PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. iy! 
examining the water in this place, it was found quite pure. But on 
scraping the floor and walls, and placing the dust in the water, a 
myriad of moving octrios were seen under the microscope. The pro- 
duct in this way obtained from room No. 400 smelt very badly, and 
by microscopic examination numerous alge were found, especially 
Coccochloris Brébissonii, and also vibrious bacteria and monads. After 
twelve hours there were numerous Amebe found. He thinks that 
these several bodies have had much to do with the unhealthiness of 
the locality. However, more observations will be required ere this 
idea is established. 
Development of the Heart in the Chicken.—M. Dareste, who is well 
known in France for his researches in development, has recently 
presented a paper on the above subject to the Academy.* It is to 
form part of a work on development, which he is about to publish, 
but which will not be out for six or eight months. After describing 
the results obtained on this subject by Hensen, Kélliker, and Jusser, 
the author passes on to his own results. And he shows very clearly, 
by a series of arguments which we must refer the reader to the paper 
itself for, that in the development of the heart the two ventricles 
are at first completely separated one from the other. Indeed in an 
abnormal case he found the two ventricles did not contract simul- 
taneously, but one twice as fast as the other. This is wonderful, for 
unless the contents of the two cavities differed we do not see how 
the circulation could have been carried on. We may observe that the 
separation of the ventricles is a permanent affair in the case of the 
Sirenia. 
Researches on Filaria hematica have been recently made by 
MM. Galeb and Pourquier on this subject, and have been published 
before the French Academy.t These, however, have done little that 
has not been already.done by Dr. Cunningham, of India, whose 
work our readers are familiar with. The French authors found 
Filariz in the blood of a foetus of a bitch whose heart was filled 
with these organisms, but they do not explain how they traversed the 
double walls of the placenta in order to pass from parent to offspring. 
Of course we do not imagine that these worms were spontaneously 
developed, but it is as yet unexplained how they passed through the 
placental walls. 
A New Nematoid Worm has been found by Dr. Normand in the 
bodies of those who have suffered from diarrhoea in Cochin China. 
Tape-worms in Rabbits.—Some short time since a letter appeared 
in ‘Nature, from Mr. G. J. Romanes, to the effect that, in dissecting 
some wild rabbits, he found the intestine full of tape-worms. This, 
of course, was an extraordinary fact, for the rabbit is purely an 
herbivorous animal. How, then, could the tape-worm have passed 
through its cystic stage? The difficulty is now removed by a letter 
to ‘Nature’ (February 15) from Mr. R. D. Turner, in which he says: 
“JT would suggest that the tape-worm referred to by Mr. G.J. Romanes 
* ‘Comptes Rendus,’ December 27, 1876. + February 5, 1877. 
