October ii, 1900] 



NATURE 



589 



in Echinoidea) and Prof. Ramsay Wright (methods of preserva- 

 tion of specimens). 



(3) Investigations at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory. — The 

 British Association table was occupied by Mr. A. D. Darbishire, 

 who investigated the natural history of Pinnotheres and the 

 myology of Calanus ; and by Mr. W. M. Aders, who studied 

 the spermatogenesis of CaMenterates. 



(4) Index Animalium.— Mr. C. Davies Sherborne has made 

 great progress in this important work, and the first part of his 

 catalogue of post-Linna;an names up to the year 1800 is now 

 ready fur printing. 



(5) Plankton of the English Channel. — Mr. Garstang has com- 

 pleted the five quarterly surveys provided for, and a final report 

 will he presented at the Glasgow meeting. 



(6) Zoology of the Sandwich Islands. — Mr. R. C. L. Perkins 

 is again at work in the islands, and reports that already the 

 forests are being extensively destroyed and replaced by sugar 

 cane. It is fortunate for science that the committee foresaw 

 this event, and were enabled to begin their investigations before 

 it was too late. Four parts of the second volume of the 

 " Fauna Hawaiiensis " have been published during the year. 



On Friday, Prof. VV. B. Scott, of Princeton University, 

 U.S.A., gave an account of the Miocene fauna of Patagonia, 

 based on an elaborate investigation of the Santa Cruz beds. 

 The fauna was characterised by the abundance and variety of 

 Marsupials of Australian type, of Edentates (ground-sloths, 

 glyptodofis, and armadillos), of porcupine-like Rodents and 

 primitive Ungulates. There was no trace of tree-sloths and 

 anteaters, of rats, mice, squirrels, hares and rabbits, or of 

 carnivorous Eutheria. The place of the latter was taken by 

 flesh-eating Marsupials, as in Australia to-day. South America 

 was usually regarded as having no Insectivora, but some of the 

 small mammals examined by him appeared to belong to this 

 class. Among the hoofed animals one series was of particular 

 interest in showing the complete evolution of a one-toed type 

 from three-toed ancestors. This monodactyle positively " out- 

 horsed the horse," for even the splints had gone. Yet morpho- 

 logically it was no horse. It furnished the most conclusive 

 instance he knew of convergent evolution in widely separated 

 groups of animals. In conclusion. Dr. Scott showed that, after 

 the removal of the Miocene barrier, the true carnivora of the 

 modern fauna, together with the llama, deer, tapir, peccary, and 

 the hares and rats, immigrated from North America, while the 

 giant sloths and glyptodons extended their range to the 

 northward. 



Dr. Gregg Wilson exhibited a number of eggs and embryos 

 of Ornithorhynchus, and described the water-side burrows and 

 nests made by this lowly mammal. The duckmole protects its 

 eggs and nest by blocking the passages between the nest and the 

 entrances with solid walls of earth. 



Prof. W. C. Mcintosh communicated (through the secretary) 

 a paper on some points in the life-history of the littoral fishes, 

 iri which he discussed the mortality of certain shore fishes at 

 different stages of growth. 



Major Ronald Ross then delivered a formal lecture on 

 malaria and mosquitoes, dealing more particularly with the 

 life-history of the sporotoan whose reproduction in the blood is 

 the cause of malarial fever, and with the part played by the 

 mosquito Anopheles in transferring the parasite by means of its 

 so-called "salivary" secretion to the blood of fresh human 

 hosts. Native children were the chief source of infection, since 

 their blood swarmed with the parasites. The prevalence of 

 malaria, however, might be reduced by efficient surface-drainage, 

 which would check the multiplication of mosquitoes by destroy- 

 ing the pools and ditches in which their larvoe were developed. 



In the afternoon Prof. S. J. Hickson exhibited microscopic 

 preparations of Dendrocomefes, demonstrating the existence of 

 micronuclei in this suctorian, and the remarkable fusion of the 

 macronuclei during conjugation. He advocated the employ- 

 ment of brazilin with iron-alum as a convenient substitute for 

 the iron haematoxylin method of staining. 



Dr. J. F. Gemmill described the anatomy of the head in 

 Cyclopean trout embryos. The cerebral lobes are more or less 

 united, and the trabeculcu cranii are fused together anteriorly, 

 and bent down below the median eye or eyes. The infundi- 

 bulum and pituitary body are entirely absent ; the optic nerves 

 are rudimentary or absent, and the eyes, though provided with 

 retina and choroid, have no choroidal fissure. In some specimens 

 the mouth opening is absent, and the lower jaw arch greatly 

 shortened. 



NO. 1615. VOL. 62] 



Prof. R. Burckhardt of Basel communicated two papers on 

 some causes of brain-configuration in selachians, and on the 

 systematic value of the brain in selachians. He showed the 

 profound influence of the position of the eyes and other super- 

 ficial organs upon the shape of the brain, and advocated the 

 employment of cerebral characters in the classification of 

 cartilaginous fishes. 



On Saturday, ihe papers were of a more or less physiological 

 character, as follows : — 



Prof. Marcus Hartog : " On a peptic zymase in young embryos," 

 in which the author announced the confirmation of his discovery 

 in 1896 of a peptic zymase in young embryos of the frog, in the 

 entire embryo of the chick after twenty-four hours, and in the 

 extra- vascular blastoderm of the three days' chick. He con- 

 cluded that the law holds good for animals, as well as plants, 

 that the cell cannot directly utilise the reserves it contains, but 

 only the products of their hydrolysis, and this hydrolysis is not 

 a function of the living protoplasm, but of the zymases it forms. 

 These facts also explain apparent exceptions to Herbert 

 Spencer's law of division at the doubling of the volume. A cell 

 that is only accumulating reserve material has no need to con- 

 stantly readjust its surface to its volume. When, however, the 

 formation of a zymase enables it to utilise its reserves, and its 

 protoplasm grows at the expense of the products of their diges- 

 tion, the need for augmented surface declares itself, and we get 

 the repeated cell divisions so marked in the " segmentation " of 

 the embryo. 



Dr. R. Irvine: "On the me<Jhanical and chemical changes 

 which take place during the incubation of eggs." Hen's eggs 

 during incubation lose weight daily, principally through the 

 oxidation of their carbon and hydrogen, parts of which pass of!" 

 as CO.2 and H.^O through the shell. The percentage of ash is 

 increased by absorption of lime from the shell. 



Prof. Gotch described some recent experiments on the physio- 

 logical effect of local injury in nerve which led to the important 

 conclusion that an electrical disturbance was not always a con- 

 comitant of the passage of a nervous impulse. 



In addition to the above. Prof. Johnson Symington read 

 papers on the articulations between occipital bone and atlas and 

 axis in the mammalia, and observations on the development of 

 the cetacean flipper, and exhibited a convenient hand-magnifier 

 for demonstrating slide-preparations to . lecture-classes (Erbe, 

 Tubingen). 



The reports of committees on the following subjects were also 

 communicated: — (i) The physiological effects of peptone when 

 introduced into the circulation (Prof. W. H. Thompson). (2) 

 Comparative histology of the suprarenal capsules (Mr. Swale 

 Vincent). (3) The vascular supply of secreting glands (Dr. J. L. 

 Bunch). (4) Electrical changes in mammalian nerve (Dr. J. S. 

 MacDonald). and (5) The comparative histology of cerebral 

 cortex (Dr. G. Mann). 



On Monday, Mr. R.T. Giinther read a note on Mneslra para- 

 siieSf Krohn, in which he submitted reasons for referring this 

 parasitic medusa to the family Cladonemidre (Anthomedusje), 

 owing to its possession of compound tentacles with clavate 

 appendages and other cladonemid characters. 



Prof. L. C. Miall reviewed the respiratory organs of aquatic 

 insects. He contrasted the slight nature of the adaptations to 

 aquatic life which are exhibited by adult insects with the re- 

 markable modifications for the same end which occur in insect 

 larvae. He explained the difference as probably due to the fact 

 that profound structural changes in adult insects would interfere 

 with their powers of flight, which were of importance fur mating 

 and other purposes. Among larvae there were two piincipal 

 lines oi modification, (i) specialisation of the spiracular app.i- 

 ratus by which air could be inspired directly from the atmo- 

 sphere through the surface film of water, and (2) development 

 of a ciDsed tracheal system, by which air was extracted from its 

 solution in the surrounding water. This latter series culmi- 

 nated in a purely vesicular system, destitute of tracheae, and find- 

 ing its nearest parallel in the air-bladder apparatus of physoclist 

 fishes. 



Mr. T. H. Taylor described the tracheal gills of S/muii'uw, 

 whose mode of respiration presented peculiar diflliculties still 

 unsolved. 



Mr. J. J. Wilkinson described the pharynx of Eristalis, and 

 Mr. N. Walker the structure and life-history of the gooseberry 

 sawfly. 



In the afternoon Mr. Stanley Gardiner opened with the in- 

 terim report of the committee appointed to investigate the 



