No. 32. — 1886.] SCIENTIFIC researches. 



301 



after having reached the epidermis, divided into tiny arms 

 like those of a chandelier, and these arms again were connected 

 with the range of cavities between the cells of the epidermis. 

 These cavities communicate with the surrounding medium ; 

 so we learned that the fluid of the vascular system commu- 

 nicates by means of the very fine tubes, and the cavities of 

 the epidermis just described with the outside. The tubes 

 are so small that even a blood-corpuscule is much too large 

 to pass through ; and further the blood-fluid, the so-called 

 serum itself, cannot flow out of the skin, according to the 

 law of capillarity. We pursued the subject further, and 

 found a similar state in the gills of fishes, the skin of 

 snails, leeches, and rain-worms. This discovery of a direct 

 communication of the vascular fluid with the outer medium, 

 obviates the use of the law of diosmose, and the process of 

 breathing becomes more intelligible. It is to be hoped 

 that injection into the vascular system may lead to a con- 

 clusive proof of our theory. 



The next five months were devoted to travelling in the 

 south-east of the Island, partly in search of information 

 about Veddas, partly with the object to obtain an embryo 

 of an elephant. His Excellency the Governor had the kind- 

 ness to give us free permission to shoot elephants, with the 

 special right also to kill females for the aforesaid purpose. 

 But unfortunately our exertions in this latter direction were 

 not successful. Three female elephants were killed, but 

 none had an embryo. Part of the intestines of the animals 

 has been preserved for future histological examination. 



During our stay in Ceylon, we used to collect whatever 

 seemed to be important, and thus a fair amount of scientific 

 material has been accumulated, which will be dealt with in 

 Europe after our return. Many new specimens which we 

 were able to secure in the course of our stay we pass over 

 here, because they have not yet been exhaustively examined. 

 However, we shall briefly touch upon the chief results of our 

 four months' stay at Trincomalee. 



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