Notes . 
393 
1879J 
microscopical and biological papers from foreign sources, and a 
list of similar articles in several British and foreign publications. 
Mr. Frank Crisp, LL.B., B.A., F.L.S., one of the Secretaries of 
the Society, has undertaken the honorary editorship. 
The Council of the Royal Microscopical Society have devised 
a plan by which other societies founded for kindred objects should 
be brought into association with them. The presidents for the 
time being of such societies, at home or abroad, as the Council 
may from time to time recommend, shall be ex officio Fellows, 
and shall receive the publications of the Royal Microscopical 
on behalf of their respective societies, and exercise all other 
privileges of Fellows, voting excepted. At a recent meeting the 
Quekett Microscopical Club, the South London Microscopical 
Club, the Croydon Microscopical Club, and a large number of 
provincial and foreign societies, were, through their respective 
presidents, admitted to ex officio fellowship. 
The microscopic phenomena of muscular contraction has re- 
cently been studied by Th. W. Engelmann : the results are given 
in “ Archives Neerlandaises.” During the contraction of the 
transversely striated muscular fibres there are produced, parallel 
with the change of form of the muscular elements, changes in 
the optical properties of the isotropic and anisotropic layers. 
These changes are of an opposite nature in the two layers, the 
isotropic stratum in its totality becoming more refrangent and 
the anisotropic less refrangent. In consequence, at a certain 
degree of shortening, the fibre seen by common light may appear 
homogeneous without appreciable transverse striae — the stage of 
homogeneity or of transition. If the shortening is carried fur- 
ther the transverse striae corresponding to the isotropic disks are 
seen to reappear. At any given phase of the process of con- 
traction, consequently even in the transition stage, the isotropic 
and anisotropic substances may be recognised by means of the 
polarising microscope as well-defined and regularly alternating 
strata. They do not, at the time of contraction, exchange their 
respective places in the muscular compartment. The thickness 
of both strata decreases during contraction, that of the isotropic 
layer much more rapidly than that of the anisotropic. The total 
volume of each compartment does not vary sensibly during con- 
traction. The anisotropic strata increase in volume at the ex- 
pense of the isotropic, as during contraction liquid passes from 
the latter to the former. 
Some interesting researches on electric fishes have been com- 
municated to the French Academy of Sciences by E. J. Marey. 
Physiologists have been struck with the analogies presented by 
a muscle and the apparatus of electric fishes. These two kinds 
of organs, both subject to the will and provided with nerves for 
centrifugal action, have further a very analogous chemical com- 
position, and even some points of structural resemblance. These 
