214 QUARTERLY CHRONICLE. 
Aphis as a secondary rather than as a primary vitellus. It 
is this green mass which has led Dr. Balbiani so far astray ; 
it is this which he has regarded as the testis, and in which 
he has seen, as he thinks, spermatozoa. M. Claparéde, find- 
ing that there was so great a difference between the two 
latest observers on this subject, at once set to work to sec 
which he could best agree with, and made a series of ob- 
servations on the Aphis of the rose at Naples. He believes 
that Herr Mecznikow is entirely right, and that Dr. Balbiani 
has been deceived by the presence of parasitic Mucedinez in 
the green secondary vitellus, which he has regarded .as 
spermatozoa. M. Claparéde found such Mucedineze in 
some, but not all of the Aphides he studied at Naples. It 
is very remarkable that Dr. Balbiani, who has but just been 
writing on the parasitic nature of the silkworm disease 
(wrongly, perhaps, considering the parasites as psorospermic), 
should not have recognised in his so-called spermatozoa 
—vyegetable parasites —especially as he himself remarks 
on the similarity existing between the two. One argument 
against Dr. Balbiani’s views, which appears to us a very 
strong one, is not adduced by M. Claparéde. He states 
himself that this green secondary vitellus, which he calls a 
testis, is developed to an equal extent in both those Aphides, 
which reproduce without the action of the male, and those 
which are simply females, and require the assistance of male 
Aphides; also that it exists equally in both sexes, and 
that the testis of the normal male Aphis does not arise from 
it by any process of modification, and that an ordinary testis 
is a very different thing from this testis. So different a thing, 
we think, that we do not hesitate to call it, with MM. Mecz- 
nikow and Claparéde, by another name, and can but feel 
surprise that a fecundating function (involving the assump- 
tion of heautandry) could ever have been ascribed to it. 
At the conclusion of M. Claparéde’s very courteous demo- 
lition of Dr. Balbiani’s views in the ‘ Annales,’ is a short 
rejoinder from that author, in which he asks for a suspension 
of opinion till the full publication of his memoir and draw- 
ings, 
Robin’s Journal del’Anat. May and June, 1867.—*< On the 
Structure of the Suprarenal Capsule of Man and of some 
animals,” by Dr. Grandry, of Liége. This is the first part 
of a detailed description of these organs—illustrated with 
two well-drawn plates. 
“* Studies on the Psorospermic Disease of Silk-worms,” by 
M. Balbiani—M. Balbiani has the credit of having been 
amongst the first to show that the fatal silk-worm disease 
