QUARTERLY CHRONICLE. 143 
themselves, in the ‘Torpedos, by one or several orifices into 
two prismatic triangular reservoirs, with their inner surface 
smooth and of serous aspect, and their cavity often traversed 
by delicate fibrous bundles. These reservoirs open into the 
dilatations which the ven cave present in all the Plagiostomi 
before their arrival in Monro’s sinuses. For various reasons, 
which he adduces, M. Robin believes that the chief use of 
the lymphatics is to charge themselves with the excess of that 
portion of the blood-plasma which arrives in the capillaries, 
and issues from them at each systole of the ventricles. In 
fact, we know that the quantity of lymph flowing is much 
greater when there is a considerable efflux of blood to an 
organ than when the latter is in a state of repose. M. Robin 
has made numerous observations in M. Coste’s great fish 
laboratory at’ Concarneau, on living and fresh fish. He con- 
cludes, finally, that the cutaneous and subcutaneous vessels 
described by Monro, Hewson, &c., as lymphatics, are veins— 
some in the condition of true veins, others in that of venous 
sinuses. Beyond these veins it is impossible to inject any 
vessel, either by means of mercury or otherwise. The divi- 
sion of lymphatics into superficial and deep-seated or visceral, 
still adopted by some modern authors, must, consequently, be 
abandoned, the former kind of vessels not existing in this 
class of vertebrata. 
Robin's Journal de l’Anatomie. January and February.—The 
current number of this journal contains some very good 
papers. M. Robin himself publishes his researches on the 
lymphatics of Plagiostomi, with some very beautiful illustra- 
tions. We have given a short notice of the paper above. 
Besides this there are— 
“« Experiments on the Genesis of Leucocytes and on Sponta- 
neous Generation,” by Dr. Onimus.—This appears to be a 
paper of very considerable ability, full of experiment and re- 
search. The author first shows that in an amorphous 
blastema “‘anatomical elements” are spontaneously produced. 
This production of cellules has, as one of its indispensable 
conditions, the phenomena of endosmose and exosmose, and 
they are produced more quickly accordingly as the phenomena 
of endosmose and exosmose are more rapid. Heat and the 
composition of the surrounding solids and liquids have a 
marked influence on the genesis of these leucocytes. No 
leucocytes, nor any kind of “ anatomical element,” form 
themselves in a blastema of which the fibrine has been 
coagulated. These statements are inferences from a series of 
careful experiments in which celliform bodies were produced 
by purely physical processes. 
