July 13, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



55 



logical researches in New Caledonia and Southern 

 France, has recently died. — w. u. n. [59 



Insects. 



Americcin paleozoic insects. — R. D. Lacoe, 

 whose collection of Ihese objects must be one of the 

 largest, if not the largest, in the country, lias prepared 

 a list of those hitherto published, including twenty- 

 six genera and forty-eight species of hexapods, five 

 genera and species of arachnids, and nine genera 

 and nineteen species of myriapods. — a total of forty 

 genera and seventy-two species. This embraces, how- 

 ever, three genera and fourteen species still unpub- 

 lished. The list is purely bibliographical, excepting 

 that it contains careful statements of the place of 

 discovery of the fossils, the name of the finder, and 

 the place of present deposit. About h.ilf of the 

 described species have beeu published within the last 

 five years. — ( W'yom. hint. (jcol. soc, publ. 5.) [60 



A monstrous caterpillar. — E. H. Jones figures 

 a curious larva of the geometrld moth Melanippe 

 montanivta of Europe, which he exhibited at an 

 entomological reunion at the Royal aquarium on 

 March 5. It has the aiitenn.ie and legs of the perfect 

 insect fully developed, while in other respects a 

 normal larva. It was reared from the egg with a 

 dozen others. Last November this one, then normal, 

 was considerably larger than the rest of the brood, 



Abnormal larva of Melanippe montanata. 



and was noticed as a constant feeder. " On Feb. 1.5 

 I was astonished to find that this forward individual 

 had developed the antennae of the imago, but with- 

 out in any other way altering its Larval appearance. 

 For a space of two or three days the antennae were 

 beautifully pectinated, and then the prolegs [thoracic 

 legs ?] of the imago became perfect. . . . Both 

 antennae and legs then gradually shrank and dried 

 until the 20th." — {Entom., xvi. i21.) [61 



VERTEBRATES. 

 Temperature and pulse rate. — By means of 

 his new method of isolating the mammalian heart. 

 Prof. Martin has been able to make an accurate 

 study of the effect of variations of temperature on 

 the rate of beat of the dog's heart when completely 

 separated physiologically from all the rest of the 

 body except the lungs. In the brief abstract of his 

 work which has been published, a short description 

 of the method of operating is given, together with 

 some of the more important results which have been 

 obtained. He finds that in the mammalian heart, as 

 in that of the frog, the rate of beat is gradually in- 

 creased as the temperature of the blood is raised 

 from 27° to 42° C. The qviick pulse of fever can 

 therefore be explained by the direct action of the 



heated blood on the heart itself, without assuming 

 any special action upon the extrinsic inhibitory or 

 accelerator nerve-centres. 



The rate of beat of the heart is found to hear a 

 much more direct relation to the temper.iture of 

 the blood in the coronary arteries than to the tem- 

 perature of the blood in the right auricle or ven- 

 tricle. 



An interesting point which comes out of the method 

 of work is, that, although the defibiinated calfs 

 blood used to nouri>h the heart was repeatedly cir- 

 culated through the heart and lungs for several 

 hours, it gave no evidence of clotting at the end of 

 an experiment, showing that fibrinogen is not formed 

 in .these organs. — {Proc. roy. soc, no. 223, 1883.) 

 w. II. n. [62 



Lymphatics of periosteum. — George Hoggan 

 .and Frances Hoggan criticise the previous writings on 

 this subject, and give the results of their own studies. 

 They assert that what Budge described as the lym- 

 phatics are really capillary blood-vessels. Their own 

 conclusions Ihey summarize as follows : — 



1. The lymphatics of the periosteum exist only 

 on the outer surface, or within the outer gelatinous 

 (white fibrous) stratum of the membr-ine. They 

 never ramify upon the inner or bony surface. 2. 

 When the periosteum is thin, more especially when 

 the animal is old, the whole lymphatic plexus lies 

 free upon the outer surface; but when the periosteum 

 is thick, lymphatic twigs may pass part way through, 

 but they never re.-ich the inner surface. 3. The lym- 

 phatics accompany the blood-vessels, as if arranged 

 to drain them. 4. No lymphatics exist on the sur- 

 face of the great cavities of the bone. " There is 

 thus every reason to believe that the lymphatics 

 never come in contact with the bone itself, and that 

 bone possesses no lymph-itics apart from those found 

 within the periosteum, which may be physiologically 

 considered, therefore, as the lymphatics of bone." 

 — {Journ. anat. physiol., x\\i. ZOS.) c. s. M. [63 



Fish. 



Classification of the Petromyzontids. — The 

 Lampreys have been systematically considered by 

 Gill, and are differentiated into two sub-families: 1. 

 The Petromyzontinae, ' with the suproral lamina me- 

 dian and undivided;' and 2. The Caragolinae, ' with 

 two lateral supmral laminae.' The former embraces 

 six genera, one of which is named for the first time 

 Exomegas, and is intended for the Petromyzon ma 

 croslomus of Buenos Aires: the Caragolinae are con- 

 fined to the southern hemisphere; i.e., Australia and 

 Piicific South America. —{Proc. V. 5. nat. mus., iv. 

 521.) [64 



Characters of the Ephippiids. — The family of 

 Ephippiids is distinguished by T. Gill from the Chae- 

 todontids by the bifurcation of the post-temporal 

 bones, and the wide, scaly isthmus extending from 

 the pectoral region to the chin, and separating the 

 branchial apertures. — {Proc. U. S. nat. mus., iv. 557.) 



[65 



Extinct fauna of Idaho and Oregon. — 

 Professor E. D. Cope, referring to the remains of 



