186 General Notes. [ Feb. 
Australian Cladocera.—It is a well-known fact that the eggs 
of various fresh-water animals (notably those of Entomostraca) 
will withstand long desiccation, but still the experiments de- 
tailed by Mr. G. O. Sars have SPE Hee interest. cor- 
respondent sent him in Christiania, Norway, some dried mud 
from the shores of a fresh-water lake in opie Australia. This 
mud was placed in water, and from it were hatched out one 
Copepod, one Ostracode, a species of Polyzoan, apparently be- 
longing to the genus Plumatella, and five species of Clado- 
cera. These last ‘are made the subject of an article of nearly 
fifty pages and eight plates in the Forhandlinger Vidensk. Selsk. 
Christiania for 1885 (1886). These species all belonged to 
genera (Daphnia, Diaphanosoma, Ceriodaphnia, Moina, and Ley- 
digia) already known from European waters, and the species 
themselves closely resembled those of the antipodes, notwith- 
standing that they came from localities thousands of miles apart 
and which have entirely different environments. These facts 
recall to the author the close similarity—even identity—of the 
crustacean species of Italy and Norway, and he concludes that 
one cannot lay too great stress on the importance of birds in 
the distribution of these forms. Sars’s paper is, like many others, 
written in English. 
The Myzostomata.—Nansen’s beautifully-illustrated “ Contri- 
butions to the Anatomy and Histology of the Myzostomata” is 
the last publication of the Bergens Museum. The text (sixty- 
eight pages) is in Norwegian, but a résumé in English of twelve 
pages places the substance of the article within reach. Two new 
species are described with great detail, the integument, nervous 
system, sensory organs, segmental glandular sacs, hook appa- 
ratus, alimentary tract, genital organs, complemental males, and 
hermaphroditism being discussed. Nansen comes into frequent 
conflict with Beard. Thus he does not believe with Beard that 
the dicecious forms of Myzostomata were the primitive type,and - 
the hermaphrodite the secondary. He finds nothing resembling 
` the epidermal sense organs or chitinous hollow rods described 
Beard, nor can he accept Beard’s account of the development 
of the nervous system by which the larval nervous system dis- 
appears and has nothing to do with that of the adult. Nansen 
considers the “suckers” as “ a es ental glandulous sacs,” stating 
that they are ciliated, and lack the SaS walls described 
by Graff. Whether they are homologous with the segmental 
organs of the Annelids is left undecided. The fact that they do 
- not communicate with the body cavity is the greatest objec- 
tion to this view, but the ready answer to aon is -o unless the 
-cavities in which the ova are situated are such, the c coelom is 
" Nansen's conclusions as to the systematic position of the 
