No. 408.] REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 985 
copepods, and by the presence of many littoral species. Among all 
the forms listed, twenty in all, few, if indeed any at all, are stygian, 
while most are common epigean forms. The author thinks that free 
access of surface water provides for the renewal of the plankton and 
prevents the development of peculiar cave forms. 
The annelids of the Nordenskjéld expedition to Patagonia have 
been studied by Ehlers (Vachr. Ges. Wiss., Göttingen, 1900, Heft 2). 
The collection embraced eighty-four species, of which twenty-one 
were new, and supplements well that made by Michaelsen in the 
same region. Three species and two varieties are noted as charac- 
teristically “ bipolar" in distribution so far as known at present. 
Jagerskiold has given (Centra/b. Bakt., 1 Abt., Vol. XXIV, p. 737) 
a valuable discussion of the curious rosette organs of the lateral line 
in ascarids. Though exceedingly variable in different species, they 
are undoubtedly homologous; their function must still be left uncer- 
tain, though size and development show them to be active and 
important. 
Van Denburgh and Wight (Amer. Journ. of Phys., Vol. IV, p. 209) 
have studied the more important effects of the poison of the Gila 
Monster (Heloderma suspectum). A subcutaneous injection of six or 
seven drops into the groin of a dog was followed by death in less 
than twenty-four hours. Observations on numerous cases showed 
that the poison acted directly upon the respiratory center, causing a 
quickening and then a gradual paralysis of the respiratory mechan- 
ism. When artificial respiration was resorted to, death nevertheless 
supervened as a result of cardiac failure, showing that the heart 
is profoundly affected as well as the respiratory apparatus. The 
authors conclude that the effects of the Gila Monster poison are in 
no important respect different from — of the venom of various 
poisonous snakes. 
H. M. Vernon (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, 1898) brings additional 
evidence to that furnished by Seeliger and by Morgan to show that 
Boveri’s (American Naturalist, March, 1893 and 1895) famous 
attempt to establish by experiment the dependence of adult charac- 
ters upon chromosomes did not rest upon a firm basis. He finds 
that in the echinoderms bastards resemble now one parent, now the 
other, according to the time of year in which the crossing was car- 
ried on. He concludes that the “characteristics of the hybrid 
offspring depend directly upon the relative degrees of maturity of 
the sexual products.” 
