98 General Notes. [Janua 
' PHYSIOLOGY.’ 
BENEKE ON CHOLESTERIN.—In the Proceedings of the Soci 
for the Promotion of the Natural Sciences of Marburg, Prussia, for 
the years 1880 and 1881, Professor Beneke writes upon the role 
played by cholesterin in the brain of man. In the brain of a boy 
of fifteen, who died of phthisis, he found cholesterin to the ext 
of 2.34 per cent. of the fresh substance, and in that of a girl 
nineteen who died of puerperal fever he found 2.13 per cent. 
The presence of the substance in so large a quantity, militate: 
in the writer’s belief, against its excrementitious nature, and tends 
rather to prove that it is “essential to the constitution of the pro: 
toplasmic matter of the structure of the tissues.” It is present in 
both cerebrum and cerebellum. 
In a second article, Professor Beneke gives further particular: 
of his investigations into the nature of cholesterin, and states his 
belief that the cilia of epithelium and of spermatozoa, the “ 
zoa” of Dr. Gaule, the “ spirilla” of Arndtfand the myelin threads 
(myelin-faden) which he found to be procurable from carcinoma 
cells treated with alcohol, and form an alcoholic extract of blood 
corpuscles, constitute a connected series of similar objects havi 
a common origin, and that in their production cholesterin ple 
an important part. 
A Correction.—In the September number of the NATURAI Ist 
. 744, seventh line from the bottom, I am credited with the s 
neath the head of teleostean embryos is converted into the 
This statement I repudiate; never having made it. What sho 
have been said, by one familiar with my work on Tylosuru 
Cybium, is as follows: The heart at first descends into this sp4 
and in those forms in which the development of the heart may 
opens directly into the segmentation cavity through a wide 
ration in the septum itself. In this wise it results that the 
cavity is placed in direct communication with the serous Sp? 
segmentation cavity surrounding the yelk, and from the 
* This department is edited by Professor Henry SEWALL, of Ann Arbor, ™ 
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