July I, 1875J 



NATURE 



175 



that Mr. Gould some years ago succeeded in bringing a living pair 

 within the confines of the British Islands, and a single individual to 

 London, where it lived two days. The birds were quite lively 

 during the voyage across the Atlantic, but began to droop when 

 off the coast of Ireland ; and, as we have said, Mr. Gould suc- 

 ceeded in bringing only one to London alive. Particulars will 

 be found in Mr. Gould's " Monograph of the Trochilida;." 



Further details are to hand of the earthquake which on 

 May 18 caused so much destruction in the valley of Cucuta, in 

 the Republic of New Granada. The destruction to life and 

 property has been almost unprecedented. The German drug 

 store, it is stated, was set on fire by a ball of fire that was thrown 

 out of the volcano, which, at the time the news left, was 

 constantly belching out lava. The volcano has opened itself in 

 front of Santiago, in a ridge called El Alto de la Giracho. In 

 reference to this, see the letter we publish to-day from Mr. W. G. 

 Palgrave. 



The final arrangements have been made for holding the 

 forty-third annual meeting of the British Medical Association, 

 which meets in Edinburgh this year on August 3, under the 

 presidency of Prof. Sir Robert Christison, Bart. 



An exhibition is to be held in Belgium next year of all such 

 apparatus, sanitary arrangements, or scientific appliances as are 

 calculated to preserve health or to save life. 



With the Gardener's Chronicle of last Saturday is published 

 a beautifully illustrated supplement, giving an account of 

 Chatsworth, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire. 



The Brussels Academic Royale has just published a new 

 edition of its " Notices Biographiques et Bibliographique." 

 This volume contains a brief sketch of the history of the Aca- 

 demy, a list of Presidents, honorary, corresponding, and ordi- 

 nary members and associates in the various classes, followed by 

 brief biographical notices of all the members who have contri- 

 buted papers, with full lists of their contributions. The volume 

 is a very valuable as well as a very interesting one. 



Messrs. Trl bner and Co. have published a pamphlet by 

 Dr. A. Stoecker (translated by Dr. Harrer) giving much useful 

 information concerning the baths and mineral springs of Wildun- 

 gen, about one hour's distance from Cassel. The springs, of 

 ^vhich there are five in use, are more or less alkaline-chalybeate, 

 and seems to possess^important curative quahties. In connection 

 with this subject the following recently published statistics of the 

 numbers of patients that visited the German and Hungarian 

 watering-places during 1874 will be interesting : — Baden-Baden, 

 41,464 ; Buziasch, 813 ; Carlsbad, 20,235 ; Elster, 4,373 ; 

 Franzensbad, 7,655 ; Gleichenberg, 3,373 ; Gastein, 1,253 J 

 Gmunden, 1,202 ; Giesshiibl, 12,625 ; Griifenberg, 847 ; Hall, 

 2,coo ; Ischl, 9,386; Ilmenau, 1,468; KrankenheiJ, 1,010; 

 Konigswart, 313; Neuenahr, 3,405; Oeynhausen, 3,254; 

 Kryniza, 2,080 ; Luhatschowitz, 942 ; Marienbad, 9,861 ; Nan- 

 helm, 4,152; Pystian, 1,709; Reichenhall, 4,215; Reinerz, 

 2,352 ; Rohitsch, 2,603 ; Szczawinca, 2,033 > Teplitz-Trentschin 

 1,655 ; Tiiffer, 2,061 ; Voslau, 3,865 ; Wartenberg, 805 ; 

 Warmbrunn, 1,960; and Wiesbaden,i65,8oo. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during 

 the past week include a Black-backed Jackal {Canis mesomeles) 

 from S. Africa, presented by Messrs. Donald Currie.and Co. ; 

 an Indian Coucal {Centropus rufipennis) from India, presented 

 by Mrs. Hunter Blair ; a Small^Hill Mynah [Gracula religiosa) 

 from S. India, presented by Sir Charles Smith, Bart. ; a Golden 

 Eagle {Aquila chrysdetos) from India, presented by Mrs. Logan 

 Home ; two Chinese Quails {Coturnix chinensis) from China, 

 presented by Mr. A. Jamrach ; two Virginian Eagle Owls {Bubo 

 virginianus) from N, America, deposited ; two White-winged 

 Choughs (Corcorax leucopterus) from Australia, a Salle's Amazon 

 (Chrysotis sallcei) from St. Domingo, purchased ; five Australian 

 Wild Ducks {Anas superciliosa) bred in the Gardens. 



RECENT PROGRESS IN OUR KNOWLEDGE 



OF THE CI LI ATE INFUSORIA* 



IIL 



TT follows from this view that the cavity of the Coelenterata 

 would represent an intestinal cavity only, while a true body 

 cavity would be here entirely absent. This way of regarding the 

 cavity of the Crelenterata is at variance with the conclusions of 

 most other anatomists who regard the ccelenterate cavity as 

 representing a true body cavity, or a body and intestinal cavity 

 combined. I had myself long entertained the generally accepted 

 opinion that the cavity of the Coelenterata represents a body 

 cavity. I must, however, now give my adnesion to the doctrine 

 here advocated by Haeckel, and regard the proper body cavity 

 of the higher animals as having no representative in the Coelen- 

 terata. I believe that this is supported both by the facts of 

 development and by the structure of the mature animal. Indeed, 

 the body cavity first shov/s itself, as Haeckel has pointed out, in 

 the higher worms, and is thence carried into the higher groups 

 of the animal kingdom. 



If such be the real nature of a true intestinal cavity and of a 

 true body cavity, it is plain that neither the one nor the other 

 can exist in the Infusoria, for there is here nothing which can be 

 compared with either the endoderm or the ectoderm. 



The whole, then, of the alleged chyme of the Infusoria is 

 nothing more than the internal soft protoplasm of the body. It 

 is quite the same as in Ammba and many other unicellular 

 animals. 



The peculiar currents which have been long noticed in the 

 endoplasm of many Infusoria must be placed in the same category 

 with the rotation of the protoplasm observed in many organic 

 cells. Von Siebold, indeed, had already compared the endo- 

 plasm currents of the Infusoria to the well-known rotation of 

 the protoplasm in the cells of Chara. 



The presence of a mouth and anal orifice in the ciliate Infusoria 

 has been urged as an argument against the unicellular nature of 

 these organisms. The so-called mouth and anus, however, 

 admit of a comparison not in a morphological but only in a 

 physiological sense with the mouth and anus of higher animals. 

 They are simple lacun:e in the firm exoplasm, and have, accor- 

 ding to Haeckel, no higher morphological value than the " pore 

 canals" in the wall of many animal and plant-cells, or the 

 micropyle in that of many egg-cells. Kolliker had already 

 compared them to the excretory canal of unicellular glands. 

 Since, therefore, they do not admit of being homologically 

 identified with the orifices of the same name in the higher 

 animals, Haeckel proposes for them the terms " Cytosloma" and 

 " Cytopyge." 



So also the presence of a contractile vesicle and of other 

 vacuoles affords no solid argument against the unicellularity of 

 the Infusoria. The physiological significance of the contractile 

 vesicles has been variously interpreted. In certain cases a com- 

 munication with the exterior appears to have been demonstrated, 

 and Haeckel regards them as combining two ditTerent functions of 

 nutrition, namely, respiration and excretion. They are in all 

 cases destitute of proper walls, and they have been long recog- 

 nised as morphologically nothing more than lacunae filled with 

 fluid. Regular contractile vesicles differing in no respect from 

 those of the ciliate Infusoria are often found in the Flagellata 

 and in the swarmspores of many AlgK. 



Besides the constant and regular contracting vacuoles, there 

 occur also others less constant and less regularly contracting. 

 These are found in the softer endoplasm, while the constant and 

 regularly contracting vacuoles occur for the most part in the 

 firmer exoplasm. One is just as much a wall-less vacuole as the 

 other, and the difference between them is to be traced to the 

 difference of consistence in the surrounding protoplasm. Haeckel 

 regards the less constant ones as the original form from which 

 the others have been phylogenetically derived, that is, by a 

 process of inheritance and modification through descent. 



The last and most important of the parts which enter into the 

 formation of the Infusorium body, namely, the nucleus, is next 

 discussed. Viewed from a morphological point, it has been 

 already demonstrated that the nucleus is in all Ciliata originally a 

 single simple structure, resembling in this respect a true cell- 

 nucleus. As the Infusorium body approaches maturity we find 

 that with its advancing differentiation peculiar changes occur in 

 the nucleus just as in the rest of the protoplasm, but these 

 changes are entirely paralleled by differentiation phenomena 



* Anniversary Address to the] Linnean Society, by the President, Dr. G. 

 J. AUman, F.R.S., May 24. Continued from p. 157. 



