40 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Terminology of Nerve-Cell.* — Dr. Fish proposes a consistent 
nomenclature ; he would call the whole cell with its appendages neuro- 
cyte; the axis-cylinder prolongation, neurote; the other processes, 
dendrites ; and the neuroglia cell, spongiocyte. 
y. General. 
Physiological Research.! — Prof. Max Verworn appears to look to 
the Microscope to relieve the physiologist from the impasse in which his 
science has been landed. He thinks the time has come to turn more 
attention to the cell, and the first and easiest thing to do is to make 
simple microscopic observations of vital processes ; under the Microscope 
we can conduct vivisectional operations on unicellular organisms with 
greater methodical precision than with higher animals. And, lastly, 
microchemical methods should be developed. 
Origin of Markings in Grass Snake.! — Herr J. Zenneck finds an 
upper lateral row, a middle lateral row, and a lower lateral row of spots 
in Tropidonotus natrix, as Eimer did in Lacerta muralis ; the median 
band of the lizard is awanting. The rows of black spots in the older 
forms correspond exactly in position and extent to red longitudinal lines 
in the young embryos. These red lines correspond to blood channels. 
Thus one of them corresponds to the line of facial, jugular, and 
epigastric veins. To state it generally, the longitudinal rows on which 
the black pigment accumulates in spots in the rete Malpighii are lines 
along which these run beneath the skin, and various longitudinal vessels 
which at regular intervals are in communication with deeper vessels. 
The pigment follows the course of the vessels, either carried by wander- 
ing connective-tissue cells, or else gradually arising along definite lines 
from within outwards. 
Light-Sense in Blind Animals.§ — Dr. W. A. Nagel finds that the 
whole surface of Amphioxus is acutely photoskioptic, i. e. responsive to 
sudden illumination. Removal of its anterior end makes no difference. 
The animal is but slightly skioptic, i. e. responsive to sudden shading. 
The tube-inhabiting worm Spirographis Spallanzanii is sensitive even 
to a slight shadow ; Ciona intestinalis closes and retracts its openings 
on sudden illumination; Cereantlms membranaceus (as Bronn states) 
contracts on sudden illumination; neither of the last two animals are 
skioptic ; in Adamsia and Anemonia neither the skioptic nor photoptic 
reaction was demonstrable. 
The skin of Helix pomatia or of H. hortensis is acutely skioptic ; 
the dark H. arbustorum reacts less markedly, the nocturnal snails very 
slightly. The skioptic function is independent of the eyes, which are 
truly iconoptic. In Uaio pictorum there is a rapid retraction of mantle- 
lips and closure of the shell on sudden shading or illumination. 
Faunal Regions of Australia.|| — Mr. C. Hedley finds in Australia 
indications of three divisions of life. The earliest he calls the Auto- 
chthonian, and suggests that it arrived from the Austro-Malayan islands in 
* Journ. Comp. Neurol., iv. (1894); see Amer. Natural., xxviii. (1894) p. 1041. 
f Monist, April 1894 ; see Nature, li. (1894) pp. 58-60. 
t Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool., lviii. (1894) pp. 364-93 (1 pi.). 
§ Biol. Centralbl., xiv. (1894) pp. 810-3. 
|| Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., xiv. (1894) pp. 390-2. 
