SOME NEW BOOKS. 



Trematodes from Japan. 



Studies upon the Ectoparasitic Trematodes of Japan. By Seitaro Goto. 

 Pp. 270, with 27 plates. Vol. VIII., Part I., of The Journal of the College of 

 Science, Imperial University, Japan. Tokyo, 1894. 



We have received from the Imperial University this beautiful memoir, 

 written in English, but concerning work done in Japan, and printed, 

 illustrated, and published in Japan. At the present time the Press of 

 Europe seems to be making up its mind whether or no Japan is to be 

 admitted into the comity of civilised nations. For our own part, we 

 make no nice distinctions in the matter of warfare, holding it all a 

 necessary abomination, and regarding the details as equally savage 

 and degrading whether they be wrought out according to " rules of 

 the game " at Waterloo or against the rules of the game as at 

 Culloden, and, apparently, at Port Arthur. But while the Press 

 disputes, Japan has quietly taken her place. The most casual 

 perusal of the memoir now before us shows that Paris, London, or 

 Berlin might have been proud to issue it. 



Thirty new species are described, belonging to the genera Micvo- 

 cotyle, Axine, Octocotyle, Diclidophova, Hexacotyle, Onchocotyle, Calicotyle, 

 Monocotyle, Epibdella, and Tristomum. But most readers will be more 

 interested in the anatomical work. 



Mr. Goto found that familiar methods of preparation gave the 

 best results. The animals were killed with hot saturated solution of 

 corrosive sublimate, preserved in seventy per cent, alcohol and 

 stained with Kleinenberg's haematoxylin. For mounting whole, 

 specimens were killed under the pressure of a cover-slip over the 

 flame of an alcohol lamp, then preserved in seventy per cent, spirit 

 and stained with borax carmine, the excess being washed out with 

 acidulated spirit. By this method " only the internal organs and the 

 nuclei of the mesenchyma remain stained, while the mesenchyma 

 itself is wholly decolourised, so that the result forms altogether a very 

 beautiful object under the microscope." 



Among the many anatomical points that will interest specialists, 

 the structure of the mesenchyma will interest all anatomists. This 

 tissue, at least in the Digenea, consists of large vacuolated cells, 

 between which a fibrous network with small nuclei is present. 

 It varies from a truly cellular character to a typical reticulated 

 fibrous connective tissue on the one hand and a true syncytium on 

 the other. It is usually divided by a thin membrane of compact con- 

 nective tissue into an ectoparenchyma, in which run the diagonal and 

 circular muscular fibres, and an inner more vacuolated endoparenchyma 

 in which the outlines of the cells tend to become obscure. Let those 

 who still hold that there is no such morphological structure as a mesen- 

 chyma to be distinguished from a mesoblast note these conditions. 



Mr. Goto holds that the term " intracellular " has been applied 



