292 Archiv fur Anatomic, Physiologic, fyc. 
small and very numerous in the Ph. alter nifolium, but very large, and conse- 
quently few in number, in the Archidium Animadversiones botanicce non- 
nullce novorumque generum et specierum diagnoses, auct. F. E. L. FISCHER et C. 
A. MEYER Septieme Notice sur les plantes rares du Jardin de Geneva, par 
MM. A. PYR, et ALPH. DE CANDOLLE. 
Archiv fur Anatomic, Physiologic, und Wissenschaftliche Medicin, 
fyc. Von Dr JOHANNES iMiiLLKR. G. Eichler. Berlin, Heft, 
ii. 1836. 8vo. (Continued from p. 196.) 
This number contains an article on the Anatomy of Fishes by Henry Rathke. 
During a scientific tour in the southern provinces of the Russian empire, per- 
formed in 1833, the author bad an opportunity of making observations on the 
internal structure of thirty-six species of fish, which he procured along the shores 
of the Black Sea. He has given a brief but very accurate account of the gene- 
rative organs of several of these species, and he intends in four or five subse- 
quent numbers, to detail in order the anatomy of the urinary vessels, the swim- 
ming bladder and alimentary canal, and the circulating system. These memoirs 
are intended as a brief continuation of the description of the same organs in the 
fishes of the north of Germany, already published by theauthor, partly in his Con- 
tributions to the History of the Animal Kingdom, ( Part 2) and partly in Meckel's 
Archives for 1826. There is also an elaborate paper by the same author on the 
generation of the Decapods, founded principally On an examination of fourteen 
species inhabiting the Black Sea, which he procured at the same time as the fishes 
before-mentioned. He also announces the publication, in the course of a few 
weeks, of a work in which the subject is treated more at large A paper by Dr 
Pockels of Brunswick on the gestation of the Roe (Cervus Capreolus) accom- 
panied by an engraving, gives the result of a very accurate examination of the 
uterus from the time of impregnation till the foetus had attained the length 
of from three to three and a-half inches. He proves by this investigation, that, 
contrary to the received opinion, the ovum remains dormant in the ovarium dur- 
ing a period of five months. The rutting season continues from the end of 
July till the end of August, but the developement of the ova does not commence 
till December, by the end of January the embryo had attained the length above 
specified The number concludes with two letters from Mauro Rusconi, (ad- 
dressed to Professor E. H. Weber) in answer to the critique of M. von Baer, upon 
his history of the developement of the spawn of frogs. These letters are illustrated 
by two plates showing the successive changes which the spawn undergoes. The 
points which Rusconi endeavours to establish are briefly these : That the skin and 
the slimy matter which surrounds the egg, do not contribute towards its develope- 
ment ; that the egg of the frog differs from that of birds, inasmuch as the cicatricula 
is wanting, from which point the vivifying process commences. The punctum 
saliens in the egg of the frog is the whole yolk, which by degrees changes into 
the larva. This change is hastened or retarded, according to the temperature of 
the water in which the egg is deposited. That the semifluid material of the 
yolk changes into a bag of little globules, or elementary molecules, before the 
organization begins. That the skin is the first part of the larva that becomes 
organized ; then follow in succession the spinal chord, the brain, the aorta, the 
muscles of the back, the peritoneum, the heart, the liver, and lastly, the alimen- 
tary canal. 
