AvuGusT 1899] FRESH FACTS 141 
seem to show that the sense of smell is well developed. He goes the length of 
saying that birds are endowed with the sense of smell at least equal to that of 
the dog. 
Nucter or MAMMALIAN RED Bioop Corpuscies. A. Necrr. ‘“ Ueber die 
Persistenz des Kernes in den roten Blutkérperchen erwachsener Siiugethiere,” 
Anat. Anzeig. xvi. 1899, pp. 33-38. The student who in his practical examina- 
tion identifies distinctly nucleated red blood corpuscles as mammalian does not 
win favour in the eyes of the examiner, and this is perhaps well. But Mr. A. 
Negri, stud. med., has shown that there is still relevancy in inquiring into the 
possible persistence of the nucleus in the red blood corpuscles of adult mammals. 
The persistence of a nucleus has been asserted repeatedly, and, we believe, 
always given up. Perhaps only Petrone has stood to his guns and maintained 
contra mundum that to say the nucleus is absent is to confess ignorance of the 
proper method for its discovery. Negri has worked with Petrone’s method, but 
finds that Petrone’s ‘‘nucleus” is to be found in the embryo along with, but 
distinct from, the nucleus which is still evident in the red blood corpuscles in 
intrauterine life. 
Urns or Srpuncutus. 8. J. Meratnixorr. “ Das Blut und die Excretions- 
organe von Sipunculus nudus,” 7’. Zool. Stat. Neapel, xiii. 1899, pp. 440-447. 
The strange multicellular ciliated bodies which occur in the body cavity and 
blood of Sipunculids have been much discussed and variously interpreted. 
According to Metalnikoff, they arise, in part at least, on the internal walls 
of the blood vessels, and serve to protect the animal from the ill-effects of hard 
particles which may be ruptured from the gut into the body cavity. The 
suggestion of Cuénot and others that the urns by their rapid movements help to 
compensate for the absence of a heart is also accepted. 
BEETLES IN SELF-DEFENCE. L. Borpas. ‘Les glandes défensives ou 
glandes anales des Coléoptéres,” Ann. Pac. Sci. Marseille, ix. Fase. v. pp. 1-45, 
2 pls. In this memoir, which our French colleague has been kind enough to 
send us, it is shown that the majority of beetles (Cicindclidae, Carabinae, 
Harpalinae, Feroniinae, Brachininae, Dytiscidae, Gyrinidae, Staphylinidae, 
Silphidae, etc.) possess in the posterior abdominal region a pair of glands, 
disposed in a cluster or in a tube, producing a secretion which is forcibly 
ejected in self-defence. These anal or defensive glands belong to the last 
abdominal segment, and consist of a glandular portion, an efferent canal, a 
reservoir or receptacle, and an excretory duct. 
Devontan Rocks oF Arctic Europe. Tx. TsCHERNYSCHEW and N. 
JAKOWLEW. “Die Kalksteinfauna des Cap Grebeni auf der Waigatsch-Insel 
und des Flusses Nechwatowa auf Nowaja-Semlja,” Verhandl. Russ. Kais. 
Mineral. Ges. xxxvi. pp. 55-99, pls. vi.-viii. 1899. Many authors have written 
much on the Palaeozoic rocks and fossils of Waigatsch and Nova Zembla, but 
their statements have lacked precision, their conclusions definiteness. Two 
horizons are here determined in Waigatsch. The one, containing Spirifer 
waigatschensis, n. sp. and five other brachiopods, is paralleled with the upper 
limestones of the Middle Devonian in the Ural, containing Spirifer anossofi and 
Stringocephalus burtini. The other, furnishing Proetus waigatschensis, Lichas 
(Dicranogmus) lindstrémi, Leptodomus borealis, Spirifer parvulus, n. spp., 
appears equivalent to the limestone of Nova Zembla, which contains Cardiola 
lehmanni, n, sp. Other fossils, such as Orthoceras cinctum, O. ef. tentaculare, 
Whitjieldella didyma, Leperditia nordenskioldi, show that this is not older than 
Middle Devonian. 
