eA el ce sid see Oh to 7 
Microscopic VivisEction. Evucine Prnarp. ‘Sur les mouvements 
autonomes des pseudopodes,” Arch. Sct. Phys. Nat. vii. 1899, pp. 434-445. 
Mr. Penard has made numerous experiments with excised pseudopodia of 
Dijilugia lebes, which go to show that detached (non-nucleated) fragments behave 
for a time as if they formed a complete organism. During their ephemeral 
life they exhibit movements ; they are attracted by plasmas identical with their 
own, and repelled by those which are unlike. 
A WonperFruL House. H.Lonmann. ‘“ Das Gehiuse der Appendicularien 
nach seiner Bildungsweise, seinem Bau und seiner F unction,” Zool. Anzeiy. XXil. 
1899, pp. 206- 214, 4 figs. Dr. Lohmann studied at Messina the history of the 
house of Ozkoplewra. The foundations are laid in 3 to 4 hours by the energetic 
secretory activity of special oikoplast cells which form the component membranes 
and fibrils. The house once begun is quickly finished, and has not been more 
than a few hours in use before another begins to be built. But what is its use? 
The answer to this is perhaps the chief interest of this paper, for Lohmann 
finds that it is justified in three ways. It forms an effective trap for food 
particles ; it serves as a locomotor organ ; and it protects the inmate, who can 
“blitzschnell” leave its encasement and escape with its life. 
NotocHorpaL Canat In Man. A. C. F. Erernop. “Il y a un canal 
notochordal dans l’embryon humain,” Anat. Anzeig. xvi. 1899, pp. 131-143, 
17 figs. The author has satisfied himself that there is in the very early human 
embryo a distinct trace of a notochordal or archenteric canal which does not 
differ in its essential features from that known in other mammals. 
HrBeRNATING SwaLLows Once More. ALAN Owston. “Swallows in 
Mid-Winter,” Annot. Zool. Japon. iii. 1899, p. 29. Ina letter to our Japanese 
contemporary, Mr. Alan Owston of Yokohama notes that on the 16th of 
December 1896 he saw a number of swifts (Cypselus pacificus) flying about, and 
that on the lst of January 1898 he observed a couple of swallows (//vrundo 
rustica gutturalis) catching flies on the beach. “Is it possible that some swifts 
and swallows remain here throughout the whole winter, and if so do they 
hybernate in caves like bats?” 
WueEN A Snam Leavesirs SHett. R. Wencu. ‘“ Helices abandoning their 
Shells,” Journ. of Conchology, ix. July 1899, p. 217. We had thought that a 
snail would leave its shell when the Greek Kalends came round, or a canny 
Scot committed himself to a definite opinion on the weather, but we were wrong 
again. For there have been repeated stories of late in circulation about snails 
wandering about in indecent nudity. ‘The fama arose in regard to Limnaea 
peregra, but it seems that the more sedate Helix pisana and Helix lactea have 
gone in for similar frolics. They were well fed, Mr. Welch assures us, and not 
handled in any way. This is a “curiosity ” which some one will surely soon 
convert into an interesting fact by telling us the reason why. Is it an atavism 
before death—a return to ancestral nudity ? 
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