BY J. T. WILSOX AND C. J. MARTIN. 661 



although the title alone occurred in the " Proceedings " of the 

 ►Society for that year. 



In our paper in the Macleay Memorial Volume we expressed 

 our regret at having been unable to utilise Ehrlich's methyl blue 

 reaction upon the living tissues of the platypus snout, and ever 

 since we have been anxious to extend our observations by means 

 of this and also more especially by the use of Golgi's silver method. 

 But even in Australia it is not so easy to procure living specimens 

 of Ornithorhynchas and especially to have them sent on alive to 

 Sydney, and it is only quite recently that our efforts towards 

 again obtaining the animal alive have been rewarded with success. 



Professor Poulton incidentally states his regret that we had 

 omitted any allusion to the sweat-ducts "and their associated hair- 

 like and nervous structures." We may state that it was the peculiar- 

 ities of these structures which first of all engaged our attention 

 and upon which in fact we wrote our first draft of a communica- 

 tion. On putting together our observations, however, it appeared 

 to us that certain points remained, for the elucidation of which a 

 further supply of fresh material was eminently desirable. Accord- 

 ingly we avoided, of set purpose, all reference to the gland-ducts, 

 and restricted ourselves to the attempt to set forth the structure 

 of the push-rods, which appeared to be made sufficiently plain l)y 

 the aid of the methods which we had up to that time been able 

 to use. 



In the introductory portion of his paper Mr. Poulton has given 

 utterance to some rather severe strictures upon the character of 

 the photo-micrographic illustrations which accompanied our paper 

 in the Macleay Volume. We may at once admit the justice of much 

 of Mr. Poulton's criticism in this regard. It is true that, as he 

 charitably suggests, the negatives and even the proofs were very 

 much better than the final impressions would lead one to suppose. 

 The sections were, in point of fact, satisfactory in the highest 

 degree; the negatives were, as we believe, very good indeed, as 



photo-micrographs, ; while the proofs seemed at least tolei-able 



reproductions. The ultimate results were undoubtedly the reverse 

 of satisfactory. Nevertheless, while grateful for Mr. Poulton's 



