ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
413 
A Case of Apparent Telegony.* — Dr. 0. vom Rath makes some 
general observations on Telegony, and then tells this tale, the moral of 
which is plain : — 
A family who had lived for many years in Tunis migrated, in 1888, 
to Baden, taking with them a beautiful pair of kittens. These were 
none the worse for the change, but grew up very unwilling to leave the 
house, and more or less vicious. The female cat ( m ) was grey-brown 
with black stripes, the tom ( n ) was pitch black, with a large white spot 
on the right breast, and with a naturally half-sized left ear. In each 
litter which they cast were some abnormal kittens, with rudimentary 
ear and tail. All these and all the males were destroyed, the normal 
females were given away. But as the tom became ever more vicious, 
he was castrated ; after which he showed himself peaceful and lazy. 
The she-cat (m), crossed with an unblemished German tom, still 
produced abnormal kittens in each litter. This looked like a clear case 
of telegony. 
Further inquiries showed, however, that a normal daughter of m , 
crossed with a normal German tom, had borne a red male with rudi- 
mentary left ear and rudimentary tail ; and inquiries as to the pedigree 
of m and n showed that (x) the mother of m had a rudimentary tail, but 
no rudimentary ear, and was like m in colour. This x had been paired 
with a red tom (r) who had rudimentary ear and tail ; there was but one 
litter (destroyed), and r shortly afterwards died. Then x was paired 
with a normal black younger brother ( y ) of the deceased r. From this 
normal y and from this x (with rudimentary tail) m had sprung. But 
the two parents of x and the two parents of r and y were relatives, 
belonging to a family in which a rudimentary ear and tail were common. 
The whole family sprang from a pair which the owner of m and n had 
found in a hollow tree near Tunis. 
Dr. vom Rath has more to tell, but enough has been cited to show 
the correctness of his conclusion that there was no telegony at all. 
There was a strong family tendency to having rudimentary ear and tail. 
But it is evident that if he had not had patience to search out the 
whole story, the case for the occurrence of telegony would have appeared 
a good one. 
External Traces of Hind Limbs in Cetacea.j — Prof. W. Kiikenthal 
described some time since in a Phocsena-e mbryo two flat prominences 
lateral to and somewhat above the genital organs. These he regarded 
as external vestiges of hind limbs. Guldberg disagreed with this, but 
found two other prominences which he held to be the vestiges. Kiikenthal 
maintains that these are rudiments of mammary glands. In younger 
embryos, however, Guldberg appears to have succeeded in finding true 
and distinct rudiments ; from a flattening of these the stage first described 
by Kiikenthal may have arisen. 
B. Histology. 
Red Blood-corpuscles of Vertebrates.^ — The, we regret to say, late 
Prof. J. A. Ryder, has a short memoir on the adaptive forms and vortex 
* Biol. Centralbl., xv. (1895) pp. 333-44. 
f Anat. Anzeig., x. (1895) pp. 534-7. 
X Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., xxxii. (1894) pp. 272-5. 
2 E 
1895 
