Makch 30, 1883.1 



SCIENCE. 



231 



parasitic copepod, which he refers to the genus Bray- 

 dia. — (4iner. not., Feb., 18S3.) s. i. s. [515 



Supposed larva of Iiimulus. — lu his letters from 

 the Cliallenger, the late Dr. von Willemoes-Suhm 

 referred to alarva taken in the East Indies, supposed 

 to be that of Limulus, but which lie is said to have 

 concluded afterwards to be the larva of some cirriped. 

 Willemoes-Suhm's original figures and description of 

 the larva are now published with a brief preface by E. 

 Kay Lankester. The figures show that the later con- 

 clusion was undoubtedly correct, though the larva 

 is very different from any cirriped larva previously 

 figured. — (Quart, journ. microsc. sc, Jan., 1888.) 

 s. I. s. [516 



Sexual dimorphism in Psocidae and their sali- 

 vary glands. — Besides the doubtful case mentioned 

 by VVestwood (Lachesilla), no instance of sexual 

 dimorphism has so far been noted in the Psocidae. 

 Bertkau now describes Psocus heteromorphus, in 

 which the female has veiy rudimentary wings, while 

 the male has wings longer than the body. Two new 

 genera, Trocticus and Lapithes, are described and 

 figured in the same paper. Kolbe, however, a few 

 months earlier, described P. heteromorphus as Neo- 

 psocus rhenanus, and Lapithes as Berlkauia. — {Kat- 

 ter's ent. nachr. ; Arch. f. nature/., xlix. 97; Herbst- 

 versaniml. naturh. vet. Bonn, 1882.) 



In the latter place Bertkau also discusses Burgess's 

 so-called ' lingual glands ' of Psocus and Atropos, 

 regarding them simply as strongly chitinized areas 

 of the mouth-cavity, possibly serving as salivary 

 accumulators. Bertkau succeeded in findtng in Pso- 

 cus the true salivary glands, which Burgess, in alco- 

 holic specimens, could not demonstrate. There are 

 two pairs of them, each pair with a common duct. 

 No figures are given ; and the short notice does not 

 seem'to settle satisfactorily either tlie nature or the 

 structure of the peculiar organs in question. — E. B. 



[517 

 VERTEBRATES. 



Fatigue and nutrition of the heart. — Gaule 

 has shown that a frog's heart, washed out with dilute 

 solution of common salt until it ceases to beat, is 

 rendered capable of further pulsation when dilute 

 alkaline solutions are sent through it. Martins con- 

 firms this, but dissents from Gaule's view, that the 

 alkali nourishes the heart. Its administration leads 

 to a certain number of beats; but these soon cease, 

 and a fresh supply of alkali is then inefficient, while 

 other liquids, especially blood serum, lead to renewed 

 cardiac contractions. Martins concludes that the 

 frog's heart-muscle bas in itself no store of energy- 

 yielding material which it can call upon, but works 

 at the expense of food-matters yielded it constantly 

 by the liquid circulating through it. When the 

 heart, irrigated with salt solution, ceases to beat, (his 

 is due to the saturation of its tissue with carbon 

 dioxide while still some nutrient matter (blood) re- 

 mains not washed out from the ventricular network. 

 The salt solution, acting merely as a medium for 

 physical diffusion, cannot remove the carbon dioxide 

 as fast as it accumulates, and consequently the heart 

 ceases to beat while it still has some available food. 

 The alkali, on the other hand, chemically removes the 

 injurious carbondioxide; and the heart beats forashort 

 time, using the food-stuff in the blood still present in 

 its meslies. When the heart, treated with dilute alkali, 

 ceased to beat, new pulsations could only be obtained 

 when it was supplied with liquids containing serum 

 albumen. Solutions of syntonin, glycogen, peptone, 

 egg-albumen, casein, or myosin, were useless. Gaule 



had found solution of peptone efficacious. This Mar- 

 tius thinks must have been due to the fact that Gaule 

 used an alkaline solution of that substance, and that 

 the alkali was the efficient element in the liquid. — 

 (Dubois' arch., 1882, 543.) ii. u. M. [51S 



Influence of different blood-constituents on 

 the beat of tlie heart. — Ringer withdraws his pre- 

 vious paper (Journ. of physiol., iii. ) on this subject 

 in consequence of his discovery that the sodium- 

 chloride solution with which he worked was not pre- 

 pared, as he had believed, with distilled water. It 

 was made with water supplied by the New river 

 company of London, and containing salts, not only 

 of sodium, but of calcium, magnesium, and potas- 

 sium. When solution of Na CI in pure distilled water 

 was used, the results previously obtained failed to ap- 

 pear. On the other hand, the rounding of the apex 

 of the curve of ventricular contraction, the prolon- 

 gation of the curve, and the slow diastole previously 

 described as due to sodium chloride, are all brought 

 about by solutions of minute quantities of calcium 

 salts in distilled water. A very minute quantity of 

 potassium chloride prevents this effect of the lime- 

 salts. A solution of Na CI, K CI, and Ca CI. 2 in 

 distilled water is perfectly neutral, yet makes an ex- 

 cellent artificial circulating liquid for the frog's heart. 

 This shows that alkalinity of the circulating medium 

 is not necessary for contractibility. A lime-salt, the 

 author concludes, is necessary for the manifestation 

 of cardiac contractility; but, in the absence of po- 

 tassium, calcium so prolongs the diastole as to lead 

 to fusion of the beats, and imperfect action of the 

 heart. Sodium bicarbonate cannot take the place of 

 the lime-salts in maintaining the beat of th.c heart. 

 — (Journ. of physiol., iv. 291.) H. N. M. [519 



Fish, 

 A remarkable deep-sea fish type. — A fish 

 exhibiting a most remarkable combination of char- 

 acters has been found by the naturalists of the 

 Travailleur expedition off the coast of Morocco, at 

 a depth of 2,300 met. It has a length of .47 met., 

 and a height of 2 cm., the body tapering backwards 

 like that of a macrurid. The cranial part of the 

 head is short (3 cm. long); but the suspensorium and 

 jaws are excessively elongated, the jaws being 9.5 

 cm. long. The mouth is consequently enormous. 

 A long, slender style constitutes the upper jaw, and 

 is supposed to represent the intermaxillary alone, or 

 possibly the intermaxillary and maxillary amalga- 

 mated. The branchial apertures are represented on 

 each side by " a very small orifice forming a simple, 

 rounded, cutaneous perforation situated towards the 

 level of the termination of the bucco-pharyngeal 

 funnel." No fins are described. But the strangest 

 features are revealed by dissection. The respiratory 

 apparatus presents, it is truly said, a constitution 

 which is at present unique in osseous fishes. We 

 find six pairs of interior branchial clefts, and conse- 

 quently fixe branchiae, each of which is provided 

 with a double series of free lamellae. No hyoidean 

 apparatus is developed. (Perhaps the hyoidean appa- 

 ratus is represented by the anterior pair of branchial 

 arches.) It is also asserted that there are no opercu- 

 lar pieces. Further, the suspensorium is said to be 

 "composed of only two pieces, — a basal piece, the 

 analogue of the temporal ; and an external piece, no 

 doubt representing a tympano-jugal." No pneuma- 

 tocele was found. The form thus characterized has 

 been named by Vaillant Eurypharynx pelicanoides, 

 and is considered as the type of a new family (the 

 Eurypharyngidae). Not only, indeed, does it repre- 

 sent a new family: its affinities are by no means 



