586 



NATURE 



[April 19, 1900 



medium in which they live, enables them, with compara- 

 tively little muscular exertion, to float on and near the 

 surface of the water, and to breathe directly the air which 

 is required in mammalian respiration. A feature in Ceta- 

 cean anatomy is the great capacity of the thorax, the 

 consequent large size and expansibility of the lungs, and 

 the mobility of the ribs, which in the whalebone whales 

 only articulate with the sternum by a single pair. The 

 external configuration of the chest varies in dififerent 

 species ; in B. mysticetus it is rounded laterally and 

 somewhat barrel-shaped ; but in the Finners it is more 

 elongated in the dorsi-ventral diameter, and with a 

 smaller diameter from side to side. In both forms it is 

 capable of great expansion, so that the whale can dive 

 to a great depth and remain under water for a consider- 

 able time, until the need arises to come to the surface to 

 expire the contaminated air in the act of " blowing," and 

 to take in a fresh supply. 



In the chapters on classification, Mr. Beddard has very 

 properly rejected many of the generic names introduced 

 by the late Dr. E. Gray, who in his later life gave to each 

 species a new generic name, and almost went so far as 

 to regard each skeleton, or part of a skeleton, in the 

 British Museum as representing a distinct species. He 

 has adopted the more restricted nomenclature employed 

 by van Beneden, Flower, Turner, and other recent ceto- 

 logical authorities. His descriptions of the specific 

 characters are tersely put, and can be readily understood 

 even by those who are not trained anatomists. The 

 figures of the species, so far as he has provided illustra- 

 tions, are characteristic, though in at least five instances 

 his drawings have been made from the series of casts 

 displayed in the Whale-room in the British Museum, the 

 last administrative work discharged by Sir W. H. 

 Flower, and not from the original drawings. We ob- 

 serve, however, that several of our British species are 

 not figured ; three species of Balaenoptera, the Hump- 

 backed Whale, the White Whale, Lagenorhynchus albi- 

 rostrts, and even the common Porpoise, except in its 

 embryonic form, have not been included in the illus- 

 trations. This is much to be regretted, as one of 

 the main objects of a semi-popular book of this kind 

 should be to place in the hands of those who live at 

 the seaside a work which will enable them to dis- 

 criminate the species of whales, examples of which 

 from time to time are stranded on our shores, and 

 not to class them all together, as is too often done, 

 as " bottle noses." How important it is to familiarise 

 people who have some taste for natural history studies, 

 with the means of recognising specific differences, is 

 illustrated by Sowerby's Whale. The first example of 

 this Cetacean was described by James Sowerby from a 

 specimen stranded in 1800 on the shores of the Moray 

 Firth. No further specimen was recognised in Scotland 

 until 1872, since which date two specimens have been 

 obtained in the Shetland Isles, two in the Firth of Forth, 

 and in September of last year Mr. William Taylor 

 secured three specimens — male, female and young — 

 stranded in the Moray Firth only a few miles from the 

 spot where Sowerby's original example was found. On 

 the English coast a specimen was got in 1885 at Spurn- 

 point, and another in 1892 at Overstrand, near Cromer ; 

 but we know of only one specimen identified on the 

 NO, 1590, VOL. 61] 



coast of Ireland. It is obvious, therefore, that this 

 Cetacean is not so uncommon as was originally supposed. 

 When those who dwell by the sea become more alive to 

 the recognition of the specific characters of whales, we 

 may reasonably hope that other species, now considered 

 rare, may be found to be not infrequent visitors to our 

 shores. 



RESEARCHES ON GLYCOGEN. 



Microscopic Researches on Glycoi^en. Part ii. Glycogen 

 of Snails and Slugs, in morphological and physiological 

 correspondence with the Lymph System of Verte- 

 brates. By Charles Creighton, M.D. Pp. 127 ; 9 

 coloured plates. (London : Adam and Charles Black, 

 1899.) 

 p)ART I. of this work, which appeared about three 

 years ago, treated of the physiological functions of 

 glycogen. It contained a number of interesting records 

 of microscopic work, and showed that glycogen is present 

 in a number of situations, particularly during embryonic 

 life, in which its presence was previously unsuspected. 

 Claude Bernard, in his classical work on the subject, 

 recognised the presence of glycogen in the placenta and 

 many other embryonic structures, and Dr. Creighton 

 amplified this by more numerous observations. As de- 

 velopment progresses, and specialisation of function 

 occurs, the glycogenic function is narrowed down to the 

 liver and muscles instead of being widespread throughout 

 the tissues. Dr. Creighton concluded, on what we regard 

 as insufficient grounds, that the function of glycogen is 

 much more important than physiologists have hitherto 

 considered to be the case. He insists on its "formative" 

 function, by which we suppose he means that it is an all- 

 important or even essential substance in the construction 

 of living matter, and he even assigns to it a respiratory 

 function, believing that in early life it takes the place of 

 hiismoglobin. His proofs of its oxygen-carrying capacity 

 were even less complete than those of its formative 

 properties. 



All physiologists admit the importance of glycogen ; 

 they would require very stringent evidence, however, 

 before they admitted that it is essential to the formation 

 of protoplasm, or that a carbohydrate is capable of doing 

 the work of a complex nitrogenous and iron-containing 

 material like hcEmoglobin. It is regarded rather as a 

 storage or reserve product, part of the cell-contents 

 rather than part of the cell-substance, and its use is 

 doubtless principally by its subsequent combustion to 

 contribute to the liberation of energy in the form of 

 molar and molecular movement, work and heat. 



In Part ii., which is now before us, we have as before 

 a very elaborate series of microscopic observations, 

 undertaken with infinite pains, and illustrated by ex- 

 cellent drawings. It treats of the various invertebrate 

 classes, and shows the presence of glycogen in numerous 

 situations ; the work of others in the same connection 

 has been collected with care. The proof that the sub- 

 stance is always glycogen would have been more com- 

 plete if the observer had not limited himself to one test, 

 namely, the micro-chemical reaction with iodine. Still, 

 if we regard this as trustworthy, we have before us 

 a valuable collection of observations which show how 



