IINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 53 



known as "A moebse " with the paradoxical Myxomyeetea have been 

 made by Surgeon-Major D. D. Cunuingham, of the Indian Medical 

 Service. In a paper on " Microscopic Organisms occurring in 

 the Intestinal Canal" (Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. vol. xxi.), he 

 describes the life-history of Protomyxomyces coprinarius, an 

 amoeboid organism intermediate in characters between the Proto- 

 monadinae and the Myxomycetes. Its immature forms occur 

 both in health and disease as inmates of the digestive canal of 

 man and the lower animals. It only attains full development 

 when cultivated external to the bodies of the animals in which 

 it occurs. Very remarkable spore-formation is described and 

 figured by Dr. Cunningham. 



Mr. Saville Kent has also independently advocated the view 

 that the Myxomycetes should be regarded as animals allied to the 

 riagellata. The valuable monograph on Ciliate and Plagellate In- 

 fusoria by this naturalist is approaching completion, the sixth 

 and last part being now in the press. 



CcELENTEEATA. — Profcssor Eilhard Schulz continues his foun- 

 dation-laying studies on the histology of the Sponges in the 

 Zeitschr. wiss. Zoologie. Vosmaer, in Holland, and Stuart Eidley, 

 in this country, have published valuable studies on specific 

 and generic characters atibrded by the hard parts of Sponges. 

 Amongst Hydrozoa, the most important work has been the 

 second part of Hackel's great monograph, containing the species 

 of the Scyphomedusfe or Acraspedse, beautifully illustrated. 

 Hackel has also described various strange abnormalities of deve- 

 lopment of Ativelia kept by him in an aquarium. Some eggs of 

 this jelly-fish, instead of passing through a scyphistoma-stage and 

 then producing ephyrse by transverse fission, actually developed 

 directly into young medusre : other eggs presented intermediate 

 phenomena, carrying out only partially the noi'mal order of deve- 

 lopment. Praipont seems clearly to have shown that the eggs of 

 Campanularia, as maintained by Van Benedeu, jun., for this genus 

 and for Hydractinia, do develop from cells of the endoderm of the 

 hydrocaulus. On the other hand, Kleinenberg maintains that in 

 Etidendrium and other Tubularians the eggs are formed from cells 

 of the ectoderm ; and points out the necessity of distinguishing 

 between the observation of generative cells which may eventually 

 lie in either ectoderm or endoderm and the tracing back of such 

 generative cells to original constituent cells of these layers 

 (Zeitschr. wiss. Zoolog. vol. xxxv.). 



The magnificent memoir of Dr. Chun on the Ctenophora of 

 the Bay of Naples (Leipzig, Engelmann), deserves notice here 

 not only on account of tlie large amount which the author adds 

 to our knowledge of this remarkable group, but also as being a 

 sample of the series of memoirs which Dr. Anton Dohru, the 

 Director of the Zoological Station at Naples, has started in con- 

 nexion with that institution. These memoirs arc published by 

 aid of subscription, each subscriber being entitled annually to a 



