FRESH FACTS. 



A New Amoeba in Man. J. Ijima. — "On a new Rhizopod Parasite of 

 Man — Amoeba mhiria, n. sp." (Annot. Zool. Japon. ii. (1898), pp. 85-94). This 

 parasite was found in abundance in the serous fluid-accumulation of the peri- 

 toneal and pleural cavities in a case of peritonitis and pleuritis endotheliomatosa, 

 but probably had its headquarters in the tumour tissue. Its nearest allies seem 

 to be A. villosa, Wallich, and A. fluid a, Gruber. 



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Respiratory Trees op Holothuroids. L. Bordas. — " Anatomie et 

 fonctions physiologiques des organes arborescents ou poumons aquatiques de 

 quelques Holothuries " (C. R Ac. Sci. cxxvii. (1898), pp. 568-570). At the 

 marine laboratory of Endoume (Marseille), Bordas made a number of observations 

 and experiments on Holothuria impatiens, Gmelin, H. Poli, Delle Chiaje, H. 

 tubulosa, Gmelin, and Stichopus regalis, Selenka, and succeeded in showing that 

 the arborescent organs, which develop as diverticula of the gut, have at least 

 four important functions. They are respiratory, as most zoologists have recog- 

 nised ; they have a hydrostatic function when the body expands ; they produce 

 numerous amoebocytes ; and they are excretory, as is shown by the presence of 

 uric acid and urates. _ _ _ 



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Mud from Jerusalem. E. Atkinson. — " Extraordinary Vitality of Ento- 

 mostraca in Mud from Jerusalem" (Ann. Nat. Hist. ii. (1898), pp. 372-376). 

 Forty years ago Mr. Atkinson took some samples of mud from the ancient pool 

 of Gihon, outside the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem, which at that time contained 

 water during only two months of the year. The dry mud was sent to England 

 and moistened, with the result that six new species of living Entomostraca were 

 detected by Dr. Baird. For eight years in succession, at the Leeds Philosophical 

 Society's Museum, the mud was dried up in summer and moistened again in 

 spring, and its tenants still persisted. In one case a small sample was left dry 

 in a pill box for nine years, and then moistened, with the result that in a fort- 

 night a single specimen of Estheria gihoni made its appearance. In another 

 case, the alternation of drought and moisture was kept up artificially for twenty- 

 four years, with unvarying success as regarded persistence of vitality. 



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Grafting Insects. Henry E. Crampton, Jun. — " An Important instance of 

 Insect Coalescence" (Ann. New York Ac. Sci. xi. (1898), pp. 219-223). In about 

 twenty cases out of nearly two hundred experiments, Mr. Crampton succeeded 

 in effecting a grafting or coalescence of lepidopterous pupae, similar to that 

 obtained by Born with the embryos of Amphibia. He has proceeded to inquire 

 whether in such coalescence the colours of one moth could be made to replace 

 those of another by a transfusion of haemolymph. In a series of over 750 

 experiments one case of exceptional interest occurred. A pupa of Callosamia 

 promethea was united "in tandem " anteriorly to a pupa of Samia cecropia, the 



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