QUARTERLY CHRONICLE. 41 



simple contrivance will be readily perceived. When it is 

 desired to apply a current of gas of any kind, or of a fluid, it 

 will be readily carried through the tubes and central space 

 by suction at one of the tubes, or by forcing the gas onwards. 

 In the same way the tubes, either of themselves or as admit- 

 ting the passage of a fine wire, may be made to conduct a gal- 

 vanic current, when brought into connection through the 

 wires {cl, d) with the jdoIcs of a battery. 



The covering glass is secured round the edges by a little 

 softened tallow. 



9. '^ Spongological Notes,'" by Oscar Schmidt. — In a very 

 brief communication O. Schmidt makes some remarks on the 

 structure of the Halisarcinae, founded mainly upon H. guttula 

 and H. lobularis. He has ascertained that in the interior of 

 these sponges there is an internal sarcodous network, and 

 also an external layer, which are continuous with each other. 

 This network encloses numerous irregular vacuities, wdiich 

 are quite distinct from the ciliated true canals. He points 

 out certain points of analogy between these forms and the 

 Gummineae. 



Among the calcareous sponges he notices a new Sycon-like 

 form, with the characters of Dunstervillea, in which latter he 

 states that he has as yet been unable to detect the non-cili- 

 ated canals described by KoUiker. He has confirmed his 

 previous observation that Nardoa is, if not always, yet fre- 

 quently, furnished with oscida. 



With respect to the siliceous sponges, the author remarks 

 that a new spiecies of Scopaiina shows, from the same 

 locality, the extreme variability of the spicula, and that thus 

 some doubt may exist as to the value of the sjaecific charac- 

 ters derived from these elements. In conclusion, he states 

 that Lieberklihn's Halichondria {Myxilla) anhelans is not a 

 species, but composed of two distinct forms, for which, sepa- 

 rating them from MyxiUa, he proposes the names of Reniera 

 inflata (blue, with only one kind of spicules) and R. miiggiana 

 (brownish, with the spicules described by Lieberkiihn). 



Siebold and KoUiker's Zeitselirift. — The fourth part of this 

 journal for the year 1867 contains the following microscopical 

 papers, which we cannot notice in this number: — 1. '^'Re- 

 searches on the Natural Historij of the Worms. On Chceto- 

 soma and Rhabdog aster" by Elias MetschnikofF. 2. " Studies 

 on the Develo2mient of the Sexual Glands iti the Lepidoptera,^' 

 by Dr. E. Bessels. 3. " On the Muscles of the Cyclostomians 

 and Leptocardians" by H. Grenadier. 4. " On the Semi- 

 ch'cnlar Canal System in Birds," by Dr. C. Hasse. 

 Sitzungsber d. Wien. Akad. June, 1867. — '^ Observations on 



