ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 663 



neuroglia is similar to that shown by Gierke and other observers, but the 

 structure of the columns is different. They are composed of fibrillated 

 protoplasm, not of closely applied fibres. Large, leaf-like masses of 

 protoplasm lying between and connected with the radial axes, contain a 

 few irregular fibres. There is no cell-membrane or differential exoplasm 

 in any of the protoplasmic structures. The nuclei of the neuroglia lie 

 for the most part, near the internal limiting membrane, but others are 

 scattered about the network. They are large, round or oval, and the 

 protoplasm surrounding them varies from a thin even layer to a wide 

 irregular mass The neuroglia is, therefore, a syncytium comparable to 

 that found in human and pig embryos. 



Mitosis in Proliferating Epithelium.*— J. 0. Wakelin Barratt 

 has induced epithelial proliferation in the rabbit's ear by injection 

 beneath the skin of Scharlach R. (azo-orthotoluol-azo-/?-naphthol). 

 In the epithelium proliferating in situ and in the same implanted under 

 the skin both normal somatic and reduced mitoses occur. In the 

 reduction mitoses the number of chromosomes which could be counted 

 varied from 14 to IS. In the somatic form the number counted varied 

 from 28 to 36. Reduction mitoses could be recognised less frequently 

 than somatic mitoses. Post-reduction mitoses were met with. 



c. General. 



Nature of Living Organisms.f— A. E. Hilton discusses this 

 question. Although he admits that any attempt to gain a forced clear- 

 ness in regard to plasm is misleading, he thinks we "can "combine the 

 ideas before us into a practical working notion of automatic chemical 

 machinery." Remembering that all things fundamentally consist of 

 plasm, and that the activities of plasm are mainly concurrent, we have 

 to realise : " (1) that plasm is a mobile, restless, unstable, watery colloid, 

 with catalytic properties, growing by assimilation and forming structures 

 by precipitation ; (2) that adaptation to environment and power of 

 reproduction, are secured by reversible chemical processes ; and {?)) that 

 vitality is preserved by an automatic equipoise of forces maintained in 

 equilibrium by reactions of carbon compounds, neutralisation of acid 

 products, and by active, yet restrained, electrical energies." 



Fusion of Atlas and Axis in Man.J — G. Elliot Smith gives an 

 account of a case of this somewhat rare abnormality. The case is 

 remarkable in the fact that the ankylosis has not involved the separation 

 of the odontoid from the axis. The arcus anterior of the atlas is fused 

 CO the front of the odontoid process, and the capsular ligaments sur- 

 rounding the obliterated joints between the articular surfaces of the 

 originally separate bones are ossified, as also is the anterior atlanto-axoid 

 ligament, except at one spot on the left side where a foramen exists 

 between the anterior arch of the atlas and the axis. The right side of 



* Proc. Rov. Soc, Series B, Ixxix., No. B 533 (1907) pp. 372-7. 

 t Journ. Quekett Micr. Club, x. (1907) pp. 41-50. 

 : Anat. Anzeig., xxxi. (1907) pp. 166-8 (3 figs.). 



