428 



sity of Sydney. — This paper gives a detailed account of the peculiar sense 

 organs discovered by Mr. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., and briefly described and 

 referred to as )ihair-like(( in structure, in his note (Proc. Physiol. Soc. 1884) 

 on some points in the structure of the skin covering the so-called beak of 

 OrnithorhyncJms. These organs, which are distributed over the whole surface 

 of the skin covering the upper and lower jaws, and the lappet surrounding 

 the base of the muzzle , but are also found in the mucous membrane of the 

 palate, present an appearance remarkably like the roots of hairs, surroun- 

 ded by their follicles, but possessing no papillae. The core, which simulates 

 the hair-shaft, is seen to be longitudinally striated , which adds still further 

 to the general resemblance; it is built up of a series of superimposed nu- 

 cleated epithelial elements. The nervous arrangements of these organs are 

 much more complicated than Poulton describes : towards the base of each 

 organ a considerable leash of nerve fibres is directed, and these terminate in 

 three ways — 1) in the small Pacinian bodies described by Poulton, in the 

 connective tissue beneath the flattened base of the organ; 2) in a number of 

 small lenticular bodies situated in the base of the organ between the epithe- 

 lial cells which are formed by the apposition of two lens-like cells with an 

 intermediate disk, the latter being the flattened termination of the axis 

 cylinder of a nerve fibre , which can be seen to enter the periphery of the 

 basal portion of the organ ; and 3) the larger number of the nerve fibres thus 

 entering lose their medullary sheath and divide, being continued in a longi- 

 tudinal direction as fine nodose fibrils , of which two series may be distin- 

 guished. Papers Nos. 4 and 5 will appear in the forthcoming Macleay Me- 

 morial Volume. — Mr. Brazier exhibited, in a good state of preservation, 

 a copy of a very old work, Index Testarum Conchyliorum, by Gualtier, prin- 

 ted and published in Florence, Italy, in 1742. Also a specimen oi Cassis 

 nana, Tenison-Woods , from Ballina , Richmond River, the first record of 

 this species from the N.S.W. coast, the type having been found at Moreton 

 Bay by the late Mr. C. Coxen. Also examples oi Murex octogonus, Quoy, from 

 Auckland, received from Professor Hutton, and of M. umbilicatus , Tenison- 

 Woods, from South Australia ; the latter was named M. scalaris by A. Adams 

 in 1853, but the name being preoccupied, that of nana, T. -Woods, must be 

 reverted to. 



III. Personal -Notizen. 



Königliche Biologische Anstalt auf Helgoland. Zum Assisten- 

 ten für Botanik ist, vorläufig bis zum 1. April 1893, Dr. Paul Kuckuck, 

 bisher in Kiel, angestellt worden. 



Necrolog. 



Am 30. August starb in Marburg Professor Dr. Richard Greeff, 

 641/2 Jahr alt. 



Berichtigung. 



Zoologischer Anzeiger No. 399. — Gerd, Zur Frage über die Keim- 

 blätterbildung bei den Hydromedusen. In der Übersetzung hat sich eine 

 kleine Ungenauigkeit eingestellt, welche zu berichtigen wir für nöthig halten. 

 Nämlich der Ausdruck »Absorption« der Zellschicht ist im Sinne »Ab- 

 sonderung« gebraucht worden. 



Druck von Breitkopt' & Hfirtel in Leipzig. 



