PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 
251 
branchial fissure was detected on each side of the neck, and within 
this on each side a series of fringed branchial arches.’ Wyman’s 
figures are evidently enlarged, and he gives no measurements of the 
embryos. But his figures and descriptions are explicit, and I am not 
aware that any statement by him has ever been found to be incorrect. 
In view, however, of the passage above quoted from ‘ Nature,’ I have 
endeavoured to obtain confirmation of Wyman’s statement. On examin- 
ing two embryos from cells upon a 1’ipa presented to me by Dr. J. B. S. 
Jackson, I found them very ill preserved. They measured 11 mm. 
from tip to tip, and I could find no trace of branchiae internal or ex- 
ternal. I then suggested to Dr. Jackson an examination of some 
better preserved examples in the Warren Anatomical Museum of the 
Medical College of Harvard University. The examination was made 
by Mr. C. S. Minot, who reports as follows : ‘ I have examined two 
eggs from the back of the Pipa, and found the embryos a little more 
advanced than that figured by Professor Wyman ; they are between 
12 and 13 mm. in length. The gills were partly absorbed, but a 
single slit with the gills still projecting could be readily seen on each 
side at the back of the head. I could not make a more detailed exami- 
nation, as the eggs were not well enough preserved.’ We may con- 
clude, then, pending the extended examination of a series of perfectly 
preserved embryos, that the Pipa does possess external branchiae at a 
certain period before hatching.” 
The more simple Sarcode Organisms. — The anniversary address of the 
President of the Linnean Society (Dr. Allman) has been recently 
issued in printed form, although it was delivered as long ago as May, 
1876. Still it is one of the most valuable memoirs that the micro- 
scopic world of England has seen for a long while; and we believe 
that the difficulty of engraving the blocks was the chief cause of the 
delay in publication. It is a resume of all continental and English 
work which has been done of late years on the subject of amceba-like 
organisms. It extends over fifty pages, and is illustrated by nineteen 
very capital woodcuts. It opens up quite a new field of work fur the 
English microscopist. One of the most interesting forms described 
in the address is one which was discovered on the Algae which cover 
the piles of the harbour of Odessa, by Cienkowski. It is exceedingly 
well figured, but there is this objection that the draughtsman has 
given us no idea of the magnification employed. However, the relation 
of the peculiar fusiform bodies to the filamentine network is well 
shown. But with regard to the Russian’s view of the relation of the 
plexus to the spindle, Dr. Allman evidently is more disposed to 
agree with the distinguished Irish naturalist, Archer, than with 
Cienkowski. 
E. Gundlach's New Periscopic Eye-piece. — E. Gundlach describes 
his new eye-piece in the ‘ American Naturalist.’ He says, “ My new 
periscopic eye-piece consists of a triple eye-lens, (two positive crown- 
glass lenses and one negative flint-glass) a double-convex field-lens, 
the latter being situated within the focal distance of the former, and 
