ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
523 
on her own observations, which are mainly confirmatory of those of 
others. Ciliated epithelium is primitive ; but in the adult mammal it 
is present only in the respiratory tract. The same is true of birds. 
In turtles one group (great sea-turtles) agrees with the above-named ; 
in the others the oesophagus is lined with stratified columnar ciliated 
cells, and mucus-glands are largely developed. In Amphibia there is 
an added ciliated area in the roof of the mouth in land forms. In 
Ganoids the cilia occur as far down as the stomach, but not in the 
mouth. In Cyclostomes the whole intestinal tract is more or less 
ciliated. On the whole, there is a reduction of ciliation and a reduction 
in the size of the cells, as we ascend the series. 
Buccal and other Glands of Colubridae.* — Mr. G. S. West describes 
(a) the unicellular glands in the mouth, (5) the labial glands which are 
solely mucus-secreting, (c) the parotid which becomes the poison-gland 
of the venomous forms, ( d ) the Harderian which varies greatly in size, 
and (e) the sublingual which lubricates the sheath of the tongue, as 
Minot L alone has noticed. Snakes are the only animals in which a 
considerable admixture of mucus is present in the parotid saliva, this 
mucus being derived in all cases from some of the epithelial cells of 
the duct, and sometimes also from special accessory mucous alveoli. 
The author makes two brief notes on the succession of the teeth and 
on the relation of the poison-duct to the fangs. 
Phosphorus-containing Substances of the Cell-t — Dr. T. Gregor 
Brodie points out that our knowledge of the form and position in which 
the phosphorus is held in the animal cell has of recent years been con- 
siderably advanced by the researches of Miescher, Kossel, and their 
co-workers, and has been greatly stimulated by Altmann’s discovery that 
from the chief and most abundant of the) phosphorus proteids the phos- 
phorus can be split off in the form of a complex acid — nucleic acid. 
Dr. Brodie gives an account of nucleic acid and of the compounds in 
which it forms a part in the cell, e.g. protamine. 
“ It is remarkable,” he says, “ to find that the chromatin of such cells 
as the spermatozoa should chemically consist of substances which, rela- 
tively to proteids, are of simple constitution. If it be true that hereditary 
characteristics are transmitted by the chromatin of the rejmoductive cells, 
we should have expected a most complex chemical structure for these 
parts ; and it therefore becomes the more striking to note that the most 
complex protamine obtained, arbacin, is from the animal lowest in the 
scale ( Arbacia , a sea-urchin), and that in the higher Vertebrates examined 
no protamine is present at all.” 
Structure of Suprarenal Capsules.} — Prof. H. Stilling gives a de- 
tailed account of the minute structure of these organs in the edible frog. 
A point of particular interest is the difference observable at different 
seasons, which may be indirectly connected with the state of the repro- 
ductive organs. The author has also observed a seasonal variation of 
weight in the supra-renals of the rabbit. 
* Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), xxvi. (1898) pp. 517-26 (2 pis.). 
f Science Progress, vii. (1898) pp. 131-49. 
$ Arch. Mikr. Anat., lii. (1898) pp. 176-95 (1 pi.). 
