EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY 60 1 



be shown indirectly through analogical deductions. The cases of the 

 museum are located in the entrance hall of the main building and in 

 the adjoining front corridor. Most of the specimens are preserved in 

 fluid, for only a few of the birds and mammals are stuffed and but a 

 minority of the echinoderms and crustaceans are dried. The insects, 

 hermetically sealed in shallow, glass covered cases, represent the influ- 

 ence of temperature upon lepidoptera, of protective resemblance and 

 mimicry, of the series of moultings, of normal growth and growth as 

 influenced by external factors and processes of regeneration, from the 

 egg to the imago. In all cases it is important to have the normal con- 

 trol form exhibited alongside of the experimentally produced varia- 

 tion. 



Dr. Przibram publishes a complete list 2 of the animals cultivated in 

 the Vienna institution with important data for each species, concern- 

 ing the kind of vivarium, or aquarium used, its dimensions and the 

 number of individuals which may there live together, the food, natural 

 habitat and other details, as well as the name of the investigator and 

 publication dealing with each form. The bibliography of papers pub- 

 lished by the workers in the institution and Dr. Przibram's summary of 

 these investigations and others being prosecuted furnish an outline of 

 the remarkable scientific productivity resulting from only eight years 

 of research. Such institutions as this of Vienna will do much to solve 

 the great problems of biology. The practise of medical asepsis has 

 permitted operations upon all classes of organisms giving new and 

 valuable data in the field of regeneration. Color has been experiment- 

 ally investigated as to its nature, whether due to the pigment forma- 

 tion or to the activity of chromatophores, and its relation to light, food, 

 moisture and other external factors as well as its correlation with the 

 animal's vision. By means of the chemical methods of precipitation, 

 agglutination and coagulation, species and hybrids have been tested 

 and the degree of relationship between members of larger groups has 

 been indicated. By the combination of methods of breeding, and sub- 

 jecting organisms to the influence of changed factors of existence, the 

 laws of heredity will be more clearly established, and the inheritance of 

 functional adaptations acquired under definitely controlled conditions 

 may be demonstrated. The nature of the organ-forming substances in 

 the germ cells and their embryogenesis is being studied. Through 

 physico-chemical methods the biocolloids have become better known and 

 finally the great mystery, the synthesis of living matter itself, may be 

 revealed. 



2 Zeitschrift f. biol. Technik u. Aletliodik, 1910. 



VOL. LXXVIII. — 42. 



