o72 SUMMAKY OF CUItUEXT IIESEAIICHES RELATING TO 



Hsematoblasts.* — Ed. Retterer discusses critically Hayem's conclu- 

 sions on the origin of blood-corpuscles, and maintains that Hayem's 

 hffimatoblasts or blood-platelets are due to the disintegration of the 

 cytoplasm of cells of fixed origin. They are incapable of progressive 

 development, and continue to disintegrate or to dissolve, having in fact 

 a very ephemeral existence. In the spleen, as in the lymphatic ganglia, 

 there is an elal)oration of plasma, red blood-corpuscles, leucocytes and 

 platelets. 



KurlofF's Bodies.f — Sadi de Buen has made a careful study of these 

 minute bodies found in the mononuclear leucocytes of the guinea-pig. 

 They have been interpreted in various way, as plasmosomes by Ferrata, 

 as products of secretion by Kurloff, Ehrlicli and Ciaccio, as parasites by 

 Schilling, Patella, Goldhom, and Ross ; and these views are all discussed. 

 The author favours the interpretation given by Cesaris-Demel that 

 they are included bodies. They appear to be either extraneous bodies 

 included in a defensive process, or dead cellular residues which have 

 been similarly engulfed. 



Phagocytosis in Urine. t—Cli. Hollande and J. Beauverie find in 

 acid urine, rich in albuminoid substances, living polynuclear neutro- 

 philous leucocytes. Outside of the organism, and at laboratory 

 temperature, these leucocytes are al)le to incorporate foreign elements 

 accidentally present in the urine, such as yeasts, bacteria, starch grains 

 and carmine particles. Phagocytosis may occur ten hours after the 

 urine was passed. 



c. General. 



Serum of a Guinea-chicken Hybrid. § — Raymond Pearl and John 

 W. Gowen record that there is a definite, characteristic, and permanent 

 difference between the refractive index of the serum of the fowl 

 {Gallus) and that of the guinea-fowl (Nuinida meUagris). The mean 

 was taken of the data from ten fowls and six guinea-fowls. In the 

 genus-hybrid {GaUus ^ and Numida 9 ) the guinea-parent is dominant 

 in respect of the physico-chemical constitution of the blood as measured 

 by the refractive index. 



Relict Species.]] — Sven Ekmau discusses the questions concerned 

 with relict species. In a given area a species may be called a relict only 

 when its existence there is unintelligible apart from the hypothesis that 

 it or its ancestral species was left there in the course of natural conditions 

 now foreign to the area. One may speak of glacial relicts, tertiary 

 relicts, marine relicts, freshwater relicts, and so on. They are to be 

 distinguished from auto-immigrants which have come in from without 



* C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, Ixxix. (1916) pp. 57-60. 

 t Boll. Inst. Nacional Higiene, xii. (1916) pp. 1-16 (2 pis.). ■ 

 J C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, Ixxix. (1916) pp. 34-6. 

 § Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol, and Med., xii. (1914) p. 48. 

 - II Arkiv. f. Zool., ix. (1915) No. 17, pp. 1-35. 



