ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 369 



The gonads were normal, save that the follicles were not breaking and 

 discharging ova, but were forming follicular cysts, or becoming atretic, 

 and because of this no corpora lutea were formed. The interstitial 

 secreting tissue was normal. The evidence suggests that one function 

 of the corpus luteum, through its internal secretion, is to maintain in 

 full development the female secondary sex characters. Repeated 

 injection of a suspension of the desiccated substance of the anterior 

 lol3e of tlie pituitary body failed to Ijring out any change in the sex 

 behaviour of this cow after it had assumed its masculine appearance. 



Abnormal Oviduct of Hen and its Consequences.* — Maynie R. 

 Curtis describes a case where the oviduct ended blindly below the 

 isthmus, there being no shell gland or vagina. Yet 'the oviduct 

 apparently functi(jned as far as the passage existed, whence the eggs 

 were returned to the body-cavity and absorbed. Over a score of eggs 

 and empty egg membranes were removed from the body-cavity. As 

 the bird was in good flesh and apparently normal in all ways but one, it 

 is plain that the absorption of a large quantity of its own proteins from 

 the peritoneal cavity does not necessarily cause metabolic disturbances. 



Peritoneal Canals in Bird Embryos.!— J. H. Tuntler has found in 

 chick embryos from the fourth day two bUnd peritoneal canals on the 

 sides of the gut after this has reached the anterior peritoneal wall. In 

 the peritoneal canal and on the ventral aspect of the adjacent portion 

 of the coelom, a peculiar glandular papillary organ is formed, which 

 disappears by the ninth day, except as regards a longitudinal epithelial 

 ridge or two of them in the peritoneal canal, lasting till the twelfth 

 day. The lining cells of the peritoneal canal are at first rather 

 epithelium-like ; they become by the eleventh day endothelial. A 

 cellular strand from the end of the peritoneal canal becomes a muscle 

 (m. retractor peritonei) ; on the twelfth day it is no longer in connexion 

 with the canal, but extends to the cloaca. In duck embryos the observer 

 found peritoneal canals, the papillary peritoneal organ, and the cellular 

 stage of the m. retractor peritonei. The peritoneal canals described 

 are doubtless homologous with those in Chelonians and crocodile. 



Experimental Mesothelium.|— W. C. Clarke has inquired experi- 

 mentally into what occurs after an injury destroying the free surface 

 cells of the peritoneum or pleura, or the lining cells of blood-vessels. 

 Do cells grow at the periphery of the denuded area, taking origin from 

 adjacent, previously existing and intact flat surface cells ? Or do the 

 exposed connective tissue cells of the floor of the injured area proliferate 

 and become flattened ? 



It was found that the subcutaneous connective tissues react to the 

 presence of a smooth-surfaced, non-irritating foreign body, celloidine in 

 the experiments, in such a manner that there results a distinct pavement 



* Biol. BuUetin, xxviii. (1915) pp. 154-62 (2 pis.). 



t Tijdschr. Nederland. Dierk. Ver., xiv. (1915) pp. 1-36 (3 pis. and 1 fig.). 



: Anat. Record, x. (1916) pp. 301-16 (11 figs.). 



