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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. X LIT 



which has immediate practical value, various other in- 

 vestigations were undertaken, or at least the material for 

 such investigations was collected. The study of the blood 

 of the horse-shoe crab was begun, and two researches 

 have been subsequently completed in Boston, both of 

 which were presented at Chicago during the present 

 winter, one before the American Society of Biological 

 Chemists, and the other before the American Physio- 

 logical Society. The first deals with the study of the 

 blood-clot of this animal ; the second started with a study 

 of the enzymes of the serum and has led indirectly to 

 interesting results concerning the guajac reaction of per- 

 oxydases. Another investigation, the material for which 

 was collected at Woods Hole, has also been finished sub- 

 sequently. This is a study of the vitelline contained in 

 the eggs of the spiny dog-fish. This vitelline has proved 

 to be very similar to that which may be obtained from 

 hens' eggs. Finally, an examination was undertaken, 

 but not yet completed, into the nature of the red pigment 

 contained in the chromatophores of the skin of the squid. 



Charles B. Bennett, graduate student, Brown Uni- 

 versity, (1) took part in the work of the biological survey, 

 being engaged in a search for certain marine organisms 

 concerning which additional data were required, (2) 

 assisted Dr. Alsberg and Professor Field in some of the 

 work above described. 



AValter B. Cannon, A.M., M.D., professor of physiology, 

 Harvard Medical School.— The Movements of the Ali- 

 mentary Canal in the Dog-fish. Peristaltic waves were 

 seen to pass over the lower third of the cardiac end of 

 the stomach, but they did not pass on to the pyloric end. 

 Along the narrow pyloric portion the waves were more 

 frequent than on the cardiac portion. Three movements 

 were seen in the spiral valve: (1) A segmenting move- 

 ment, starting anteriorly as a constriction, which was 

 replaced by a constriction one centimeter below, and this 



