500 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
says the yolk-nucleus can be sharply differentiated from the chromatin. 
The paper consists so largely of a description of the figures with which 
it is supplied, that it is impossible to give a detailed account of the 
observations which it reports. 
Nuclei of Fat-Cells.* — Dr. Hs. Rabl discusses the investigations of 
Unna and Sack, and says that the net result of their work and of his 
criticism is that fully developed fat-cells have not merely one large fat- 
vacuole, as hitherto described, but also, in many cases, several small ones. 
These lie in the closest proximity to the nucleus, and are apparently 
secondary formations in the protoplasm. 
Photography of Histological Evidence.! — Prof. E. Schafer, in 
reviewing an atlas of nerve-cells,! by M. Allen Starr, calls attention 
to the remarks of Prof. Weldon on this subject in a recent number of 
‘ Nature.’§ The two professors seem to be at one on this subject, for 
the present writer says that so far as clearness and facility of compre- 
hension is concerned, any and all of the representations might, with the 
greatest advantage, have been replaced by a careful drawing of the cells 
which it was designed to illustrate. The plates, no doubt, are beautiful 
photographs of equally beautiful preparations, but it is difficult to see 
with what object they have been published. They do not claim to show 
anything new, and as every investigator can more or less readily make 
preparations for himself, they cannot be intended to exhibit to other 
investigators the results of the author’s investigations. The size 
and price of the book show that it cannot have been intended for 
students. Moreover, many of the figures lack clearness, for, as Prof. 
Schafer says, “ It is the hand which is constantly on the fine-adjustment 
of the Microscope that enables the shape of the body of a nerve-cell, 
and the course of all its branches to be followed accurately, and it is 
only accidentally and imperfectly that these can be shown in a photo- 
graph.” As an account of the structure of the nervous system the book 
has apparently many faults, but the reviewer freely admits that many of 
the reproductions are extremely well done, and may with advantage be 
carefully studied by those who have not the opportunity of preparing 
for themselves specimens of like nature to those depicted. 
7. General. 
Deep-Sea Dredgings in the Bay of Biscay.|| — Prof. R. Koehler has 
published the first volume of his Report of the Deep-Sea Dredgings of 
the French ship c Cauda n ’ in the Bay of Biscay in August and September 
1895. The editor himself, after a general introduction, reports first of 
all on the Echinoderms, of which eighty-five species were collected. 
Several families of star-fishes, which are characteristic of great dej)ths, 
were almost or altogether absent. The branched Ophiurids were repre- 
sented by one new species of Asironyx. Of the Crinoids there was an 
Actinometra remarkable for its polymorphism. Of the Elasipoda, one 
of the two species dredged belongs to an interesting new genus. Most 
* Arch. f. Mikr. Anat., xlvii. (1890) pp. 407-15. 
+ Nature, liv. (1893) pp. 340-1. 
X New York and London, 1896, x. and 78 pp. § See this Journal, ante, p. 394. 
|i ‘ Re'sultats scientifiques do la campagne du “ Caudan,” ’ fasc. i. 8vo, Paris, 1896, 
271 pp., 7 pis., and figs, in text. 
