ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY^ ETC. 187 



inertia is that property of living matter in virtue of which, having 

 received a stimuhis, it continues to maintain the functional status quo an/e, 

 whether that was activity or inactivity ; and functional momentum is 

 that property of bioplasm in virtue of which the living matter, having 

 responded to a stimulus, continues to exhibit its activity or inactivity 

 after the stimulus has ceased to exist. Functional or physiological 

 inertia is that property of living matter which maintains the status quo 

 ante, namely, non-response to a stimulus tending to arouse a response 

 (functional inertia of rest), or response after the stimulus has ceased 

 (functional momentum). Affectabihty is that property of living matter 

 in virtue of which it responds to a stimulus either by activity or by the 

 quelling of activity (inhibition). Protoplasmic inertia is the physiological 

 counterpart of affectability. J. A. T. 



Immunity and Anaphylaxis. — Maurice Arthus ((7. R. Soc. Biol., 

 1919, 82, 1230-2). Xolf has suggested, on the ground of some 

 interesting experiments, that immunity and anaphylaxis are two mani- 

 festations of the same organic state. Arthus reports other experiments, 

 chiefly with rabbits in relation to snake-poison, which go to show that 

 the two states are quite distinct and may exist simultaneously in the 

 same animal. J. A. T. 



Hereditary Brachyphalangy. — Otto L. Mohe and Chr. Wriedt 

 {Puhlic. Carnegie Inst. Washington, 1919, 295, 1-64, 7 pis.). A sym- 

 metrical shortening of the second phalanx of the second fingers and 

 toes inherited within a Norwegian family, some members of which 

 emigrated to North America. The peculiarity is restricted to one 

 phalanx ; the other parts are normal ; the individuals show no shortness 

 of stature. The anomaly manifests itself as " slightly " shortened and 

 as " much " shortened, but there is no intermediate condition. There 

 is no premature ossification of the epiphysial cartilage. The inheritance 

 is followed without any break through six generations, including and 

 descended from an individual born in 1764. The brachyphalangy is 

 inherited as a dominant, not sex-linked character. All the brachy- 

 phalangous individuals are heterozygous for the gene in question, with 

 one possible exception. The material included a case of identical twins, 

 both brachyphalangous of an identical type. The two types, " slightly " 

 and " much " shortened, are explained through the presence in some of 

 the normal individuals, married into the family, of a dominant specific 

 modifying gene which enhances the effect of the principal gene for 

 brachyphalangy, and changes the " slightly " into the " much " shortened 

 type. J. A. T. 



Homologies of Squamosal of Fishes. — Edward Phelps Allis, Jr. 

 {Anat Record, 1919, 17, 73-87). The squamosal of fishes, frequently 

 called the pterotic, is primarily a dermal bone which develops along the 

 dorsal surface of the ridge of the lateral semicircular canal. Anteriorly 

 it articulates with frontal or parietal or both. The summit of the post- 

 orbital process ossifies as the sphenotic or dermosphenotic. Both acquire 

 primary relations with the chondrocranium, and may be composed of 



