354 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
young are generally uninuclear, but in some cases there are two or three 
or even many nuclei. 
So far as the author has been able to show there is never a division 
of the nucleus into two, but it, after having gone through a series of 
changes, breaks up into a number of daughter-nuclei. 
Foraminifera of the Gazelle.* * * § — Dr. J. G. Egger has a monograph 
of the Foraminifera collected during the voyage of the German corvette 
c Gazelle’ in the years 1874-6. Four hundred and ninety-three species 
are enumerated, of which forty-four are new. The late Mr. H. B. 
Brady’s ‘ Challenger ’ Report has, very properly, been taken as the 
basis, and the author appears to have much the same wide view as to 
the limits of species as was taken by the accomplished English student. 
Index to Foraminifera. | — Mr. C. Davies Sherborn has issued the 
first part of an index to the genera and species of Foraminifera, the 
character of which may be judged by the following quotation : — 
“ BDELLOIDINA, Carter, 1877. Carter, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 
[4] xix., 1877, 201 ; Brady, Report Challenger, 1884, 319. 
aggregata, Carter. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. [4] xix., 1877, 201, 
xiii., 1-8. 
Brady, Report Challenger, 1884, 319, xxxvi., 4-6.” 
Indices of this kind are of the greatest value to specialists, and as 
Mr. Sherborn is known to be a careful and accomplished bibliographer, 
we feel sure we may recommend the index under notice to the many 
workers at the Microscope who are interested in the Foraminifera. 
Irritability of Noctiluca.f — M. J. Massart finds that this phos- 
phorescent animalcule is sensitive to a slight agitation of the water, as, 
indeed, most of us have observed, to sudden variations in the temperature 
and density of the water, and to a number of chemical substances. Ex- 
periment showed that the agitation of the water produces a deformation 
of the body of the Noctiluca, and it is this deformation which causes the 
phosphorescence. Even under artificial conditions the creature responds 
more readily to stimuli at night than in the daytime. 
Amoebae and their Cultivation^ — Prof. A. Celli and Dr. R. Fiocca 
state that they have succeeded in cultivating Amoebse on a specially 
devised medium, and communicate some of the observations they have 
made during the past two years. All Amoebse exhibit two phases, the 
amoeboid and cystic. In the latter the Amoebse consist of granular con- 
tents and an investment, the inner surface of which is smooth and 
circular, and the outer smooth or wavy. In the amoeboid phase may be 
distinguished more or less granular contents (endoplasm) and an ex- 
ternal hyaline substance (ectoplasm). In the endoplasm a vesicular 
nucleus is constantly visible, and often vacuoles of variable number. In 
* Abh. Bayer. Ak. Wiss., xviii. 2 (1893) pp. 195-458 (21 pis.). Cf. Ann. and 
Mag. Nat. Hist., xiii. (1894) pp. 368-70. 
t ‘ Smithsonian Miscellaneous Contributions 856. An Index to the Genera and 
Species of the Foraminifera. Part I. a to non,’ City of Washington, 1893 [received 
April 1894], 8vo, ii. and 240 pp. 
X Bull. Sci. de la France et de Belgique, xxv. (1893). See Amer. Natural., 
xxviii. (1894) pp. 270 and 1. 
§ Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., xv. (1894) pp. 470-3. 
