DEPARTMENT OF MARINE BIOLOGY. 183 



Finally, Vaughan has been able to demonstrate experimentally that 

 this limestone precipitate undergoes chemical and physical changes 

 which result in the aggregation of its particles to form the oolite gran- 

 ules in the manner described by Linck. 



Dr. A. J. Goldfarb developed a new method for causing echinoderm 

 larvae to fuse together, by placing the fertilized eggs in a solution of 

 one part of sea-water to three parts of isotonic or sHghtly hypotonic 

 sodium chloride. When both of two fused embryos developed equally 

 fast, each was perfect, but when one fused larva developed more 

 slowly than the other, it atrophied and finally disappeared without 

 producing any effect upon the dominant larva except upon its skeleton. 



In another research Dr. Goldfarb demonstrated that, in common 

 with the earthworm, the marine annelid Amphinoma can regenerate 

 lost parts without contact of or stimulation from the nerve-cord or 

 central nervous system. 



In another series of experiments Dr. Goldfarb showed that the 

 scyphomedusa Cassiopea regenerates more rapidly in dilute than in 

 normal sea-water, and also that a slight degree of concentration is 

 much more injurious than a corresponding dilution of normal sea- 

 water. These results are quite similar to those previouslj'- obtained by 

 Goldfarb in his study of the hydroid Eudendrium, and confirm the 

 earlier work of Loeb, that regeneration in Tuhularia is more rapid in 

 dilute than in natural sea-water and that concentration above the 

 normal causes a rapid falling off in rate of regeneration. 



In this connection it may be of interest to state that Mayer found 

 that the rate of nerve conduction in Cassiopea is more rapid in slightly 

 diluted than in natural sea-water. 



Professor Eugene W. Gudger has discovered much that is new and 

 interesting in the anatomy of sharks, rays, and bony fishes, and his 

 published study of the eagle ray is a model of scholarly research in the 

 field of systematic zoology. 



Dr. E. Newton Harvey found that the rate of nerve conduction in 

 Cassiopea increases in a right-line ratio as the animal is heated from 

 about 15° up to about 36° C., above which there is a sudden falling off 

 in rate. The curve, superficially at least, resembles that of enzyme 

 actions. Later, Mayer repeated these experiments and confirms Har- 

 vey's curve, which may, however, represent either an enzyme reaction 

 or, possibly, the resultant between two antagonistic tendencies — an 

 acceleration in accord with the van't Hoff chemical reaction curve offset 

 by a retardation due to the development of asphyxiation produced by 

 high temperature. 



In another research Dr. Harvey found that in acids there is no rela- 

 tion between dissociation and their rate of penetration of living cells, 

 but the more poisonous acids penetrate more rapidly than those which 

 are less poisonous, and all penetrate more rapidly than alkalis. 



