28 SUMMARY OF ODBRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



SUMMAEY 



OF CUBRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



ZOOLOaY AND BOTANY 



(^principally Invertebrata and Cryptogamid), 



MICROSCOPY, &c., 



INCLUDING ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS FEOM FELLOWS AND OTHERS.* 



ZOOLOGY. 

 A. VERTEBRATA :— Embryology, Histology, and General. 



a. Embryology.t 



Movements of Protoplasm.t — Herr G. Quincke attempts to explain 

 the movements of protoplasm in the cells of plants and in lower 

 animals, by comparing them to the movements observed at the contact 

 surfaces of various fluids. These are the results of surface tensions 

 between the fluids directly or between substances formed in their 

 chemical interaction. A drop of oil placed in a weak alkaline solution 

 is said to present close resemblance to a living Amoeba in the move- 

 ments caused by the formation, solution, diffusion, &c., of soap on its 

 surface. A solution of albumen is observed to act like alkaline solution. 

 What Quincke calls " albumen soap " is formed — the result amoeboid 

 movements. The author ingeniously applies these observations to 

 the explanation of the protoplasmic movements in Elodea, Nitella, 

 Tradescantia, Trianea, &c. He similarly discusses the form and move- 

 ment of certain Protozoa, of food-vacuoles, contractile vacuoles, &c. 

 A viscid particle covered with oil and placed in water will exhibit 

 amoeboid movements, and smaller particles will be drawn into it as to a 

 Protozoon. The streaming of pseudopodia demands only that there be 

 a thin coating of oil outside and that the granules be albuminous. A 

 mass of albumen covered with oil draws in through the oily covering 

 bubbles of water, which collapse in forming some new substance, and 

 resemble, in a curiously exact way, the contractile vacuoles of Stentor and 

 such like forms. 



Placenta of Rabbit. §—M. J. Masius communicates a preliminary 

 account of conclusions reached regarding the modifications of the 



* The Society are not intended to be denoted by the editorial " we," and they do 

 not hold themselves responsible for the views of the authors of the papers noted, 

 nor for any claim to novelty or otherwise made by them. The object of this part of 

 the Journal is to present a summary of the papers as actually published, and to 

 describe and illustrate Instruments, Apparatus, &c., which are either new or have 

 not been previously described in this country. 



t This section includes not only papers relating to Embryology properly so called, 

 but also those dealing with Evolution, Development, and Reproduction, and allied 

 subjects. t Biol. Centralbl., viii. (1888) pp. 499-506. 



§ Bull. Acad. R. ScL Belg., xvi. (1888) pp. 317-25. 



