and Laboratory Methods. 1135 



show no particular regularity of form. These " roots " are connected at the 

 inner limit of the border by protoplasmic fibres. At their free ends the little 

 rods swell to fine irregular knots, a condition not observed for the brush-borders. 

 Between the rods lies the mucous which may be aided in its separation by them. 

 At first the surface of the cell is flat, but with the increasing amount of mucous 

 it becomes more and more arched until the familiar beaker-cell is formed, the 

 fine striations still remaining visible on its outer border and sending plasmic 

 threads downward. When this form has been obtained the cell-body, hitherto 

 free from mucous, shows a large drop which appears below the striated border. 

 The whole presents a curious appearance. In the layer of mucous coming from 

 the cell-protoplasm are seen many fine protoplasmic columns. These support on 

 their outer ends many branches looking like candelebra, the original rods of the 

 brush-border. Continuing, the formation of mucous causes first the destruction 

 of the protoplasmic columns, leaving the branches only. Then these too disap- 

 pear, leaving the mucous clear and unlined. These thickened " roots " of the 

 rods in these mucous cells are not to be compared with the basal pieces of 

 ciUated epithelium. The controsome lies in these cells within the mucous. 



The special reason for publishing these observations in such detail is a 

 recent article by A. Gurwitsch (review in Journal of Applied Microscopy, 

 iii, 805, 1900), on the development of ciliated cells. According to his observa- 

 tions, the earliest stages show a border of purely alveolar structure and later on 

 the full surface of the border is a fine protoplasmic network. These, according 

 to the present writer, are both impossible. The distal thickenings observed by 

 Heidenhain account for the distal network. a. m. c. 



Barrows, A. S. Respiration of Desmognathus. The views already advanced to ac- 



Anat. Anz. 18:461-464, looo. . r ■ ^- • ^ ^ ^ 



^ -t t' V count for respiration in lungless sala- 



manders, of which this forms a type, claim extensive "buccopharyngeal " respi- 

 ration, excluding the skin from an important part in respiration. The discovery 

 later of blood vessels in certain lunged forms that reached to the pharyngeal 

 epithelium supported this view. It has been shown for Spelerpes fuscus, a lung- 

 less form, that there is a similar nearness to the surface of the pharyngeal cap- 

 illaries. In the work done on Desmognathus fusca a warm carmin injection 

 mass was introduced through the ventricle of the heart by means of a hypoder- 

 mic syringe. A remarkable net-work of capillaries was found to extend through 

 the entire wall of the esophagus. These were found to be from the arteriae 

 maxillares externae on the dorsal wall and of the arteriae pharygeae on the 

 ventral wall. On each side the arteria; pulmonales anastomosing with the 

 arteriae gastrica send branches to the esophagus. The blood is collected 

 especially in the venae esophagae. A more complete consideration will follow 

 this preliminary paper. a. m. c. 



Stassano, H. Function of the Nucleus. Compt. The author finds cells of the vascular 

 Rend, i, 30: 1780-1783, igoo. (Review in j ^i r -r 1. 4. cc. -^ 



Jour. Roy. Micr. Soc. pt. 5, 1900.) endothelium manifest a strong affinity 



for mercury and other poisons intro- 

 duced into the circulation, and believes that this is effected by the nucleus by 

 virtue of its nucleins, which form compounds with metals and bases analogous 



