NOV 4 1337 
JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 
OCTOBER 1897. 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES 
I Relating to Zoology and Botany (principally Invertebrata and Crypto- 
gamia), Microscopy, &c., including Original Communications from 
Fellows and Others * 
ZOOLOGY. ] 
VERTEBRATA. 
a . Embryology.! 
Recapitulation.^ — Mr. J. T. Cunningham discusses the recapitu- 
lation-doctrine, which he regards as “a hasty generalisation. 1 ’ He 
begins with a brief note — too brief as regards von Baer — on the history 
of the idea, and then turns to Sedgwick’s recent criticism. A number of 
particular cases are discussed as tests of the recapitulation-theory, — the 
life-history of Amphibia, the development of the tail in fishes (whereon 
a considerable digression from the theme), and the development of flat 
fishes — and it may be allowed that the theory in its usual form does not 
stand the test very well. Finally, Mr. Cunningham discusses the “ re- 
capitulation ” of the eye in the development of the more or less blind 
animals which live in caves or in similar conditions. The recapitulation 
is very imperfect and incomplete. “ The following conclusions,” at least 
so the author says, “ follow necessarily from the facts.” 
(1) “ The blindness of cave animals has certainly not been produced 
by the selection or survival of individuals in which the eyes were de- 
fective from their first development. If it is due to selection at all, it is 
the selection of individuals in which the eyes underwent progressive 
deterioration after the commencement of independent life.” 
.(2) “ The eyes, even in the stage in which they are most developed, 
"are far from being as well developed as in the ancestors which lived in 
* 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. % Science Progress, i. (1897) pp. 483-510, 
1897 2 o 
