1865. J Zoology and Animal Physiology. 331 



nerve-cells, which are not without interest. In a paper road before 

 the Koyal Society, he remarks that the caudate cells are really not 

 cells nor vesicles, in the ordinary acceptation of the terms, for there is 

 no investing membrane and cell- contents, but the so-called cell con- 

 sists of soft solid matter throughout. The nerve-fibres are not pro- 

 longed from the nucleus, but are continuous with the very material of 

 which the substance of the cell is composed. From various observa- 

 tions upon the course taken by the tubes through the cells and into 

 other fibres, he concludes that the typical anatomical arrangement of a 

 nervous mechanism is not a cord with two ends — a point of origin and 

 a terminal extremity, but a cord without an end — a continuous circuit. 

 From the peculiar structure of the caudate nerve-cells, he thinks it 

 improbable that they are sources of nervous power, while, on the other 

 hand, the structure, mode of growth, and whole life-history of the 

 rounded ganglion-cells, render it very probable that they perform such 

 an office. These two distinct classes of nerve-cells, which are very 

 closely related, seem to perform very different functions — the one 

 originating currents, while the other is concerned more particularly 

 with the distribution of these, and of secondary currents produced by 

 them, in very many different directions. A current originating in a 

 round ganglion cell would probably give rise to many induced currents 

 in a caudate cell. 



An egg of the New Zealand Moa has been found in the Middle 

 Island under singular circumstances. A labourer who was digging 

 the foundation for a house came upon the egg, and unfortunately, with 

 his pick, broke some portions of the shell. It was in the hands of the 

 skeleton of a Maori, who was buried in a sitting posture, with the egg 

 resting in his hands, and held opposite to his head. The egg is about 

 10 inches long, and 6J inches in width, and of a dirty-white colour. 

 It has been placed in a box and protected by glass, so that the 

 injury is not perceptible, and the egg appears to be perfect. It has 

 been suggested that this discovery does not tend to prove that the 

 Moa has recently existed, inasmuch as the egg was probably in a fos- 

 silized condition ; for the shell of the Dinornis, unlike that of the 

 iEpyomis, is comparatively slight, and, therefore, likely to have been 

 shattered by a heavy blow from a pickaxe, whereas the egg remains 

 perfectly sound, except upon the side accidentally chipped. Probably 

 the egg was intended as a provision for the journey to the realms 

 above, or, as the Maories say, possibly to the regions below ; but there 

 appears to be no record of the custom of placing such objects in the 

 hands of the dead. 



Pisciculture is practised with much success in Belgium, and M. 

 Schramm, the Director of the Botanic Garden at Brussels, has recently 

 received a first-class medal from the Acclimatization Society of Paris, 

 for his labours in this direction. The Society at Brussels has just 

 completed the fishing of their pond in the Botanic Garden, for the 

 purpose of obtaining a supply of ova for artificial propagation. Two 

 hundred and fifty salmon and trout obtained in this manner furnished 



VOL. II. 2 A 



