ELEVENTH KEPORT ON RECENT TERATOLOGICAL LITERA- 

 TURE. By Bertram C. A. Winble, M.D., Sc.D., F.R.S., 

 Professor of Anatoimj in the University of Birmingham, 



[The author of this report will feel greatly obliged if writers on teratological 

 subjects will supply him with reprints of their papers for use in the preparation 

 of future reports.] 



I. Experimental. 



CuTORE (i.) has made further experiments in the oft-tried direction 

 of vaniishing a certain extent of the shell, and concludes that the 

 development of the embrj'^os in eggs thus treated is in inverse 

 ratio to the amount of the shell which is varnished. He confirms 

 the observation of ]\Iingazzini that the multiple canals of the caudal 

 end of the medullary canal are in direct relation to the insufficient 

 aeration, as he finds them in all the embryos which he obtained from 

 varnished shells. Grave malformations of the nervous system can 

 be provoked by varnishing the egg, atrophy and deformation of the 

 cerebral and otic vesicles being established at a very early stage 

 of development. The multiple canals in the dorso-lumbar region 

 seem to be formed by cell-proliferations which advance into the 

 interior of the primitive medullary canal in the manner of septa. 

 A further series of similar experiments, as also of others dealing 

 with development under increased and diminished temperature 

 conditions, have been detailed at great length by Mitrophanow (ii.). 

 These observations particularly relate to the nature of the primitive 

 streak. Fere (iii.) states that the injection of cantharidin into eggs 

 increases the tendency to variation. At the same time that it provokes 

 monstrosities it also accelerates development, especially in feeble doses. 

 In another paper (iv.) the same writer gives a resume of the work 

 which he has done in experimental feratology since 1893. Most, 

 if not all, of the observations covered by that period have been 

 detailed in earlier reports in this series. The same writer (v.) 

 directs attention to the manifold causes which may lead to an 

 irregularity in orientation on the part of the chick-embryo in the 

 egg. The substances employed in the experiments detailed were 

 the vapours of ethyl alcohol, chloroform, phosphorus, etc. The 

 same experimenter (vi.) shows that weak solutions of rafeine 

 seem to cause rapid development of a normal character in the 

 egg, whilst stronger produce bad effects, including the development 

 of nionsti'osities. 



