554 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
great differences, the first cause of which is the fact that that of Nautilus 
is external, and those of the other two internal. Growth must, in 
consequence, be different. The primary chambers of Spirula and Nautilus 
present considerable differences ; that of the former, for example, has no 
proper septum, and the siphon commences far from the hinder wall of 
the chamber ; in Nautilus there is a septum between the first and second 
chambers, and the end of the siphon is pressed against the hinder wall 
of the first. 
The apparently great difference between Sepia and Spirula on the 
one hand and Nautilus on the other depends on the relation of the shell 
to the animal ; the concave side of the Sepia-shell looks downwards, and 
if that of Spirula were unrolled it would have the same relation ; in 
recent Nautili the relation is reversed, as the concave side looks upwards, 
but there are fossil Nautilidae in which the relation is the same as in 
Spirula and Sepia. 
Cephalopoda of Amboina.* — Dr. L. Joubin prefaces his account of 
the Cephalopods collected by MM. Bedot and Pictet with a list of the 
sixty-five species known from the Indo-Malayan area ; indeed, Cephalo- 
pods appear to be very rich in and highly characteristic of' that area. 
Chiroteuthis Picteti and Loligo Picteti are new, and are described in 
considerable detail. 
Copulation of Cephalopoda, j — M. E. G. Racovitza describes the mode 
of copulation of Sepiola Pondeletii, which seems to be of the nature of a 
struggle between the male and female, as the latter cannot breathe 
during the act. The spermatophores are fixed on the folds of the large 
pouch which is found in the left half of the mantle-cavity ; the sperma- 
tophore bursts on contact with sea- water ; the ova are fertilized on their 
way to the exterior. 
There are some notes, also, on the fertilization of Possia macrosoma, 
and a description of the hectocotylized arms. 
Fecundation of Octopus vulgaris.^ — M. E. G. Racovitza has ob- 
served that the male of Octopus vulgaris copulates with the female by 
introducing the extremity of its third right arm into the pallial cavity, 
from a distance. The female makes no great resistance to this, as the 
introduction of the hectocotylus has no effect on the normal respiration. 
Copulation lasts for an hour or more in consequence of the complicated 
acts which the arm of the male has to perform. The spermatophore, on 
being expelled from the orifice of the penis, passes into the funnel which 
places it in the groove of the hectocotylus. It is forced by the con- 
tractions of the walls of this imperfect canal towards the distal end of 
the arm, and so reaches the mantle-cavity of the female. The spoon- 
shaped end of the hectocotylus then places the extremity of the sperma- 
tophore against the edge of the orifice of the oviduct. The apparatus 
bursts on coming into contact with the sea-water which circulates in the 
cavity. The part which is evaginated is forced into the lumen of the 
canal of the oviduct. The freed spermatozoa are enabled to fertilize 
the eggs before the latter are covered by their shell. 
* Rev. Suisse Zool., ii. (1894) pp. 23-64 (4 pis.). 
t Comptes Rendus, cxviii. (1894) pp. 722-4. 
X Arch. Zool. Exper., iii. (1894) pp. 23-49. 
