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SUMMAEY 



OP CUKEENT BBSEARCHES RELATING TO 



ZOOLOOY AND BOTANY 



(principally Tnvertehrata and Cryptoganiia), 



MICROSCOPY, &c., 



INCLUDING ORIGINAL COIIMUNICATIONS FEOM FELLOWS ANL OTHERS.' 



ZOOLOGY. 



A. G-ENEB.AL, including Embryology and Histology 

 of the Vertebrata. 



Oviparous Reproduction in the Monotremes.f — W, H. Caldwell 

 has succeeded in demonstrating that the eggs of Monotremes contain 

 a quantity of yolk, and are large in size ; segmentation, consequently, 

 is meroblastic in character. OrniihorJiynchus lays two eggs which 

 she places at the end of one of her burrows, and Echidna one, which 

 she deposits in her ventral pouch. Almost cotemporaneously — it is 

 hard to say whether a little before or a little after the date of 

 Mr. Caldwell's observations — the oviparous reproduction of Mono- 

 tremes was confirmed by Dr. W. Haacke, who on 2nd September, 

 1884, exhibited to the Royal Society of South Australia an egg found 

 in the pouch of a female Echidna, as he stated " in support of the 

 theory that the Echidna, although a milk-giving animal, lays eggs, 

 which are hatched in the pouch." The eggs were found in the 

 mammary pouch (not in the uterus) of a living Echidna hystrix. 



Mr. T. Gill X reviews the history of the idea that the Monotremes 

 are oviparous. He mentions that Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, in 1829, 

 published a paper, illustrated by a figure of an egg of the natural 

 size.§ Still earlier, Fleming, in his ' Philosophy of Zoology ' (ii. 

 p. 215), published in 1822, remarks that " if these animals are 

 oviparous (and we can scarcely entertain a doubt on the subject, as 

 the eggs have been transmitted to London), it would be interesting to 



* The Society are not to be considered responsible for the views of the 

 authors of the papers referred to, nor for the manner in -which those views 

 may be expressed, the mala object of this part of the Journal being to present a 

 Bummary of the papers as actually published, so as to provide the Fellows with 

 a guide to the additions made fi-om time to time to the Library. Objections and 

 corrections should therefore, for the most part, be addressed to the authors. 

 (The Society are not intended to be denoted by the editorial " we.") 



t Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., xiv. (1S84) pp. 375-6. 



X Science, iv. (1884) pp. 452-3. 



§ Ann. Sci. Nat.— Zool., xviii. (1829). 

 Ser. 2.— Vol. V. D 



