486 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
fact not hitherto observed. His specimens had better developed sexual 
organs than those previously described, but did not seem to be fully 
mature. There were two very large pairs of testes, two pairs of seminal 
funnels, and two open sacs representing the seminal vesicles of higher 
forms. The female organs consisted of two pairs of large ovaries over- 
lapped by the funnels of the oviducts. In addition there were apparently 
two unpaired egg-sacs. The only one which was distinct consisted, like 
the seminal vesicles, of a pocket on one of the dissepiments. There were 
also three pairs of spermathecse. 
The paper also includes an account of some Oligochaetes from 
Switzerland, with a description of a new species of Nais. This form, 
described as Nais bretscheri, is remarkable for the arrangement of its 
bristles. These are of very different calibre in different regions of the 
body, and the number in the ventral bundles is inversely proportional 
to the thickness of the individual bristles. The paper also includes 
descriptions of Oligochaetes collected from various localities, of which 
a number are new species. 
Oligochaetes from the Islands of the Pacific.* — Dr. W. Michaelsen 
describes a collection of earthworms made by Dr. Schauinsland during 
a Pacific voyage. He believes that the Pontodrili are the only purely 
indigenous forms. Their habitat is among the debris of the shore, and 
this, together with their resistance to the action of salt water, makes it 
possible for them to be distributed by sea in a fashion impossible to the 
purely terricolous forms. As to their relations, the prostate arises from 
the modified openings of the vas deferens as it does in the Perichaetinae, 
so that they must be placed in this sub-family near Megascolides. The 
paper includes a discussion of the family Megascolecidae. 
Ciliated Bodies of Phymosoma granulatum.f — MM. J. Kunstler 
and A. Gruvel describe these peculiar bodies which move in the peri- 
visceral fluid. In the phase which may be called adult they are like 
permanent gastrulae with large open posterior blastopore. Their cavity, 
however, is not digestive, but is lined by germinal epithelium constantly 
budding off cells. The authors find in this some support for the view 
that the primitive gastrula was a “ genito-gastrula,” the original role of 
the endoderm being reproductive. 
Regeneration in Annelids.^ — A. Michel has made an elaborate 
study of regeneration in Chsetopod worms, extending his experiments 
over a wide series. Among the outstanding results the following may 
be noted. In the cicatrisation the gut is only closed by a mechanical 
obstruction ; the leucocytes play little part in healing or regenerating ; 
mitoses are relatively rare. All the tissues and organs of the re- 
generating bud spring from the proliferating ectoderm or epidermis 
which the author speaks of as indifferent. He thus seeks to lessen the 
difficulty suggested by some of his results, e. g. that intestinal epithelium, 
muscles, &c. may arise from the ectoderm. 
Embryology of Protula Meilhaci. § — M. Albert Soulier has been 
successful in rearing larvm of this worm at the Marine Station of Cette. 
* Zool. Jahrb., xii. (1899) pp. 210-46. 
t Comptes Rendus, cxxviii. (1899) pp. 519-21. 
X Bull. Sci. France et Belg., xxxi. (1898). See Zool. Centralbl., vi. (1899) 
pp. 564-7. § Comptes Rendus, cxxviii. (1899) pp. 1591-3. 
