416 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Numerous Variations in One Individual.* — Herr F. Helm describes 
no less than nine abnormalities in the thoracic region of a woman sixty 
years of age. The variations were : — An incomplete development of 
the first right rib, a dorsal prolongation of the insertion of the right 
M. scalenus anterior, an abnormal relation of the subclavian artery to 
the M. scalenus ant., a cartilaginous union of the sternal ends of the 
first and second rib on the right, asymmetry of the breastbone, eight 
true ribs on the right, ossification of the cartilage of the two first ribs 
and fusion of these with the sternum, a true joint on the course of the 
first left rib, and an accessory phrenic nerve. These are described in 
detail, and correlated with the records of similar variations. The general 
interest of their occurrence is their accumulation in one individual. 
Origin and Inheritance of Individual Characters and Diseases.! 
— Herr F. Rohde reports on the present state of the question. His 
book has five parts : — (1) Heredity in the strict sense ; (2) Transmissible 
variations ; (3) Inheritance and variation in pathological conditions ; 
(4) Origin and inheritance of individual characters and diseases; (5) 
Critical resume of theories. In his general position, the author agrees 
with Weismann. 
Physiological Chemistry of Plants and Animals.^ — Herr E. Schulze 
first discusses the resemblance between the proteids, fats, and carbo- 
hydrates in plants and animals. As to the proteids, analogous substances 
occur in the two series, though none may be identical. Representatives 
of albumins, globulins, and nucleoalbumins occur in plants. In regard 
to fats, there is closer correspondence ; triglycerides are common in 
both, the same fatty acids occur. The agreement in regard to carbo- 
hydrates is well known : — grape sugar occurs in small quantity in 
animals, glycogen in some Algae and Fungi, tunicin is almost identical 
with cellulose, paramylum from the human brain, &c., seems practically 
identical with starch, and so on. 
Similar nucleins occur in the two series; lecithin can be isolated 
from plant-seeds, &c. ; analogous animal and vegetable cholesterins are 
known ; cholin or trimethylaethoxylium-hydroxyd has been got from 
many seeds ; the betain of beet-sap occurs in human urine and in the 
edible mussel. The correspondence holds for xanthin, leucin, tyrosin, 
allantoin, creatin, creatinin, &c. 
The author then compares the animal and plant metabolism as 
regards synthesis, disruption, fermentation, &c., and substantiates the 
conclusion of his useful paper that there is no essential difference 
between the Stoffweclisel of the two series. 
Mollusca. 
Torsion of Body of Mollusca.§ — Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist has studied 
the torsion of the Molluscan body from the negative point of view of 
the untwisting after torsion. With the disappearance of the osphradium 
* Anat. Anzeig., x. (1895) pp. 540-54 (3 figs.). 
f ‘ Ueber den gegenwartigen Stand der Frage nach der Entstehung und Ver- 
erbung individueller Eigenschaften und Krankheiten,’ Jena, 1895, 8vo, x. and 
149 pp. 
X Yierteljabrschr. Naturf. Gesellsch. Zurich, xxxix. (1894) pp. 243-74. 
§ Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., xx. (1895) pp. 357-69 (9 figs.). 
