So CORRESPONDENCE [jaxuahy 



not touch ix. ; with regard to " C," the position of vein i. in Anosia and the 

 Limnads, I have especially alluded to this feature of the hind wings, and it 

 again does not meet my point as to ix. of primaries. The main point I make, 

 as against Scudder, Beuter, and others, is that they cannot logically interpolate 

 Papilio with its vein ix. between the Blues and Skippers, as they attempt to do, 

 because both these groups are without this vein ix., and, moreover, I have shown 

 that the pattern of neuration of the two, thus violently separated, groups 

 authorises the supposition that they are really related. The assumed dichotomy 

 of the butterflies is another matter. It will be solved when we find vein ix., or 

 when its traces are found in any other butterfly, of which neither Mr. Quail nor 

 any one else has brought forward any evidence. I do not doubt that traces of 

 vein ix. may be found in Lagoa or Megalopyge or Cossus ; these are all Tineides 

 (Grote), and I look for the origin of the Papilionides in this group. My theory 

 of the movement of the veins in the wings of the butterflies and Lepidoptera 

 generally is based upon the discoveries of Spuler and Comstock that the media 

 is three-branched and the cubitus two-branched, while the radius is primarily 

 five-branched. Some seeming discrepancies between Mr. Quail's interesting 

 paper and my own communications may arise from a different point of view in 

 this respect. But these are all side issues and do not affect the main issue, 

 which cannot be decided in Mr. Quail's favour, I think, until he produces 

 evidence that the other great group of butterflies, the Hesperiades, possess, 

 or indeed ever possessed, vein ix. of the primary wings. It will not do merely 

 to say that they have lost it ; they may have sprung from an ancestry which 

 had equally lost it, while the Papilionides must have sprung from an ancestry 

 which had retained it. A. Badcliffe Grote. 



Roemer Museum, Hildesheim, December 5, 1898. 



[As our space for correspondence is very limited, this discussion cannot be 

 prolonged here. — Ed. Nat. Sc.~\ 



ARTIFICIAL FOBMATION OF A RUDIMENTARY NEBVOUS SYSTEM. 



Thanking you for the honour done me by the publication of my paper in 

 your review (November and December 1898), I venture to ask you to append 

 the following note : — 



Some vibrations of the neuroplasma might be explained by the osmotic 

 currents of Biitschli, increased by the heat afforded by oxidations. Bemak has 

 observed that the axis-band has a reticular structure. In that case the theory 

 of carbon dioxide should be rejected, but it would be profitable to make new 

 experiments with an artificial protoplasm, obtained by a combination of 

 the microscopic foam of Biitschli, which presents a physical analogy to the 

 natural cytoplasm, and my own, which has a chemical analogy to the same, 

 being formed by a mixture of the components of the plasmodium of Fuligo 

 septicum, according to Beinke's analysis. 



Perhaps the separation of the absorbed substances is effected by the 

 partitions of the protoplasmic alveoli, and if that be true, the protoplasm itself 

 might be compared to a gland, and even induced to grow (1) in a nutritive 

 solution. In support of my position, I would refer to Dr. Loeb's address, the 

 gist of which was published in Nat. >Sci. xii. (1898) pp. 14G-1I8. May I also 

 correct two errata in my paper 1 



Bage 336, instead of "negative variation of carbon dioxide " read " negative 

 variation of nerve." 



Instead of " Milne Edwards, I.e. vol. xiii. p. 5 " read " Milne Edwards, I.e. 

 vol. xiii. p. 58." A. L. Herrera. 



Mexico. 



