722 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol.. U., No. 4:!. 



spsfimens were found, in a Chinese, lying in the sub- 

 peritoneal fascia about the iliac fossae, and behind 

 the kidneys ; a single one being found lying free in 

 the right pleural cavity. They were twelve to four- 

 teen inches long, and an eighth of an inch broad, 



and come near Ligula simplicissima. H. Gries- 



bach has given a preliminary report of his observa- 

 tions on the connective tissue of cestods, as studied 

 in tjolenophorus. His article ap])eared in the Biul. 

 centralbl. (iii. 2i>8). .J. Poirier found in the in- 

 testines of Palonia frontalis, from Java, three new 

 Amphistomidae, for which he establishes two new 

 genera, — Homalogaster and Gastrothylax. Three 

 species are described and figured (Bull. soc. philom. 

 Parin, (7), vii. 74). J. Chatiu reports a few ob- 

 servations on the histological alterations occasioned 



in man by trichinosis {Ibid., 107). The larvae of 



Gordius occur both in fishes and in many insect- 

 larvae. In opposition to Villot, von Linstow main- 

 tains that the insects are the real hosts, and the 

 parasites are present in fishes only accidentally, from 

 their feeding on infested insects. — (Zool. anz., vi. 

 373. ) c. .s. M. [432 



VERTEBRATES. 

 Direct irritability of the anterior columns of 

 the spinal cord. — Mendelssohn, in the present pa- 

 per, states that he has repeated all of the experiments 

 of Fick upon the irritability of the anterior columns, 

 and obtained similar results. In his own experiments, 

 special efforts were made to prevent any escape of 

 current on stimulating. The spinal cord was laid 

 bare in its whole extent, and isolated from the sur- 

 rounding parts by caoutchouc. The anterior and 

 posterior columns of the cord were stimulated just 

 below the brachial plexus, which had been previously 

 divided ; and the movements of the gastrocnemius 

 muscle which resulted were registered upon a myo- 

 graph. In some cases the anterior portion of the 

 cord was completely separated from the posterior by 

 a section running from the origin of the sciatic to 

 the cervical cord. It was found in all cases that the 

 reaction of the anterior columns was, shorter than 

 that of the posterior columns; that is, the time be- 

 tween stimulation of the cord and contraction of the 

 gastrocnemius was less in the first case than in the 

 second, the difference in time varying from 0.01 to 

 0.025 of a second. Assuming that the contraction 

 resulting from stimulation of the posterior columns 

 is reflex, then that resulting from stimulation of 

 the anterior columns 7nust be direct. — {^rcA. anat. 

 p%s?o<., 1883, 281.) w. u. n. [433 



Fishes. 

 Sudden increase of a rare sunfish. — Professor 

 A. (.'. Apgar recently referred to the results of a fish- 

 ing-excursion in central New Jersey. He found that 

 the hitherto rare species of sunfish (Mesogonistius 

 chaetodon) was remarkably abundant, and in a short 

 time gathered seventy-five specimens. Where here- 

 tofore the common spotted sunfish (Enneacanthus 

 simulans) and the still more abundant 'pumpkin- 

 seeds' (Leporais gibbosus) have been the characteris- 

 tic species, these now appear to be largely crowded 



out by the small banded sunfish, whicli but a short 

 time ago was only to be found in scanty numbers 

 and in very limited localities, — (Trenton nat. hist. 

 soc: November meetinp, IS8'^.) [434 



Birds. 



Anatomy of Biziura. — From the dissection of 

 two males ot B. lobata, Mr. Forbes finds that this 

 duck forms an exception in that its trachea is simple, 

 and devoid of a bulla, and that a subgular pouch, 

 comparable to that of the bustards, exists. The 

 ambiens tendon perforates the patella, as in I'lia- 

 lacrocora.x and the Hesperornis of Marsh. — {Proc. 

 zoo!, soc. iojid, 1882, 455.) j. A. J. (435 



Does the Carolina ■wren mimic ? — Dr. C. C. 

 Abbott read a short paper on the habits of the Caro- 

 lina, or mocking-wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus). 

 He had carefully studied a pair of these birds for a 

 year, seeing the male bird at least three times each 

 week, from September to September. In all that 

 time he had never heard the male bird utter a note 

 not distinctively its own. Prof. Austin C. Apgar 

 remarked that he had been familiar with the song of 

 this wren for years, but had not heard it mimic ; yet 

 in all works on ornithology that refer to this species 

 it is called the mocking-wren; and the habit is more 

 or less referred to by Wilson, Audubon, and by Baird, 

 Brewer, and Eidgway, in their ' History of North- 

 American birds.' — (Trenton nat. hist, soc; meeting 

 Sept. 19.) [436 



The tongues of Tenuirostres. — In this paper, 

 Gadow describes the modifications of the tongue 

 which adapt it for sucking. The basal portion of the 

 tube is formed by the roUing-up of the tongue, while 

 the tip is formed by the roUing-up of the divided por- 

 tion. In the Melaphagidae the end is broken up 

 dichotomously into several tubes, and only the exter- 

 nal borders of the tubes are lacinated. In the Hecta- 

 riniinae the end is formed of only two tubes, and 

 the internal edge is lacinated. In the hummers the 

 tongue is double to near the base. Some peculiari- 

 ties of the serpi- and mylo-hyoid muscles are men- 

 tioned. We notice that the author gives the anterior 

 cornua of the hyoid apparatus as obsolete, though he 

 describes the os entoglossum as double. From this 

 we infer that he has forgotten that the ossa entoglossa 

 are the anterior cornua. — (Proc zool. soc, 1883, 

 62.) J. A. J. [437 



Mammals. 



Innervation of the movements of the iris. — 

 In the reflex narrowing of the pupil, which takes 

 place when the eye is exposed to light, it has been 

 generally accepted that the afferent fibres concerned 

 in the act follow the same general course as that taken 

 by the rest of the fibres of the optic nerve, passing 

 along the optic tracts to a centre somewhere In the 

 neighborhood of the corpora quadrigeinina. Bech- 

 terew has shown that this is not the case. Section of 

 the optic tracts in various places, from the chiasma 

 to the corpora geniculata, causes no dilatation of 

 the pupil, and does not interfere with the rellex nar- 

 rowing of the pupil when exposed to light. Injury 

 of the corpora geniculata and of the corpora quadri- 



