to be said 

 for the view that both organs have arisen from identical forms, to which 

 the eye-pits of verteljrate embryos are nearer than the eye of the xiscidian 

 larva. 



Animal Poisons.t^ — Edwin Stanton Faust gives a comprehensive 

 account of animal poisons, dealing both with those animals which bite 

 or sting, and with those whose flesh or juices are poisonous. 



Palaeontology and Biology.^ — A. Smith Woodward points out that 

 paleontology bears the same relation to the whole world of life that 

 embryology bears to the structure of the individual organism. " The 

 one deals with the rise and growth of races and their varying relation- 

 ships, the other describes and interprets the evolution [rather develop- 

 ment] of an individual, and the processes by which the different parts of 

 its mechanism are finally adjusted." The biologist equipped with an 

 adequate knowledge of paleontology cannot fail to perceive that 

 throughout the evolution of the organic world there has been a periodical 

 succession of impulses, each introducing not only a higher grade of life, 

 but also fixing some essential characters that had been variable in the 

 grade immediately below. In a very suggestive way the illustrious 

 paleontologist points out that " paleontology contributes to biology by 

 placing the oft-repeated comparison of life with crystallisation in an 

 entirely new light." 



Internal Secretion and Nerve Influence.§— M. Nussbaum has in- 

 vestigated this subject experimentally by severing the nerve connections 

 of the thumb of male frogs, and finds that the internal secretion of the 

 sex gland taken up into the blood acts in the same manner as a specific 

 poison does upon definite nerve centres. This action leads through the 

 centrifugal peripheral nerves to an altered condition in the related parts : 

 thus in the secondary sex organs of the frog a striking growth occurs 

 through the medium of the testis secretion, but only when the nerves 

 are sound. 



Phylogeny of Buccal Muscles. |1—H. Rouviere gives an account of 

 certain muscles in the floor of the mouth in the five vertebrate classes, 

 and discusses their comparative morphology, with particular reference 

 to the phylogeny of the digastric and genio-hyoid. The digastric in 

 man is formed by the union of two muscles at first distinct ; these 

 constitute the anterior and posterior belly respectively of the digastric. 

 The anterior and the genio-hyoid have the same phylogenetic origin, 

 both are derived from the pre-hyoid portion of the sterno-maxillary. 

 The posterior belly of the digastric and the stylo-hyoid are derived from 



"■ Anat. Anzeig., xxix. (1906) Erganzungsheft, pp. 145-51 (2 figs.), 

 t Die Tierische Gifte. Braunschweig, 1906, xiv. and 248 pp. See also Ann. 

 Nat. Hist., xviii. (1906) p. 320. 



X Ann. Nat. Hist., xviii. (1906) pp. 312-18. 



§ Anat. Anzeig., xxix. (1906) pp. 431-2. 



II Journ. de I'Anat. et Phys., xlii. (1906) No. 5, pp. 487-540 (3 pis.). 



