360 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
the wrist of the fore-legs of swine. These glands occur, when there 
are several of them, in a linear series, the number of which is variable. 
Reduction in number takes place generally from the distal end, rarely 
in the middle of the series. When the number is large, some of them 
occur outside the main row, either in a row parallel with the main one, 
or 'at right angles to it. The highest total number observed in one 
leg is 10, never more than 9 in a row. The total number of swine 
examined was 4000, 2000 of each sex, 8000 fore-legs. The index of 
variability is the average departure in the number of glands of any set 
of legs from the mean number of that set. Galton’s method of finding 
the index of correlation was used. 
Results. The average number of glands is tolerably but not strik- 
ingly close on the two fore-legs and in the two sexes. The glands are 
nearly 1 per cent, more abundant in the male than in the female. The 
variants are distributed in close accord with the probability-curve. The 
variability in the two legs is very similar, especially in the male. 
The 'males are 2*5 per cent, more variable than the females. The 
glands are 0*8 per cent, more variable on the left side than on the 
right side. The relative variability of the same leg in the different 
sexes is about 1 • 6 per cent, greater than that of the two legs in the 
same sex. The degree of correlation in the variability of the right and 
left legs is about 0 • 777. 
b. Histology. 
Blood-Vessels in Epithelium.* — Prof. F. Maurer found on examin- 
ing the buccal mucous membrane of Amphibians (frog, newt, &c.), that 
the capillaries do not end in the sub-epithelial layer, but pass between 
the cells of the basal layer, and sometimes (in Anura) even through 
the middle layer, to the basal surface of the superficial ciliated cells. 
In the region of the jaw-margin there is neither sub-epithelial nor 
intra-epithelial capillary plexus. 
The facts have a threefold interest. (1) They complicate our 
histological conception of epithelium. (2) To the comparative morpho- 
logist the intra-epithelial vascular plexus above described is suggestive, 
since respiratory organs in Vertebrates are associated with the anterior 
part of the gut. (3) Maurer believes that the intra-epithelial plexus 
is primarily concerned with the nutrition of the several layers of the 
epithelium, but that it may come to have secondarily a respiratory 
significance, e.g. in the lungless Amphibians studied by Wilder, 
Camerano, and Lonnberg. 
Uterine Mucosa' of Bat during Gestation, t — M. Pierre Nolf ends 
his memoir on this subject with a comparative survey. (1) In Insecti- 
vores, Carnivores, Rodents, and Bats, the essential phenomenon observed 
in the uterine mucosa during gestation is the destruction of a more or 
less important part — a destruction often preceded by a phase of hyper- 
trophy. (2) There is a rapid destruction of the lining epithelium of 
the uterus, which may be preceded by a very short phase of prolifera- 
tion. (3) In Carnivores, the modifications induced by gestation affect 
especially the superficial part of the glandular tubes ; the mucosa 
* Morph. Jahrb., xxv. (1897) pp. 190-201 (1 pi.). 
f Arch. Biol., xiv. (1896) pp. 561-693 (7 pis.). 
