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SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Revue Biologique du Nord de la France 

 (Lille, November, 1894). — Dr. A. Peytoureau con- 

 tinues his elaborate article on The Organisation and 

 Comparative Anatomy of the Last Segments of the 

 bodies of Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Hemiptera, the 

 present instalment occupying the entire part ; it 

 is accompanied by three partly-coloured plates of 

 anatomical figures of Bombyx mori, Acherontia 

 atropos, Satyrns janira, Callimorpha hera, Pieris 

 brassica, Zeuzera ossculi. 



Compte Rendu des Seances de la Societe 

 Philomatique de Paris. — At the meeting of 

 November 10th, M. Bouvier read a communication 

 on the Branchial Apparatus of a Crab of the group 

 Dromia (Dynomene filholi), in which he demonstrated 

 that the structure of the branchia of this animal 

 much resembles that of Homarus (lobsters). At 

 the base of the largest branchia eight rows of 

 filaments are found, which are successively reduced 

 to six and finally to two. At the meeting of 

 November 24th, M. Bouvier communicated the 

 result of his Researches on Recent and Fossil Dromias. 

 The oldest fossil representatives of this group of 

 crabs are Prosopons, which make their appearance 

 in the inferior oolite. They appear to differ con- 

 siderably from the common Dromias, but have the 

 same structure as Homolias, and certain recent 

 Dromias which have preserved the primitive 

 characters of the ancestors of this group (Homalo- 

 dromia, Dicranodromia, etc.). The consideration of 

 the succession in time of these forms indicates as 

 the origin of crabs, Homarias, which are much more 

 ancient. This paleontological argument supports 

 that drawn from their morphology as explained at 

 the previous meeting, while embryological studies 

 lead also to the same conclusion. 



Feuilles des Jeunes Naturalistes (Paris, 

 December, 1894). M. Adrien Dollfus continues his 

 series of articles on The Idoteidce of the Coasts of 

 France, illustrated with figures in the text. In a 

 short note on The Mollusca collected at Saint-Jean- 

 de-Luz and Guetharry, M. Dautzenberg records 

 ninety species of marine mollusca from these two 

 localities. 



Natur und Haus (Berlin, December, 1894). — 

 Herr Robert Voegler contributes an instructive 

 article On Preparing and Stuffing Mammals. Herr 

 Paul Matschie has a note on a rare and little- 

 known rodent from North Africa, Ctenodactylus 

 gundi, known by natives as " gundi." A life-size 

 illustration gives a good idea of the appearance 

 of this interesting little animal, which hitherto 

 appears not to have survived in captivity more 

 than a fortnight. Herr Bernhard Cronberger 

 communicates his experience with regard to a new 

 preserving material which promises fairly to oust 

 alcohol from its time-honoured position as universal 

 preservative medium. The substance in question 

 is Formic aldehyde, known in Germany by the 

 name of Formol (chemical formula, C H 2 O). 

 For ordinary purposes it is diluted with water, 

 a solution of from three to five per cent, being 

 all that is necessary. In addition to being con- 



sequently much cheaper than alcohol, it has 

 still other qualities which recommend its use to 

 curators of museums, since in case of a fire the 

 contents of the vessels would of course rather 

 prevent than assist the spread of conflagration. 

 But above all it has the advantage of preserving the 

 objects in its natural colours. The writer, during 

 a visit to Frankfort o/M., was shown by Professor 

 Dr. Boettger some reptiles preserved in this 

 medium, which looked as if but recently killed, 

 while as a matter of fact, they had been in the 

 liquid for several months. Slugs also remain 

 almost perfectly life-like. For plants and fruits 

 this medium appears very desirable, as it is unable 

 to extract chlorophyl. 



Il Naturalista Siciliano (Palermo, September, 

 1894). On The Leptomastax of Upper Italy, by Prof. 

 Andrea Fiori. The Cynipida of Sicily, by T. de 

 Stefani. The author gives a tabular review of the 

 synonymy of the gall-wasps of Sicily, in which the 

 parthenogenetic forms are compared with the 

 sexual forms, and several of the galls are described 

 and figured. Signor Augusto Paulumbo continues 

 an article on The Zoology and Botany of the Selinus 

 Shore, the last instalment appeared in the same 

 publication four years ago. 



Annaes de Sciencias Naturaes (Oporto, i. 

 No. 4, October, 1894). Dr. Lopes Vieira contri- 

 butes a note on Lepidopus argentens, accompanied 

 by two plates, illustrating two specimens in the 

 Museum of Coimbra. The editor, Dr. Augusto 

 Nobre, catalogues the marine mollusca collected 

 by Sefior Joas Cardoso, junior, in the Cape Verde 

 Islands. Mr. Edwin J. Johnson continues his 

 Floral Calendar, and Mr. W. C. Tait his article on 

 The Birds of Portugal. The editor gives another 

 instalment of his Observations on the Nervous System, 

 and Zoological Affinities of some Terrestrial Pulmonata, 

 the present number containing Helix aspersa (the 

 common garden-snail), and Plutonia atlantica, with 

 two plates of anatomical details. 



Journal de L'Anatomie et de la Physio- 

 logie (Paris, 1894, reprint). Researches on Experi- 

 mental Divarfing, by Henri de Varigny. The learned 

 doctor informs us in his prefatory remarks, that he 

 was led to experiment upon the influence of 

 environment by the curious results obtained by 

 certain Japanese horticulturists, as witnessed during 

 the International Exhibition of 1889, in Paris. 

 He also refers to Carl Semper' s experiments with 

 the pond snail (Limnaa stagnalis), which induced 

 him to repeat this eminent zoologist's work. He 

 took as subjects, Limncea stagnalas and L.auricularis, 

 and gives his results under different headings, i.e., 

 (1) influence of temperature, (2) influence of 

 quantity of food, (3) influence of aeration, (4) in- 

 fluence of volume, (5) influence of surface, (6) in- 

 fluence of number, (7) influence of the nature of the 

 water, and he concludes that the first factor, within 

 a certain compass, may be eliminated ; likewise the 

 second and third, while the fourth appears to be 

 of importance, since within certain limits, as the 

 volume of water was increased, so the size of the 

 snails increased ; beyond five litres no difference 

 in size could be ascertained ; while increase of 

 surface, within limits also, had a still more 

 apparent effect ; both the former conditions being 

 identical, the increase of number of snails had a 

 dwarfing effect. Want of space prevents us going 

 into further details of this very interesting paper, 

 and we must therefore refer our readers interested 

 in the subject to the paper itself, which forms a 

 very important contribution to biology. 



