130 PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 



revealed the fact that the elastic threads which held the Gulf-weed 

 together were beaded at intervals, sometimes two or three beads being 

 close together, or a bmich of them hanging from the same cluster of 

 threads, or they were, more rarely, scattered at a greater distance one 

 from the other. Nowhere was there much regularity observable in 

 the distribution of the beads, and they were found scattered throughout 

 the whole ball of sea-weeds pretty uniformly. The beads themselves 

 were about the size of an ordinary pin's head. We had, no doubt, a 

 nest before us, of the most curious kind ; full of eggs, too ; the eggs 

 scattered throughout the mass of the nest and not placed together in 

 a cavity of the whole structure. What animal could have built this 

 singular nest was the next question. It did not take much time to 

 ascertain the class of the animal kingdom to which it belongs. A 

 common pocket lens at once revealed two large eyes upon the side of 

 the head, and a tail bent over the back of the body, as the embryo 

 uniformly appears in ordinary fishes shortly before tlie period of 

 hatching. The many empty egg-cases observed in the nest gave 

 promise of an early opportunity of seeing some embryos freeing them- 

 selves from their envelope. Meanwhile a number of these eggs with 

 live embryos were cut out of the nest and placed in separate ghiss jars 

 to multiply the chances of preserving them, while the nest, as a whole, 

 was secured in alcohol, as a memorial of our unexj)ectcd discovery. 

 " The next day I found two embryos in one of my glass jars ; they 

 occasionally moved in jerks, and then rested for a long while motion- 

 less upon the bottom of the jar. On the third day I had over a dozen 

 of these young fishes in my rack, the oldest of which began to be more 



active, and promised to afford further opportunities for study 



But what kind of fish was this ? About the time of hatching, the fins 

 of this class of animals differ too much from those of the adult, and 

 the general form exhibits too few peculiarities to afford any clue to 

 this problem. I could suppose only that it would probably prove 

 to be one of the pelagic species of the Atlantic, and of these the most 

 common are Exocoetus, Naucrates, Scopelus, Chironectes, Synguathus, 

 Monacanthus, Tetraodon, and Diodon. Was there a way to come 

 nearer to a correct solution of my doubts ? As I had in former years 

 made a somewhat extensive study of the pigment cells of the skin, in 

 a variety of young fishes, I now resorted to this method to identify 

 my embryos. Happily we had on board several pelagic fishes alive, 

 which could afford means of comparison, but unfortunately the steamer 

 was shaking too much and rolling too heavily for microscopic observa- 

 tion of even moderately high powers. Nothing, however, should be 

 left untried, and the very first comparison I made secured the desired 

 result. The jngment cells of a young Chironectes pictus proved 

 identical with those of our little embryos." 



The Anatomy of the Pennatulians. — This continues to be admirably 

 given in Professor Kolliker's fine treatise, which is being published 

 at Frankfort. The work, of course, is not yet completed. 



A Bare Fungus has been found and presented to the Manchester 

 Philosopliical Society (December) by the Eev. J. E. Vize, M.A., of 



