INVERTEBRATA, CRYPTOGAMIA, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 233 



are found on the whole most successful in bringing about these results, 

 Gaulo indicates limits of temperature and dilution within which they 

 often occur, usually with slight modifications. It is this variation 

 with the conditions of the experiment that supplies one of his 

 strongest arguments against the previous individual existence of these 

 bodies. 



Cartilage-cells of Salamandra maculata.* — Professor Frommann, 

 using for his investigation the sternal and scapular cartilages, finds 

 that the ground-substance is almost completely homogeneous, great 

 magnification giving no indication of any granular or fibrillar 

 properties; at the boundary of the cells it passes into a delicate 

 homogeneous capsule which almost always completely encloses the 

 cavity. Here and there in the ground-substance it is possible to 

 make out closely packed granules, which do not seem to be connected 

 with the cells. When the cells are not completely enclosed by the 

 capsule there is present a single or double row of granules, which 

 vary somewhat in arrangement. In fresh cells the protoplasm com- 

 pletely fills the space enclosed by the ground-substance ; in hardened 

 specimens there is often a small intermediate space due to the 

 shrinking of the contents. 



The nuclei of the cells are rounded and their coat varies in thick- 

 ness ; the filamentous network of the nucleus consists of extremely 

 fine and short fibres which unite to form radiating knots and very 

 narrow meshworks of a rounded, or more or less oval form. The 

 nucleoli are round, oval, or irregularly angular, and there is nothing 

 to indicate that they are formed by the thickening of the network of 

 the cells. 



Diffusion of Copper in the Animal Kingdom.t — The fact of the 

 normal presence of minute quantities of copper in various members of 

 the animal kingdom has been noticed within the past twenty-five years 

 in a few isolated cases, and to these Dr. M. GiuntiJ adds a number of 

 interesting and diversified instances. 



His attention was first directed to the subject accidentally by 

 finding over one-third of 1 per cent, of copper in the guano deposits 

 from bats occurring in certain Italian caves. This led to an analy- 

 tical examination of the bat, the results of which showed that about 

 four ten-thousandths of the weight of the ashes of this animal consist 

 of cupric oxide. Lent upon finding an ultimate source for the metal, 

 Giunti subjected to analysis the insects which form the food of the 

 bat, and in all cases found copper present in a greater or less amount. 

 The quantity would seem to vary in the ditl'ereut orders, families, and 

 species. Aquatic insects contain less tlian those found on land, and 

 the Coloopteni appear to yield the highest percentage. Thus the 

 ashes of Aiiuvinla rltls contain 0" 1 per cent, of cupric oxide, and those 

 of lilntta orientalis 0820 per cent. High as this percentage seems, 

 the amount of copper in an individual insect is infinitesimal, being, in 



• 'SB. .Tell. fJcscll. Mnl. n. Xutiirw.,' 1879, p. 10. 

 t Mr. T. II. N'nrtnii, in 'Xatiirc,' xxi. (1880) p. :505. 

 X Miazotta Cliiiuira Italiaiui,' ix. p. 511. 



