PR0GEES8 OF MICKOSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 79 



of cryptogamous developments (or " embryology" of authors). The 

 moss-spore proper (apart from the Chlorospermece as true moss-spawns), 

 develops into a true land (or aquatic) Conferva. The latter bears a 

 bud at the ends of its thread-like " prothallium." Each of its cells is 

 generated out of a preceding one, A terminal cell enlarges into a 

 conical leaf. Out of that leaf sj^rings the second, at its base. It is 

 in fact only on the supj)osition of radial organs generating their suc- 

 cessors at the side of the rift — at the centre — alternating from either 

 border (as in the case of the pod-leaves, producing fertile ovules), 

 that the whole of phyllotaxic phenomena, and of organic numbers in 

 general, becomes explicable. The production of new elements, how- 

 ever, takes place in a very embryonic condition. Cotyledons already 

 formed do not divide. Lobes of fissures, folds, &c., of cotyledons are 

 no divisions, but are due to unequal enlargement. New elements are 

 not formed by division, but by sprouting. 



Foraminifera of the Chalk of Gravesend and Meudon. — A very im- 

 portant paper on this subject has been contributed to the ' Geological 

 Magazine' for November last, by Dr. W. K. Parker, F.K.S., our Pre- 

 sident, and Professor Eupert Jones, F.G.S. It should be read by 

 those who are interested in the subject. The authors conclude by 

 expressing the fact that the specimens figured in the ' Mikrogeologie ' 

 are for the most part very minute, such as lie among the finer debris 

 of washed chalk ; whilst those treated of by D'Orbigny were larger 

 individuals picked out by means of hand-lenses from the coarser dust 

 of the disintegrated material. The great difference of size, however, 

 among individual Foraminifera carries but little weight in the deter- 

 mination of species ; for the conditions, not only of growth, but of 

 feeding ground, depth of water, and climate affect them so greatly, 

 that a form which may be gigantic in one habitat, will be arrested or 

 dwarfed in another, retaining all the essential characteristics of shape 

 and structm-e which are required for its sjiecific identification. 



Peroxide of Hydrogen in Pus-globules. — In a paper read before the 

 Medical Society of Victoria, and published in the ' Australian Medical 

 Journal' for August last. Dr. J. Day calls attention to the value of 

 peroxide of hydrogen in destroying the infectious nature of pus- 

 globules. He has tried it in cases of small-pox with advantage. He 

 shows its action on pus-cells to be extremely active. 



Nerves of the External Ear of the Mouse. — Professor Schobl gives 

 an account in Schultze's ' Archiv ' * of the above. He states that he 

 knows no cutaneous structure throughout the entire mammalian series 

 that is so richly sujjplied with nerves — not even the wing of the bat. 

 And he goes on to say that he has discovered peculiar tactile bodies in 

 it, and a remarkable pale terminal plexus of sensory nerves. If the 

 cartilage of the ear be horizontally divided so that the ear is split 

 into two lamellfe, no less than four nerve plexuses may be seen in 

 each. Lying on the cartilage are the larger trunks, which usually 

 divide dichotomously, and intercommunicate in seven different fashions, 



* Band vii., Heft iii. 



