INVERTEBRATA, CRYPTOGAMIA, MICROSGOPY, ETC. 857 



between tlie epitliclial cells, or does the fluid penetrate the cells 

 themselves ? The second method seems to be that adopted, inasmuch 

 as (1) the canals are present in certain aquatic molluscs, e. g. Cyclas 

 cornea, which do not swell up in water ; (2) colouring matters have 

 been observed in the cells themselves ; (3) the phenomena appear 

 to be rather those of dialysis than of endosmosis ; and (4) the 

 ejjithelial cells have a great affinity for water. 



Influence of " Cardiac Poisons" on Helix pomatia.* — The ex- 

 periments of Hajckel on the effects of strychnine on the Gasteropoda 

 have led M. Vulpian to repeat some experiments, which he described 

 in his course of lectures of 18G4, when he showed that Upas anfiar, 

 which acts so freely on the heart of the frog, has no such influence on 

 the heart of the mollusc. Dealing with an alcoholic extract of inee 

 {Strophanthus Idspklus DC), which has, on the frog, the effect of stopping 

 the ventricle in the systole, and the auricles in the diastole, he finds 

 very similar results with the Helix. As the effect of the injection of 

 the poison there is a cessation of locomotor movements on the part of 

 the animal, the movements of the heart become irregular, and there 

 appear i)eriods of arrest in its activity ; at the end of two or three 

 minutes the auricle is found to be distended, while the ventricle is 

 very markedly contracted. "When the heart has a drop of the solution 

 placed on it, the results are very far less marked. A solution of mus- 

 carin was found to bo much more feeble, the movements of the 

 heart became much slower, and occasionally ceased, but the arrest 

 never continued for more than five or six minutes ; atropine was foimd 

 to have an antagonistic effect; and, in fine, with regard to these two 

 poisons, their influence is very much the same on the snail as on the 

 frog ; and from this M. Vulpian infers that there is a certain analogy 

 between the innervation of the hearts of the snail, the frog, and the 

 mammal. Neither muscarin nor inee seem to have any influence on 

 the heart of the crayfish. 



Respiratory Apparatus of AmpuUaria.t — M. A. Sabatier, referring 

 to M. Jourdan's description | of the double resjuratory apparatus of 

 the Ampullarim, consisting both of a branchia and a lung, says that he 

 is able to give some new facts which had previously escaped obser- 

 vation. 



The venous blood, returning from the different parts of the body, 

 divides into three parts : — one passes to the right into a cavernous 

 sinus, which accompanies the terminal intestine ; this is the rectal 

 sinus, which is a diverticulum of the general cavity of the body ; the 

 second comes from the anterior region of the body (head, pharynx, 

 stomach, anterior margin of the palatine arch) and forms on the right 

 the proper afferent vessel of the lung, which it circumscribes to the 

 left and in front ; this vessel presents a double series of orifices for 

 the afferent branches of the roof and of the floor of the pulmonary 

 chamber ; the third part, which is far more important, comes together 



* 'Coraptes Ecndus,' Ixxxviii. (1879) p. 1293. 



t Ibid., p. 1325 ; ' Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.,' iv. (1879) p. 323. 



X This Journal, ante, p. 706. 



