760 RECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



really of a " series of glomeruli of primary Malpigliian bodies pro- 

 jecting through the wide openings of the segmental tubes into the 

 body cavity." These structures seem to be found between the ninth 

 and thirteenth segments, but the corresponding primary segmental 

 tubes are never fully developed in the chick. 



Further details (with figures) of this extraordinary and unexpected 

 development are promised. 



Cellular Evolution of Protoplasm,* — M. Bordone, in a " thesis " 

 under this title, commences with amorphous protoplasm as the sim- 

 plest form of matter capable of containing life ; its first stage in 

 upward development is the leucocyte, which may arise, though rarely, 

 in the tissues without origin from a cell. It then acquires a nucleus, 

 and in this condition may form protoplasmic leucocytes by gemma- 

 tion. This appears to be proved by the separation from mulberry- 

 like masses in the blood of the Axolotl of granules which fuse together 

 and grow by taking in foreign material. This division is preceded by 

 multiplication of the nucleus, which occurs either by fission or bud- 

 ding, while in exceptional cases new nuclei may arise independently 

 in the protoplasm ; budding fission, or segmentation then operates to 

 multiply the cell. 



Imperfection of the Geological Record, t — Herr Fuchs contends 

 that were the chronicles of past ages so imperfectly kept by the rocks 

 as Mr. Darwin and his followers maintain, the study of palaeontology 

 would have an interest merely for curiosity collectors. On the con- 

 trary, the data already obtained from its study are so full as to afford 

 a firm basis for the discussion even of such general questions as the 

 Darwinian theory. Thus, the whole series of organisms may be 

 divided into two groups, (1) one consisting of such as, owing to their 

 peculiar habits, or to the soft consistency of their bodies, could only 

 be exceptionally preserved as fossils (e. g. Medusas, Ascidians, insects, 

 birds, soft plants) ; (2) the second of those whose form, skeleton, and 

 manner of life tend to their preservation (corals, &c.). These latter 

 are preserved not as the consequence of chance, but in the natural 

 course of the formation of sedimentary strata. How certainly their 

 survival is owing to these conditions is shown by the discovery of a 

 richly fossiliferous marl in digging the foundations of the Messina 

 Docks ; of the fossil shells found, about one hundred were known as 

 living species, a few were not so known ; these few, however, in time 

 were added to the recent fauna by dredgings made in the Bay. Of 

 337 species of testaceous Mollusca found in the sea on the west of Italy, 

 300 are known to occur in neighbouring quaternary deposits. Com- 

 paring the richness in species of the most abundant recent molluscan 

 fauna, that of the Philippine Islands, with that of the European 

 upper chalk, or of the Bohemian Silurian basin, the two latter lose 

 little by the comparison. All the indigenous European Ungulates are 

 known in the fossil state. If such can be shown to be the case with 



* See ' Eev. Sci. Nat., ii. (1880) p. 115. 



t ' Verb. k.-k. Geol. Keichsanstalt,' xxix. (1879) p. 355 ; xxx. (1880) pp. 39, 61. 

 See also 'Nature,' xxi. (1880) p. 476. 



