*'jouraai,'Jan.1'is'a'] PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 43 



individuals each, in cells respectively provided by the parent, which are 

 deciduous (that is, subsequently soon disappear). (4) Those indi- 

 viduals of the parent group which do not produce new families, retain 

 their gonimic contents, increase in size, become globular, and lose their 

 spines by atrophy. (5) A spherical or slightly elliptical sporangium, 

 about twice the diameter of the largest individual of a group of Soras- 

 trum, makes its api^earance, presenting a deep, dark sea-green colour, 

 precisely like that of Sorasfrum, composed of a tough transparent coat, 

 tilled with the usual contents of a sporangium, and surrounded by a 

 thick, soft, transparent, gelatinous envelope. Since writing this 

 summary Mr. Carter has established that fissiparity exists. The new 

 species of Protococcus was foimd by the author in one of the tanks of 

 Bombay before he left India. He has figui-ed, it and calls it Conococcus 

 elongatus, 



Algce enclosed in Diamonds. — Herr Dr. Goppert alleges that certain 

 diamonds contain algae enclosed in them. He has examined specimens 

 in the Berlin Museum and in the British Museum. In both he has 

 detected greenish, round corpuscles, which he regards as unicellular 

 algfe. In one case he considered the species to be like Protococcus 

 pluvialis, and in another to resemble Pcdmogloea macrococca. He has 

 given distinct si)ecific names to the two, however. An account is 

 given in the Eeport of the Imperial Geological Institute of Vienna 

 for August 31. 



Tlie Muscular Fibres of the Ventricles. — Dr. P. J. Hensley makes 

 some interesting remarks on this subject a propos of both Henle's and 

 Pettigrew's researches. The paper, however, is more physiological 

 than histological. — ' Journal of Anatomy,' November. 



The Chemiccd Constitution of the Nuclei of the Blood-Corpuscles is a 

 minute (!) chemico-histological inquiry by Dr. Brunton, rej)orted in 

 the same journal. 



Tlie Spectroscopic Examination of Coloured Fluids is an admirable 

 paper by Mr. E, Eay Lankester. It is an abstract of his voluminous 

 report to the British Association, and has a woodcut showing the 

 absori^tion of various substances, and also the lines of the scale 

 formed by using the nitric oxide gas. — 'Journal of Anatomy,' November. 



A Liaplasmatic System of Vessels. — Dr. T. A. Carter publishes in 

 the ' Joiu'nal of Anatomy ' a paper which he sent to the Boyal Society 

 in 1864, and which that body considered worthy only of a short 

 abstract in its Proceedings. Dr. Carter has attempted to prove what 

 all experienced histologists surmise, viz. that the capillaries com- 

 mimicate with a fine reticulation of vessels, which are not large enough 

 to admit the blood globules. Anyone who has ever measured the 

 diameter of some of the fine German transparent injections of the 

 brain must admit the existence of these channels, which it may be 

 suspected are occasionally mistaken for lymphatics. 



Tlie Structure of the Siliceo-fihrous Sponges. — Dr. Bowerbank 

 has published a splendid memoir on this subject, in Part I. of the 

 ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' for the present year. This 



