ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
Grust. 6 
gastric^l ganglia, and is retarded bj electric irritation of the thoracic 
ganglia ; the heart has its own nervous cells in its walls. Curare (a 
poisonous vegetable substance, made from Strychnos, used by American 
savages and by physiologists) acts slowly, retarding, or even paralysing, 
the movements of the body and members ; strychnine acts very violently, 
provoking tetanus for a comparatively short time ; sulphate of atropine 
causes slowness and trembling, but does not kill the animal. A chemical 
analysis of the ganglia of the lobster is added. Arch. Z. exp^r. vii. 
pp. 401-534, pi. xxvii. 
The brain (suprapharyngeal ganglia) of the crayfish and of Squilla 
mantis described, and transverse sections of it figured, by M. J. Dietl, 
SB. Ak. Wien, Ixxvii. Abth. i. pp. 684-603, pi. i. 
Digestion and Secretion. 
Chemical notes on the digestion in Crustacea ; Krukenberg, Unter- 
such. phys. Inst. Heidelb. ii. pp. 261-272. 
E. Wassiliew states that the renal organ of the common crayfish, 
usually called “ the green gland,” consists of three apparently different 
parts : a lobular brown-coloured part, situated above ; a green cake-shaped 
part, situated beneath and laterally ; and a white convolute efferent duct ; 
these form a continuous tube, the hinder blind end of which is formed 
by the lobular part ; he distinguishes, therefore, three degrees in the 
renal organ of the Crustacea : 1, a long equal smooth tube in Copepods ; 
2, a tube with several peculiar dilatations in Leptodora and some Phyllo- 
pods; 3, a lobular compound gland with convolute duct in Astacus. 
Circulation and Respiration. 
Note on the anatomical and microscopical structure of the heart of the 
common crayfish and lobster, by B. Dezso, Zool. Anz. i. pp. 126 & 127. 
The number of lateral slits in the heart or dorsal vessel is, in the Crus- 
tacea^ equal to the number of the gills ; id. 1. c. p. 274. 
F. Plateau publishes some observations on the normal movements of 
the heart of the crayfish, its innervation, and the effect of some toxical 
substances upon it. Assoc. Franc, vii. (Paris : 1878), pp. 731-739. 
C. Semper has examined the respiratory cavity of Birgvs latro, a 
terrestrial crustacean ; it is divided into two compartments, the lower 
containing the gills, the upper (much the larger) containing always only 
damp air, and having on its roof numerous arborescent excrescences richly 
provided with blood-vessels. These vessels originate from a common 
stem, situated at the lower part of the head, and unite into another stem 
which goes towards the pericardium, uniting there with the efferent 
vessel of the gills ; there can be no doubt that they are an air-breathing 
organ or lung. In the terrestrial species of Thelphusa, and Sesarma^ and 
Gecarcinus, the gill-cavity also contains air. Z. wiss. Zool. xxx. 
pp. 282-287, with woodcuts. 
J. VAN Rees {suprct] after recapitulating the observations on the 
respiration of terrestrial Crustacea by F. Muller [Zool. Rec. i.], 
