524 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. {VOL XXXII. 
Stomach Movements.'— One of the most interesting papers in the 
last number of the American Journal of Physiology is that by W. B. 
Cannon on the movements of the stomach studied by Rontgen rays. 
Animals, chiefly cats, were fed upon food containing a small amount 
of bismuth subnitrate, which, being opaque to the rays, brings the 
form of the stomach clearly to view and thus allows the movements 
of normal digestion to be observed with ease. The cardiac portion 
of the stomach acts as a reservoir, in which, however, salivary 
digestion probably goes on. The pyloric portion is the seat of 
continuous constriction waves, which course from near the middle 
of the stomach to the pylorus. These thoroughly mix the food with 
the gastric juice, triturate it, and at intervals discharge some of it 
into the intestine, this operation being kept up till the stomach is 
empty. .A very remarkable condition observed was that the stomach 
movements were almost instantly inhibited whenever the cat showed 
signs of anxiety, rage, or distress—a practical hint as to post- 
prandial occupations. G.H P. 
.Paired Fins of Fishes.?—In the last number of the /enazsche 
Zeitschrift, Dr. H. Brans gives an exhaustive account of the innerva- 
tion of the paired fins of selachians, holocephala, and dipnoi. About 
half the paper is taken up with detailed anatomical descriptions, the 
substance of which is clearly summarized in a concluding table. The 
remainder of the paper is devoted to a discussion of the origin of 
vertebrate extremities, in which the author defends with some show 
of reason Gegenbaur’s archipterygium theory and attempts to refute 
the more usually accepted theory of the continuous lateral fin. The 
paper is refreshing in that its author claims that in the settlement of 
morphological questions comparative anatomy should have a hearing 
as well as embryology. GHP. 
Anatomy of Salpa.*—Dr. M. M. Metcalf has published as a 
“ separate ” a paper of some twenty-six pages on the eyes and sub- 
neural gland of Salpa. The histology and embryology of the eyes In 
1 Cannon, W. B. The Movements of the Stomach, Studied by a of the 
Röntgen Rays. Zhe American Journal of Physiology, vol. i, pp. 359, 382, 18 
2 Brans, H. Ueber die a der paarigen Extremitäten bei Sc 
Holocephalen und Dipnoe Ein Beitrag zur Gliedmassenfrage. _/enaische 
d sa oe pp: awi m: 1898. 
3 Metcalf, M. M. The Eyes and Subneural Gland of Salpa. The F riedenwald 
Co., feces 1898. 
