186 CHROMOSOMES IN RESTING NUCLEI. 
(b) After two days’ secretive activity. The extremely large 
size of the chromosomes may be due to the fact that these 
cells not only secrete, but also absorb food. At this stage 
absorption is at its height, and the cells may be regarded as 
temporary depots of nutrition. 
Fig. 6—Nucleus of “granular cell” in the ovotestis of 
Helix pomatia. (Bolles Lee, “Les Cinéses Spermatogénétiques 
chez l’Helix pomatia,’ Za Cellule, xiii.) These cells con- 
tain an immense amount of fatty matter, which seems to 
serve as a kind of vitellus to the spermatogonies. The 
author says :—‘“ Encore un mot sur la structure particulicre 
des noyaux des cellules basales (granular cells): j’admets 
que cette structure particulicre des noyaux des cellules 
basales est en rapport avec la fonction de ces éléments. 
Mais pourquoi, se demande-t-on, une cellule ayant telle 
ou telle fonction, mais étant essentiellement une cellule de 
repos, aurait elle son noyau contenant des chromosomes 
indépendants, au lieu d’un élement chromatique continu ? 
Il serait impossible de donner aujourd’hui une réponse 
satisfaisante & cette demande.” But he cites two of the 
examples given above, those of the nuclei of Drosera rotwndi- 
folia and of the spinning glands of caterpillars, as facts of 
“perhaps essentially the same order,’ which may help to 
throw light on the question. 
LIFE AT THE SURFACE OF THE SEA. 
By W. B. Drummonp, M.B., C.M., M.R.C.P.E. 
(Read 7th December 1899.) 
WE sometimes speak of our earth as clad in a living gar- 
ment, and the phrase calls forth a mental image of the 
moorlands and the forests, of immense grass-covered prairies, 
of the heathery slopes of the hills, of innumerable flowers 
arrayed in a beauty greater than that of Solomon in his 
glory. Of these we naturally and rightly think, for on 
