August 25, 1892] 



NATURE 



405 



charge of the Association's work in that district, that the imposi- 

 tion of a reasonable size-limit for plaice alone would do more to 

 cause the trawlers to leave these grounds unmolested than could 

 be effected by any scheme of closing based on international 

 agreement. 



Various zoologists and fishing experts, including Prof. Ray 

 Lankester, Prof. Mcintosh, Prof. Ewart, Dr. Fullerton, Mr. 

 Olsen, Mr. Stebbing, Mr. Walker, and Prof. McKendrick, 

 took part in the discussion which followed. 



(4) Dr. W. Ramsay Smith, The Food of Fishes. This statis- 

 tical paper gives the result of observations made by the 

 naturalists of the Fishery Board for Scotland on over 10,000 

 food fishes collected in the Firth of Forth and St. Andrews 

 Bay during the last four years. The author considers the sta- 

 tistics so extensive as to reduce the limit of the errors of observa- 

 tion to such an extent as to allow general conclusions of a 

 trustworthy character to be drawn now for the first time. 



(5) Mr. E. W. L. Holt, Notes on Teleostean Development. 



(6) Mr. A. P. Swan, The Effect of Sea- water on the Vitality of 

 the Salmon Fungus. The author showed that immersion in sea 

 water even diluted with any lesser proportion than three parts 

 of fresh water is fatal to the fungus ; and from the continuous 

 nature of the hyphae it is certain that the disease is destroyed on 

 the stay of the fish in the sea , and that the recurrence of the 

 disease on the return to fresh water must be due to re-infection. 

 In the discussion that followed Mr. George Murray expressed 

 his acceptance of the author's results. 



(7) Prof. E. G. Prince, on the Formation of Argenteous 

 Matter in the Integument of Teleosteans. The fibrillated sub- 

 stance to which the integument of many fishes owes its silvery 

 lustre is formed in a layer of granular plasma which belongs to 

 the mesoderm. 



(8) Prof. E. E. Prince, The Development of the Pharyngeal 

 Teeth in the Labridse. The grinding plates in the pharynx of 

 wrasses are developed from rounded dental sacs formed from 

 the cells of the mucous layer. 



(9) Dr. earlier, on the Skin of the Hedgehog. The skin of 

 the dorsal surface is very thick, and very rugose. The spines 

 spring from depressions between the rugosities. On section 

 llie mucosa is very thick, and devoid of blood vessels except 

 beneath. Sweat and sebaceous glands are absent : radiation of 

 heat is thereby almost prevented. The spines which are mor- 

 phologically hairs, are fixed in the cutis vera by a broad base, 

 near which is a rich capillary plexus. The spines, consist of 

 cuticle, cortex, and medulla. The cortex is strengthened inter- 

 nally by twenty-two or more longitudinal septa. The medulla 

 is divided into loculi by transverse imperforate septa, which 

 divide at their margins into secondary septa, which again divide 

 into tertiary, enclosing respectively secondary and tertiary loculi. 

 The erector pili is very large, and somewhat fan-shaped. The 

 skin of the ventral surface is much thinner, and is covered with 

 soft hairs between which and the spines there is a gradual 

 transition on the flanks. Sebaceous and sweat glands are pre- 

 sent, and also much adipose tissue, and a thin skin muscle. 



(10) Rev. Alex. S. Wilson, on the Industry and Intelligence 

 of Insects in relation to Flowers. 



(11) The following demonstrations were also given : — Divid- 

 ing Pollen Mother Cells, by Prof. M. Hartog ; Hibernating 

 Gland of Hedgehog, by Dr. Carlier ; Variations in Arrangement 

 of Feathers in Wings of Birds, by Mr. Goodchild ; Embryo-sac 

 of Angiosperms, by Dr. G. Mann. 



On Tuesday, Aug. 9, the Section again separated into Depart- 

 ments. In the Botanical Department, papers were read by Prof. 

 Schmitz (Knollchen am Thallus einiger Florideen), Mr. Car- 

 ruthers (on the Structure of the Stem of atypical Sigillaria), Mr. 

 T. Hick (on Calamostachys Binneyana), Mr. A. C. Seward (on 

 Myeloxylon from Millstone Grit and Coal Measures), Prof. Hill- 

 house ( Disappearance of native Plants from their local Habitats), 

 and others which will be noticed elsewhere. 



Mr. G. Murray drew attention to a comparison of the Marine 

 Floras of the warm Atlantic and Indian Ocean, his remarks 

 being illustrated by a printed table of statistics. He dealt with 

 the question whether since the last period of a warm climate at 

 the Cape when the two tropical marine floras mingled, the genera 

 and species had had time to vary much, or remained the same 

 in the warm Atlantic and Indian Oceans now separated by the 

 colder flora at the Cape. 



Mr. Harold Wager read a paper on the Structure of Cystopus 

 candidus, a fungus found parasitic on the shepherd's purse. He 

 pointed out that the nuclei are similar in structure in many re- 



NO. II 9 1, VOL. 46] 



spects to the nuclei of higher plants. In the formation of the 

 oospore a number of nuclei are restricted to the periplasm, and 

 at a late stage a number of nuclei are found in the oospore sur- 

 rounding a large central oil globule. During fertilization the 

 protoplasm and nuclei contained in the antheridium pass over 

 into the fertilizing tube, but whether any of the contents pass 

 into the oospore was not determined. 



A paper, by Mr. James Britten, was read protesting against 

 certain proposed changes in Botanical nomenclature. 



Two papers were given by Prof. G. Gilson (Louvain), on the 

 Affinity of Nuclein for Iron and other substances, and a Method 

 of Staining Nuclei by Chemical Means. It is now certain that 

 dead nuclein, as well as other substances found in the cell, have a 

 strong affinity for the various compounds of iron and of other 

 metals and negative chemical bodies. Thus the difficult ques- 

 tion arises. Is the presence of iron in the nuclear elements con- 

 stant and normal during life, and is this metal necessary for the 

 chemical activity of the nucleus ? 



Dr. C. H. Bailey, Manchester, discussed the conditions 

 affecting plant life in a town atmosphere, especially the falling 

 off in the amount of light received, and the increase in sulphur- 

 ous acid. Finally, a paper was read by Dr. G. Mann, which 

 contended that the view first put on record by the author, viz., 

 that the embryo-sac of Angiosperms corresponded to a sporo- 

 cyte, and not a macrospore, was confirmed by the observations of 

 Guignard, Dodel, and Overton, and that the eight cells within 

 the embryo-sac were eight female sexual cells corresponding 

 to the eight male sexual cells derived from a pollen mother- 

 cell. 



In the Department of Zoology the following papers were 

 read : — 



(i) Baron Jules de Guerne, Presentation de Planches in- 

 edites de Zoologie concernant les Recherches du Yacht V Hiroit- 

 delle. 



(2) Baron Jules de Guerne, Crustaces Copepodes des Eaux 

 snrsatures de Sel de la France et des Canaries. 



(3) Dr. Arthur Robinson, Observations on the Development 

 of the Posterior Cranial and Anterior Spinal Nerves in Mam- 

 mals. At an early stage (eleven protovertebral somites) a con- 

 tinuous cord of nerve cells extends backwards from just within 

 the posterior part of the auditory depression along the dorso- 

 lateral angle of the medulle and spinal cord. At the time of 

 formation of the secondary optic-cup this cellular cord loses a 

 connection it had with the dorsal extremity of the neural tube, 

 thickens between auditory vesicle and first somite, remains 

 relatively small from first to fourth somite, and beyond the 

 fourth somite gives origin to a series of swellings, the spinal 

 ganglia. The ganglionic enlargement in the presomitic region 

 becomes the root-ganglia of the glosso-pharyngeal and vagus 

 nerves. An enlargement in relation with the fourth somite 

 becomes the first cervical ganglion. Other enlargements in 

 second and third somites become connected either with spinal 

 accessory or (in cat) with posterior root of hypoglossal nerve. 



(4) Prof. J. C. Ewart, on the Crariial Ganglia. The author 

 discussed chiefly the ganglia of the glossopharyngeal and facial 

 nerves in elasmobranch fishes, and their relations to the 

 branches of the cranial nerves. 



(5) Prof. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., gave two short notes, 

 one on the Geographical Distribution of Ascidians, in which he 

 drew attention to the great predominance of species and indi- 

 viduals, and also of gigantic specimens in Arctic and in Antarc- 

 tic seas ; the other on the Presence of Atrial Tentacles in various 

 genera of Tunicata, with a sugg«stion as to their function. The 

 various forms in which up to now atrial tentacles have been 

 found are phylogenetically rather closely related, and most of 

 them are species in which the animals are in the habit of living 

 closely aggregated together. Possibly under these crowded 

 conditions it is an advantage to the animals to have the power 

 (as some have) of reversing the usual current of water, or of 

 using the atrial for a time as the inhalent aperture, when the 

 atrial tentacles would have important functions to perform. 



(6) Mr. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., gave two interesting exhi- 

 bitions of series of specimens, the one illustrating renewed 

 experiments on the modifications of the colours of Lepidopterous 

 pupre, and the other being an observation bearing on the non- 

 transmission of characters acquired by certain pupae. 



(7) Dr. J. Symington, on the Cerebral Commissures in the 

 Marsupialia and Monotremata. The author held that in these 

 two divisions of the Mammalia the Corpus Callosum was absent, 

 the only transverse fibres that exist being those known as the 



