Literary Notices. xciii 



cells. On the ordinary hair follicles the branched processes are the 

 most prominent of all the nervous elements. The author regards this 

 fact as favoring the belief that these divided endings are organs of 

 general tactile sensibility. Various modifications of these forks are 

 said to occur in all known kinds of tactile bodies from the two or 

 three-pronged fork, through the Browne and Hoggan bodies, the Pa- 

 cinian and Meissner corpuscles, etc. " The complicated organ of 

 Eimer is but the survival of the nerve elements belonging to an origin- 

 al clustre of hairs, dragged out, in the course of evolution, by the 

 digging habits of the mole, and in this organ the homologies of the 

 forked endings may be distinctly traced." The peripheral endings of 

 the forks varies from spade- or hoof-shaped (horse) to lance-shape 

 (mouse) or club-shaped (seal). The variations do not appear, how- 

 ever, to be significant. 



The Eye of Myxine.^ 



The careful descriptions of Miiller and Krause are summarized 

 and compared with data derived by the author from his own chromic- 

 acid and Golgi preparations. The homologies suggested by those 

 earlier writers are for the most part sustained, though the structure of 

 the retina is found to be considerably simpler than that described by 

 either. He concludes: "The eye of Myxine, as I look at it, is far 

 more rudimentary than those investigators supposed. The prevailing ir- 

 regularity of form, as well as its alterations, bespeak a degenerate 

 structure. That no traces of cornea and lense are present, Johannes 

 Miiller has already recognized. I then agree with W, Krause — con- 

 trary to W. Miiller — that ' the rudimentary retina therefore cannot 

 be used in construing the phylogenetically complete retina.' This is 

 much to be regretted because the lowest stages of the development of the 

 sense-organs are of the highest significance for Biology and for Mor- 

 phogenesis." 



Brain Surgery. 



An interesting series of operations is reported by Dr. F. C. 

 Schaefer in the Journal of the American Medical Association (xxi, 5.) 

 These cases emphasize the importance of surgical action and minute 

 attention to aseptic proceedure. 



In the same number Dr. Emory Lanpeear reports a number of 



^ Retzius, Gustaf. Das Auge von Myxine. Biologische Unterstuhiingen, 

 V. Band, No. 9, pp. 64-68, with one plate. Stockholm, 1893. 



