26 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
blooded in exhibiting an increased respiratory activity at low tempera- 
tures and a diminished one at high temperatures, and also that the 
nervous system is able to regulate the heat production and heat loss so 
efficiently that the body temperature is practically uninfluenced by that 
of its surroundings.” But under certain conditions, e. g. in man and 
hibernating mammals, both of these relations are departed from, and 
thereby a connection with the cold-blooded animals is established. 
In conclusion the author refers to three interesting points : — (1) that 
in birds there seems to be a gradual rise of temperature accompanying 
the increasing complexity of morphological structure ; (2) that in birds 
there is an apparent interdependence of size and body temperature ; 
and (3) that there is in some measure a physiological recapitulation, 
inasmuch as the embryonic warm-blooded animals (unhatched chick, 
newly born rats and mice, &c.) which have descended from a cold-blooded 
ancestor are themselves cold-blooded. 
Whip-Snakes.* — Mr. Frank Finn is able, from his own experience, 
to testify to the correctness of the popular belief that the whip-snake 
strikes deliberately at the eye. He held two specimens in his hand, 
and the larger of the two first bit his hand, and then struck out suddenly 
at his eye. He closed it instinctively, and so escaped with a couple of 
bites in the upper and one in the lower eyelid. A tooth — not a grooved 
one, however — was left in the wound, but no unpleasant results ensued. 
Living Organism.j — Mr. Alfred Earl has made a critical study of 
biological categories which may serve as a timely protest against the 
too prevalent easy-going fashion of dealing with such big problems as 
are covered by the words “ organism,” “ species,” “ protoplasm,” and the 
like. The keynote of the book is “ the unity of the organism,” which 
remains a secret fact, but the author has much that is suggestive and 
forcible to say in regard to concrete problems. We must, however, 
content ourselves with quoting the last sentence of the preface : — “ The 
object of the book will be attained if it succeeds, although it may be 
chiefly by negative criticism, in directing attention to the important 
truth, that though chemical and physical changes enter largely into 
the composition of vital activity, there is much in the living organism 
that is outside the range of these operations.” 
Tunicata. 
Life of a Tunicate Colony.! — M. Antoine Pizon describes the re- 
markable succession of generations in a colony of Botrylloides rubrum. 
Between the first of February and the fifteenth of May there were seven 
generations, none sexual. Each had only about a week of adult life, 
and then fell victim to rapid degeneration. A striking fact is the 
vitality of the heart, which continues beating even when the ascidiozoid 
has degenerated into a small granular mass. The persistence of con- 
tractions ensures the distribution of the mass of degenerated material 
to the vessels of the colony. Within a colony all the hearts contract 
simultaneously, and, at a given moment, all in the same direction. 
* Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Ixvii. (1898) pp. 66-7. 
t ‘ The Living Organism. An introduction to the problems of biology,’ London, 
Macmillan and Co., 1898, 8vo, xiii. and 271 pp. 
X Comptes Rendus, cxxvii. (1898) pp. 127-30. 
