Miscellaneous. 79 
it agrees, omitting the paler colour, so accurately with a still living 
species, which was found by A. Smith at the Cape of Good Hope 
and by me near Cape Delgado (hence very near this layer of copal), 
that I see no reason why it should be separated from it. This 
species is Hemidactylus capensis, described and figured by A. Smith 
(Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa: Reptiles, pl. 75. fig. 3), 
and which Dr. J. E. Gray has lately* described as a distinct genus, 
Lygodactylus strigatus.—Monatsbericht d. Preuss. Akad. Aug.1865. 
On the Spawn of the Perch. By W. H. Ransom, M.D. 
The spawn of the Perch is well known as a gelatinous band, but it 
is less generally known to be a flattened tube, composed of cohering 
ova arranged in a network, not unlike a long bead purse. Some 
highly interesting observations by the late Johann Miiller, on the 
structure of the covering of the eggs, led me to examine them with 
especial reference to the micropyle, which had not only escaped the 
scrutiny of that eminent anatomist, but also the search for it after- 
wards made by Reichert. After finding it I was induced to observe 
if it had any special relation to the network which the mass of ova 
forms, and I ascertained that in all cases it is regularly placed facing 
towards the cavity of the tube, so that by this regularity of the 
arrangement of the eggs none of them can have the micropyle oc- 
cluded by their mutual cohesion. It is a matter of interest, and of 
some difficulty, to conceive how the sperms find their way along this 
mass of ova, nearly always to the right spot, for in nature very few of 
the eggs escape impregnation.—Transactions of the Midland Scien- 
tific Association. 
On the Vital Resistance of Encysted Colpodee. 
By M. Vicror MEunIER. 
When, in July 1864, M. Coste made known his researches upon 
the development of ciliated Infusoria in an infusion of hay, M. Milne- 
Edwards expressed the opinion that the property possessed by 
encysted animalcules of returning to life in contact with water 
may throw fresh light upon certain cases of supposed spontaneous 
generation in infusions which had been boiled. Thus, if the cysts 
were but slightly permeable to water, the animalcules might remain 
dry in the midst of that liquid, so that, when boiled, they would be 
exposed to precisely the same test as if subjected to a dry temperature 
of 212° F. These remarks of M. Milne-Edwards led the author 
to make some direct experiments bearing on this point, of which he 
communicates the results in the following words. 
He says, “The dust which is given off by hay when shaken furnished 
* Proceedings of the Zool. Soc. London, 1864, p.59. Homodactylus 
Turneri, which is also there described as a new genus and species, 1s iden- 
tical with A. Smith’s Pachydactylus Bibronii (1.c. pl. 50. fig. 1), as anyone 
may easily convince himself by comparing the figures (pl. 9. fig. 2). 
