78 EXTRACTS AND ABSTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 



Milne Edwards on the Spcrmatophora of Cephalopods. The sperma- 

 tophora are bodies discovered by Swammerdam and Needman in the 

 male organs of Cephalopods, and which, when they are removed from 

 the membranous pouch where they are arranged side by side, exercise 

 some degree of motion, change their form and soon burst. M. M. Ed- 

 wards and Peters have observed them in several Cephalopods, and give, 

 as the result of their researches on these singular bodies filled with 

 spermatic animalcules, that they are instruments of fecundation of a 

 new description altogether, having their analogues in the fecundating 

 corpuscules of the grains of the pollen of plants, which burst when 

 they come in contact with the female organ (stigma) of the flower. 

 p. 153. 



Guillot on the Acephalocysts of the human body. At the Philomatic 

 Society of Paris, June 13, 1840, M. Natalis Guillot, made known the 

 results of his observations on these bodies. He explained the develop- 

 ment of vessels on their walls, their communication with the neigh- 

 bouring parts, and the transformation of the Acephalocysts, into true 

 cysts, provided with vascular parietes. p. 180. 



Laurent's researches on Spongilla fluviatilis . -At the Philomatic Society 

 of Paris, June 19, 1840, he endeavoured to prove that four kinds of repro- 

 ductive organs existed in this species, viz. : 1. Oviform bodies, already 

 known, ejecting a glutinous substance they contain, and in which no 

 silicious spicula are found at the moment of expulsion from the egg. 

 2. Gemmiform bodies, very imperfectly known in Spongilla, called by 

 Dr. Grant ovules (in sponges) which, at the moment they detach them- 

 selves from the tissue of the parent to float about, have silicious spi- 

 cula in a part of their substance. 3. Proteiform bodies, which detach 

 themselves from young Spongillae, a few days after they have become 

 fixed, and after having slowly moved for an indefinite period, fix and 

 become developed. These bodies never contain silicious spicula at the 

 moment of separation from the young parent. 4. Tuberculiform bodies, 

 which may be seen to shoot out from different points of Spongilla, 

 and die without producing either of the three above-named reproduc- 

 tive bodies. At the period they are given off, they never contain sili- 

 cious spicula. These four reproductive organs of Spongilla are, how- 

 ever, reducible to three principal kinds, known by the names of eggs 

 (oviform bodies), gemma (gemmiform bodies, which are ultimately free 

 gemmae, and tuberculiform bodies regarded as fixed gemmae), and lastly 

 fragments or the proteiform bodies which naturally separate from the 

 parent. p. 190. 



M. C.Mylius on Uric Acid in the Excrement of Snails. M. C. Mylius 

 of Berlin has discovered, that the excrement of snails always contains 

 uric acid. According to his experiments, this acid is secreted in a solid 

 form by a glandular organ, situated directly beneath the shell, forming, 

 without doubt, the urinary organ. This matter, which is of a white 

 colour, is easily seen in the transparent skin. To collect it, cut the 

 organ, and the matter escapes, which partakes of the consistence of 

 paste or bouillie. When it is collected from a number of snails, agitate 



