1138 Journal of Applied Microscopy 



The writer states that his work is not yet completed ; and he therefore can- 

 not give definite conclusions. The results so far, however, have been definitely 

 negative. R. m. p. 



Qreenough, R. B. On the Presence of the So- I" this work Greenough examined 



called " Plimmer's Bodies " in Carcinoma, twenty-three carcinomata of the breast. 



Journal of the Boston Society of Medical ™, .. j • '7 i > 



Sciences. Vol. V, No. 2, 1900 ^he tissue was preserved in Zenker s or 



Hermann's fluid, the former giving 

 the best results. Sections were stained according to Plimmer's directions with 

 iron haematoxylin and counterstained with either Orange G and fuchsin or with 

 Bordeaux red. 

 Conclusions : 



1. The appearances known as " Plimmer's bodies " were found in each of 

 twenty-three cases of breast cancer. 



2. They were more numerous in the periphery of the tumors and in the 

 metastases. 



3. They were not found in areas which had undergone even slight degenera- 

 tion, whether before or after removal. 



4. They were more numerous in the slow growing carcinomata, and less 

 frequently found in the rapid growing ones. 



5. They were more numerous in scirrhous than in medullary or adeno-carci- 

 noma types of cancer. 



6. They were not found in three cases of epithelioma (one of which was a 

 typical Paget's disease of the breast). 



7. They were present in one case of ovarian cancer and absent in another 

 case of general peritoneal cancer, of probable ovarian origin. R. m. p. 



GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



Raymond Pearl. 



Books and papers for review should be sent to Raymond Pearl, Zoological 

 Laboratory, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 



Parker, 0. H., and Burnett, F. L. The Reac- ^^is paper gives an account of a study 

 tions of Planarians, with and without Eyes, r- r- o 



to Light. Amer. Jour. Physiol. 4 : 373-385, with very exact methods of the reactions 

 '900- to light of normal planarians as com- 



pared with specimens from which the eyes had been removed. The species used 

 was Planaria gonocephala Duges. The method employed was such as to admit 

 of an exact statistical treatment of the problem, and is on that account very 

 valuable. In detail it was as follows : A planarian was placed in a shallow rec- 

 tangular glass dish containing water to a depth of about one centimeter. After 

 the animal had begun to creep along the bottom, the dish was placed on a black 

 board on which was inscribed a circle 55 millimeters in diameter. This circle 

 was divided into quadrants by mutually perpendicular diameters, and the arc of 

 each quadrant was further divided by short cross lines into intervals of ten 

 degrees. " These lines were designated in degrees, the one at the end of one of 



