J 2 JOUENAL OF SCIENCE. 



solution. The experiments I quoted showed most conclusively that 

 glycerin is most beneficial in this way, and it occurred to me that 

 certain other analogous substances would probably act in a similar 

 manner. I have made rough qualitative trials, which prove this to 

 be the case. About five months ago I sealed up bottles containing 

 respectively — 



(a) sulphuretted hydrogen water 



(b) sulphuretted hydrogen water with sugar 



(c) sulphuretted hydrogen water with salicylic acid. 



I have opened these to-day, and find that solution (a) gives no reaction 

 with lead acetate and is entirely free from odour ; whilst solutions (b) 

 and (c) have a strong odour of the gas, and yield copious precipitates 



with lead acetate The amount of sugar used was 2 



per cent., and of salicylic acid 1 per cent. — A. J. Shilton, E.C.S., in 

 " Chemical News " of 10th October, 1890. 



The Anatomy of a New Zealand Earth-worm. — In a notice of a 

 paper " On the Homology between Genital Ducts and Nephridia in the 

 Oligochasta," by Frank E. Beddard, M.A., Prosector of the Zoological 

 Society, presented to the Royal Society on November 27th, the 

 following occurs, (Nature of 4th December) : — 



" I have lately had the opportunity of studying the development 

 of the New Zealand species Acantliodrilus multiporus. The sum of 

 money which the Government Grant Committee of the Royal Society 

 were good enough to place at my disposal has enabled me to defray the 

 expenses of this investigation. 



" Tn the young embryos of this worm each segment is furnished 

 with a pair of nephridia, each opening by a ciliated funnel into the 

 segment in front of that which carries the dorsally placed external pore. 

 In later stages the funnels degenerate, and that portion of the tube 

 which immediately follows the funnel becomes solid, losing its lumen ; 

 at the same time the nephridium branches, and communicates with the 

 exterior by numerous pores. At a comparatively early stage, four 

 pairs of gonads are developed in segments X.— XIII. ; each of these is 

 situated on the posterior wall of its segment, as in Acantliodrilus 

 annectens, and not on the anterior wall, as in the majority of earth- 

 worms. When the gonads first appear, the nephridial funnels, with 

 which they are in close contact, are still ciliated, and their lumen is 

 prolonged into the nephridium for a short distance. Later the cilia 

 are lost, and the funnels increase greatly in size, while those of the 

 neighbouring segments — in fact, all the remaining funnels — remain 

 stationary for a time, and then become more and more degenerate. 

 The arge funnels of the genital segments become the funnels of the 

 vasa differentia and oviducts ; it will be observed that the number of 

 ovaries and oviducal funnels (two pairs) at first corresponds to that 

 of the testes and sperm duct funnels ; subsequently the gonads and 

 commencing oviducts of segment XII. atrophy. Each of these large 

 funnels is continued into a solid rod which passes back through the 

 septum, and then becomes continuous with a coiled tuft of tubules, in 

 which there is an evident lumen, and which is a part of the nephridium 

 of its segment. In the segments in front of and behind the genital 

 segments, the rudimentary funnels communicate in the same way with 



