16 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES 
RELATING TO 
ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY 
(principally invertebrata and cryptogamia), 
MICROSCOPY, Etc. 
Including Original Communications from Fellows and Others .* 
ZOOLOGY. 
VERTEBRATA. 
a. Embryology*! 
Menstruation and Ovulation of Macacus rliesus.J — Mr. W. Heape 
has published an abstract of the results of his investigations made on 
specimens of this monkey collected in Calcutta in 1891. The creature 
seems to have a definite breeding season, but it is quite certain that in 
different parts of India the breeding season occurs at different times of 
the year. Menstruation is marked by a number of prominent signs, and 
there is a regular menstrual flow. The tissue changes which take 
place during the menstruation of 31. rhesus are very similar to those 
which the author has already described for Semnopithecus entellus. The 
results arrived at by the study of the second species entirely confirm 
the results led to by a study of S. entellus. The changes which take 
place in the eight stages into which the process of menstruation is 
divided are sketched. The author feels warranted in asserting that the 
regular occurrence of menstruation without ovulation, even though it be 
in the non-breeding season, is sufficient evidence that ovulation is a 
distinct process, and that it depends upon a law or laws other than those 
which govern menstruation. 
No trace of a blood-clot within the follicle was seen, and therein the 
ruptured follicles of 31. rhesus differ from what is usually described as a 
normal ruptured follicle in the human female. This difference between 
two animals, both of which undergo menstruation, is remarkable and 
* The Society are not intended to be denoted by the editorial “ we,” and they do 
not hold themselves responsible for the views of the authors of the papers noted, 
nor for any claim to novelty or otherwise made by them. The object of this part of 
the Journal is to present a summary of the papers as actually published , and to 
describe and illustrate Instruments, Apparatus, &c., which are either new or have 
not been previously described in this country. 
f This section includes not only papers relating to Embryology properly so called, 
but also those dealing with Evolution, Development and Reproduction, and allied 
subjects. X Proc. Roy. Soc. Loud., lx. (1896) pp. 202-5. 
