444 



NATURE 



[October 5, 191 1 



Amoeba diploidea, which he kept at a temperature far 

 above the normal. Nuclear degenerations and disturb- 

 ances ensued, the culture became quite asexual, and 

 sooner or later died off. In short, a state of "faculta- 

 tive apogamv " was experimentally induced, and the 

 result afforded indirect evidence that part of the utility 

 of the sexual process is to counteract "depressions" 

 and disturbances of the cellular functions. Max Hart- 

 mann describes from the gut of a Termite a new 

 representative of the very remarkable Protozoa known 

 as Trichonymphidae. He is inclined to make the 

 family into a class comparable to Ciliata, but one 

 almost hopes that this is going too far. Very remark- 

 able they certainly are, with their males and females 

 and young stages, their fission and gametogeny, their 

 unique "head-organ" (probably a complicated 

 blepharoplast), and their compound or " polyenergid " 

 nucleus. Another interesting Protozoon, Trypanosoma 

 rolatorium, Grube, from the frog, is redescribed by W. 

 Lebedeff. It is remarkable for its striking polymor- 

 phism, for four principal forms occur. Another in- 

 teresting parasite, a species of Lankesteria which 

 lives in the food-canal of Turbellarians in Lake 

 Baikal, is described by B. Swarczewsky. An account 

 is given of the formation of gametes, their conjuga- 

 tion, the development of sporocysts, and of the life- 

 history in general. 



Very prominent in more ways than one is the de- 

 scription which Max Jdrgensen gives of the growth 

 of the ovarian ovum in Proteus. It occupies nearly 

 200 pages, and it is illustrated by twenty-three beauti- 

 ful plates of cytological details. The author tells us 

 all sorts of wonderful things, e.g. how the chromatin 

 in the second stage of growth becomes pulverised, how 

 the chromidium helps in the reconstruction, how the 

 remarkable "lamp-brush" chromosomes arise, how 

 the nucleoli migrate and what they do (probably serv- 

 ing as reservoirs for certain products of metabolism, 

 and furnishing ferments which are useful in plasm- 

 growth and yolk-formation. A most interesting 

 account is given of the conditions of ooplasm-growth 

 and of yolk-forming, and, in general, of the mar- 

 vellous interactions between the different members of 

 the cell-firm. 



The second volume begins with a paper by J. P. 

 Schtschelkanowzew on the internal and external male 

 organs of Chelifer and Chernes. Among other inter- 

 esting points the absence of a tail in the ripe sperma- 

 tozoa may be noted. A discussion of the affinities of 

 the Chelonethi leads to the conclusion that they are 

 most nearly related to the Urotricha or Holopeltidia. 

 Bruno Wahl deals with the classification of two 

 families of Turbellarians, Dalyellidae and Uma- 

 gillida;, which include a number of interesting and, in 

 part, parasitic forms, such as Graffilla, Anoplodiuin, 

 and Syndesmis. There seems to be some puzzle about 

 Graffilla parasitica, which is abundant inside Tethys, 

 for Wahl could find no trace of male gonads. Great 

 interest attaches to the fine account which Sergius 

 Kuschakewitsch gives of the development of the 

 gonads in the edible frogs. It is a fine study in the 

 origin and differentation oi gonads, but it is also wel- 

 come in connection with experiments on sex-deter- 



2188, vol. 87] 



mination. The author contrasts the ovary and the 

 testis stage after stage. There seems to be a remark- 

 able lability in the details of the development, anal 

 the differences seem to depend partly on the locality 

 and partly on the degree of ripeness of the eggs wherl 

 they are fertilised. Confirmation is given of Hertwig'sl 

 conclusion that over-ripeness of the ova results in a 

 great preponderance of males. Philipp Lehrs takes us! 

 to a different kind of zoological problem in his discus-l 

 sion of a new species of Lacerta from Lebanon. He) 

 compares it with other mountain lizards, and shows! 

 the interest of it in binding together the Neo-Lacertal 

 and Archaeo-Lacerta species. C. Sasaki relates how>| 

 he has almost cleared up the life-history of a rather I 

 famous aphis — Schleclitendalia cliinensis — which makes 

 galls on Rhus semi-alata in Japan and China. The 

 galls are used in dyeing and tanning — they are rich in 

 tannin, and in former times they served the Japanese 

 women as a tooth-powder for blackening the teeth. 

 Sasaki has succeeded in finding the wingless mother- 

 insect, the fundatrix, who sets the ball a-rolling. 

 Wingless females, parthenogenetic and viviparous, 

 come and go ; at length winged females appear which 

 lay eggs, containing well-advanced embryos that soon 

 hatch out. But no males have been seen, and we have 

 a glimpse of a possibly continuous Parthenopeia. 



R. Goldschmidt devotes a hundred pages to a search- 

 ing account of the minute structure of the glia, the 

 nerve-fibres, and the ganglion cells in the common 

 threadworms of horse and man. He devotes particular 

 attention to the neurofibrils, only, however, to rob' 

 them of their supposed nervosity, for he strongly 

 maintains, with Apathy and others, that neurofibrils 

 simply represent cellular skeleton. Goldschmidt has 

 made in previous memoirs such a thorough analysis- 

 of the nervous system of Ascaris that he has the cells 

 all numbered, and, as it were, ticketed. It is extra- 

 ordinary indeed to read that "cell 26 of the interna 

 lateral cephalic ganglion is present only in the 

 males " — a fine instance, on the one hand, of pene- 

 trating analysis, and, on the other, of the penetrating 

 nature of sex. O. Steche takes us to the open sea 

 with his interesting study of the Portuguese man-of- 

 war. He has introduced order into what he calls the 



•perplexing Wirrwar " of zooids, by discovering the 

 law of budding. What is even more important, he 

 shows how the development of the huge pneumato- 

 phore that projects above the waves has reacted on 

 the architecture, leading to a great shortening of the 

 stem and a giving up of the usual budding-zone. Inci- 

 dentally, he mentions that Physalia has great power 

 of regenerating lost appendages — a capacity which 

 other Siphonophora are not known to possess. 



In the next paper Harry Marcus makes another | 

 contribution to the much studied problem of the archi- 

 tecture of the head. He deals with Hypogeophis, one 

 of the Gymnophiona, and discusses the '•' neuromerie, 

 mesomerie, dermatomerie, and branchiomerie " of the 

 head, which has at least nine segments. Adjoining 

 this important, but highly technical contribution, there 

 is a practical study by Schwangart, an authority on 

 vine diseases. He deals with the deadly " Trauben- 



wickler," caterpillars "I two species of Tortrieida:, the 



