862 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



After the birth of the chickens, this increased mortality continued, 

 deaths being three times more numerous in the magnetized group. 

 All the counter-test chickens reached their full development, whilst of 

 the 114 of the first group, 60 presented notable imperfections. Their 

 movements were also abnormal. There were three cases of paralysis 

 and two of contractions. 



Six of the chickens arrived at maturity. Of these, two were 

 cocks of a splendid stature, and endowed with an insatiable repro- 

 ductive appetite. With the four pullets it was quite the contrary. 

 One of them never laid at all, and the three others generally produced 

 merely minute eggs (the heaviest weighing only 30 grms.), without 

 yolks, without germinal spot, and in a word sterile. 



The magnetic influence upon the embryo is therefore evident, and 

 its action upon the structure and the functions of the germ is still 

 manifest when the latter has arrived at maturity. 



" May we not, to explain this ei&ct of the magnets, suppose an 

 interference between the magnetic vibrations and the heat vibrations 

 which animate the molecules of the fecundated germ, and impel them 

 towards a new condition of organic equilibrium. This influence 

 generally prevents, and more rarely retards, the development of the 

 embryos (hypertrophy in the two cocks, and atrophy in the four hens), 

 and, as interference implies analogy, may we not infer that the 

 vibrations which impel the germ towards its development are 

 analogous to the magnetic vibrations." 



Blastopore of the Newt.* — Miss A. Johnson has, at Mr. Sedg- 

 wick's suggestion, investigated and confirmed the correctness of his 

 supposition that the blastopore of the newt (Triton cristatus) does not 

 close, but persists as the anus. While the medullary folds are wide 

 apart, the slightly elongated blastopore is found at the hinder end of 

 the body ; it then becomes carried round to the ventral surface, and 

 when the folds have completely coalesced, it is placed at some little 

 distance from the hind end of the body. This blastopore is found, 

 on making transverse sections, to communicate with a cavity in the 

 midst of the yolk-cells, which cavity is so narrow that it is difficult 

 to see its connection with the middle part of the gut. Behind the 

 blastopore there is a primitive streak, which is exactly comparable 

 with that of the Amniota ; there is no neurenteric canal ; the blasto- 

 pore marks the extreme front end of the primitive streak on the 

 ventral surface. The hinder part of the medullary canal is solid near 

 its point of fusion with the primitive streak, and its lumen is gradually 

 continued back as the medullary canal is differentiated out of the 

 primitive streak ; the relation, in fact, is just the same as in birds. 



Natural and Artificial Fertilization of Herring Ova.f— Prof. J. 



Cossar Ewart gives a detailed account of what was previously known 

 of the spawning of the herring and of his examination of the spawning- 

 beds in the Moray Firth, with the following observations of the 



* Pioc. Eoy. Soc, xxxvii. (1884) pp. 65-6. 

 t Ibid., xxxvi. (1884) pp. 450-61. 



