6io 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[June 29, li 



titions have their two surfaces respectively unlike, and 

 they are arranged in pairs, turning their similar surfaces 

 to each other, and thus limiting transverse chambers 

 (Fig. 2. No. I, /), separated from each other by empty 

 spaces (Fig. 2, No. 1, c). Into the chambers / there open 

 at p the hollow tubercles f, whose cavity communicates 

 with the exterior by means of the dorsal orifices b 

 already mentioned. 



If we consider merely the general form of the body 

 and the regular repetition of the vertical septa, we might 

 take the Polypariinn for a worm. But if it were a worm 

 a digestive tube would traverse all these partitions, and 

 would vent externally by a single aperture. There is 

 here nothing of the sort. The digestive canal is totally 

 wanting. The walls of the chambers serve to digest 

 alimentary matters, and these matters can be ingested 

 only by the orifices of the dorsal tubercles. These orifices 

 must consequently be regarded as so many mouths. 



Now, in the whole animal world the sponges and the 

 polypes are the only forms in which the sides of the 

 body subserve digestive functions, the entire body being 

 thus a kind of stomach. The Polyparium must there- 

 fore, in spite of its worm-like aspect, find its place 

 among the zoophytes. But a very definite feature 

 separates the polypes from the sponges — i.e., the presence 

 in the external layer of the integuments of the former 

 of innumerable 'capsules filled with a venomous liquid 

 which can penetrate into the bodies of animals with 

 which they come in contact. 



This is the cause of the sensation of burning experi- 

 enced on touching the large sea-anemones and the 

 Mcdusce. The side of the body of the Polypariinn is 

 covered with these irritating capsules. Hence the Poly- 

 parium is a polype, and a close study of the sides of its 

 body assigns it a place very near to the Actinia;. 



Still, the aspect of the Aciinice differs very decidedly 

 from that of the Polyparium. An Actinia might be 

 likened lo a flower which has no stem, whose petals are 

 animated and arranged in concentric circles around a 

 central orifice, which is the mouth of the animal. The 

 petals of these movable flowers are called tentacles. Fig. 

 2, Nos. 2 and 3, represents transverse sections through 

 the body of two such ActinicB — an Alcyon and a Cerian- 

 thus. In this figure, the central ellipse, g, is the section 

 o"a tube opening downwards, which is a continuation of 

 the mouth, and which some regard as a stomach and 

 some as an oesophagus. The radiating chambers, /, 

 follow each upon a tentacle, and may be regarded as 

 prolongations of the tentacles into the interior of the 

 body. As the oesophagus is in general much shorter 

 than the body, the partitions which separate the cells 

 become free on the inner side, and the cells all open 

 into the internal cavity of the body. One and the same 

 septum is common to two consecutive cells. 



In the Polyparium there is no oesophagus ; the cells do 

 not communicate with a central cavity, but are com- 

 pletely separate from each other. The transverse parti- 

 tions (Fig. 2, No. I, c) belong not to two consecutive cells, 

 but each cell has its own walls, separated from each 

 other by a vacant space (Fig. 2, No. i, e). 



The difficulty decreases if we agree with M. Korot- 

 neff that the cells of the sea-anemones are arranged 

 symmetrically on each side of two odd cells (Fig. 2, Nos. 

 2 and 3, il). If the oesophagus disappears, and if the 

 septa are prolonged to the centre of the polype, they 

 must meet two and two, become fused together, and con- 

 stitute an organism having some analogy to the Polypa- 



rium. There are corallines, such as the Meandrince and 

 the Dendrogyra, in which the cells are disposed on either 

 side of long, winding galleries, on either side of which 

 are numerous mouths. Dr. Korotneff thinks that the 

 Polyparium is the equivalent of one of these galleries. It 

 may be regarded as a Meandrina without tentacles and 

 with numerous mouths, arranged in a great number of 

 transverse series, instead of in a single longitudinal series. 

 Dr. Ehlers views the tubercles of Polyparium as tenta- 

 cles provided with mouths. In some cases the tentacle 

 may become abortive, and the mouths remain alone. 

 But, according to M. Edmond Perrier, the interpre- 

 tations of Dr. Korotneff and Dr. Ehlers are really 

 identical. As the flower is merely an assemblage of 

 modified leaves, the coralline polype is merely as assem- 

 blage of more simple polypes, soldered together and form- 

 ing an association in which the functions are dis- 

 tributed. 



VEGETATIVE MODIFICATIONS OF 

 PROTOPLASM. 



IN the Comptcs Rendus for June 13th, 1887, Dr. A. P. 

 Fokker showed that the protoplasm of an animal 

 recently killed, protected against microbia, set to digest 

 on the stove in a solution of sugar and starch, converts 

 the sugar into acid, and the starch into sugar, these 

 chemical changes being effected without the intervention 

 of microbia. 



Shortly afterwards the same experimentalist made a 

 further communication to the effect that blood-globules, 

 if digested in a nutrient medium, slightly acid, undergo 

 very remarkable changes and give rise, to a sort of vege- 

 tation to which Dr. Fokker has given the name haemato- 

 cytes. 



On further pursuing his experiments he has found that 

 chloroform, which, as it is well known, suppresses the 

 development of microbia, but does not act upon the so- 

 called non-organised ferments, is a very safe agent for 

 demonstrating, on the one hand, the absence of microbia 

 in the actions of protoplasm, and, on the other, that the 

 formation of haematocytes is a vegetation, and not, as 

 has been pretended, a mere coagulation. 



If we take from any animal recently killed a particle 

 of protoplasm, place it in a solution of sugar or 

 starch, adding a little chloroform, and set it to digest 

 in a stove at 98° F,, we find, after a few days, that in the 

 solution of sugar there has been formed acid and in the 

 solution of starch, sugar, and that, although no antiseptic 

 precautions have been taken, yet that microbia are absent. 



If we mix in a test-tube two or three drops of blood 

 from a prick of the finger, add 5 cubic centimetres of a 

 non-neutralised solution of extract of meat, at ;| per cent., 

 and let it digest in the stove at 122" F., after a few hours 

 there are produced haematocytes. But these haematocytes 

 will not be produced if we add a few drops of chloroform. 



These experiments prove that protoplasm combines to 

 the property of producing fermentations that of under- 

 going vegetative changes, and CDrroborates the opinion 

 already expressed that the formation of haematocytes 

 is a case of heterogenesis. It is not, however, on that 

 account a case of true spontaneous generation. 



Leprosy in Russia. — According to the Medical Press 

 and Circular leprosy is increasing in Russia, especially in 

 the Baltic provinces. At Riga a special hospital for lepers 

 has just been opened, 



