1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 83 
The indefatigable American popularised the science, secured a band 
of earnest students, established a museum, and organized the Tokyo 
Biological Society, now the Zoological Society. He was succeeded 
by C. O. Whitman, who introduced modern technical methods. 
Since 1881 the development of zoology in Japan has been 
entirely in native hands, and does not seem to have suffered from 
that cause. All its main branches, including its practical applica- 
tions, are now fairly represented. The Marine Station at Misaki 
has been outgrown, and a larger one is being opened two miles north 
of the present building. The teaching of zoology in the various 
schools over the country is a recognised thing. Further, the 
addition of Formosa to the territory of Japan has already been 
taken advantage of by Japanese zoologists. One thing is wanted, 
and that is literature. Prof. Mitsukuri appeals to the naturalists 
of other countries to send their publications to the Imperial Uni- 
versity, where they are sure to be warmly appreciated. 
GROWTH-CHANGES IN THE SPICULES OF SEA-CUCUMBERS 
THE sea-cucumber, trepang, beche-de-mer, or holothurian, is well 
known to be a favourite article of food in the Far East; especially 
is this the case with the common namako of Japan. For the 
protection and cultivation of this animal, Prof. Mitsukuri some 
time ago began an inquiry, at the instance of the Ministry of 
Agriculture and Commerce. One of the first questions to be 
answered was the number of species, if there were, as was sup- 
posed, more than one. The species of holothurians are often 
determined largely by differences in the form of the minute cal- 
careous spicules found in the skin. Now it so happened that those 
who had examined this Japanese holothurian—namely, Selenka, Von 
Marenzeller, Lampert, and Théel—had failed to find the same appear- 
ances in the spicules, and had founded two species, Stichopus armatus 
and S. japonicus, together with a variety of the latter, called typicus. 
The shape of the spicules is that of a minute one-legged table made 
of open fretwork ; but some individuals contain no tables at all, only 
smaller spicules something like round buttons with four or five holes 
in the middle. Prof. Mitsukuri’s investigations, now published 
in Annotationes Zoologicae Japonenses (i. pp. 31-42), show that all 
these forms belong to Stichopus japonicus, and that in this species 
the form of the spicules changes with advancing age. The youngest 
individuals have an extremely large number of most perfectly formed 
large-sized tables, and nothing but these. With the growth of the 
animal, perfectly formed tables decrease both in number and size, 
and tables in various stages of arrested development are found mixed 
with them. This process continues with age, until in fully grown 
