498 Miscellaneous. 



the male in the organs of the queen, and that Dzierzon's theory, 

 created to explain an iU-ascertained fact, becomes useless if this 

 fact is disproved." 



One is by no means struck with the evidence of any such conclu- 

 sion, being in a position to adduce the intervention of the known 

 laws of heredity. With an Italian queen of incontestably pure race 

 the drones have exclusively the Italian characters, although she 

 may have coupled with a male of a different race. The workers 

 alone are hybrids. The author has evidently had before him a case 

 of reversion. He had in his hive, as he tells us, true Italian 

 workers, others French, and others, again, presenting a mixture in 

 diverse proportions of the characters of the two races. This is in 

 conformity with the usual results of crossing. The queen of this 

 hive was no doubt an Italian of the same sort as the workers 

 of his first category. The atavism of a black male which inter- 

 vened in a preceding generation has manifested itself in diffe- 

 rent degrees. The same fact is often presented in German and 

 French hives into which Italian queens have been introduced. I 

 remember having myself made a similar observation in the hive of 

 M. Bastian at AYissembourg, ascertaining the hybrid origin of the 

 queen, the external characters, however, of which were purely 

 Italian. 



At any rate, it is not in conformity with the present condition of 

 science to represent the parthenogenesis of bees as a hypothesis 

 accepted solely because of its utility in explaining a fact which is 

 incontestable ; for its reality has long since been established by 

 experiment. — Comjiti's Rendus, October 28, 1878, p. 659. 



The Development of Ligula. By M. Du champ. 



On the 24th December last M. Duchamp presented a note to the 

 Academy of Sciences, in which he showed, by experiments made on 

 the common pigeon, that for the develo]3ment of Ligula mono- 

 gramma, Crepl., into a perfect Cestoid it is not necessary that the 

 woi-m should be introduced into the body of any particular species 

 of animal, but that it can be effected in the digestive canal of any 

 warm-blooded vertebrate. 



Continuing his investigations, M. Duchamp endeavoured to rear 

 the LicjuJce in artificial media, such as meat-soup, &c., kejit at a 

 temperature of about 38^ C. (100° F.), but without success. He 

 then introduced a certain number of Ligula^, derived from two 

 tench, into the peritoneal cavity of a dog. No symptoms of peri- 

 tonitis were produced; and the dog having been killed four days 

 after the operation, the Ligulce were found living with their repro- 

 ductive organs developed and in full functional activity, the testes 

 being inflated with spermatic cells, and the ova already formed. 

 One of the Ligulce thus transported from the tench to the dog bad 

 been divided into two parts ; and each fragment was developed in 

 the same way as the entire individuals. — Ann. des Sci. Nat., Zool, 

 ser. 6, tome vii., August 1878. 



