i88o.] 
( 409 ) 
NOTES. 
Prof. Owen has communicated to the Royal Society a paper on 
the Ova of Echidna hystrix. In most respefts they correspond 
closely with those of the Oynithoyhynchus . The fission of the 
germ-mass, corresponding to that described by Barry and Bis- 
choff in the rabbit’s ovum, strengthens the conclusion that the 
Monotyemata are viviparous. The funaional equality of both 
uteri in the genus Echidna corresponds with the equal develop- 
ment of the right with the left female organs, in which it differs 
anatomically from the Oynithoyhynchus. 
Messrs. H. T. Brown and J. Heron have laid before the Royal 
Society a memoir on the “ Hydrolytic Ferments of the Pancreas 
and Small Intestine.” They conclude that the adtion of artificial 
pancreatic juice upon starch paste at 40° C. is similar to that of 
unheated malt-extracft afting at 6o° or under, the composition of 
the starch-produdts becoming comparatively stationary when 
8o*8 per cent of maltose has been produced. Neither artificial 
pancreatic juice nor the tissue of the gland itself contains any 
ferment capable of inverting cane-sugar. The small intestine is 
capable of hydrolising maltose, inverting cane-sugar, and adting 
feebly as an amylolytic ferment. The adtion of the tissue of the 
small intestine in bringing about these changes is far greater 
than that of its mere aqueous infusion, and differs materially in 
different regions of the intestine. This variability is independent 
of the relative frequency either of the glands of Lieberkiihn or 
of those of Brunner, but appears to be correlative with the dis- 
tribution of Peyer’s glands. In the transition from colloidal 
starch to readily diffusible and easily assimilated dextrose, the 
adtions of the pancreas and Peyer’s glands are mutually de- 
pendent and complementary. The pancreas readily converts the 
starch to maltose, but is capable only of a very slow transforma- 
tion of the resulting maltose to dextrose. Peyer’s glands, almost 
powerless upon starch, take up the work when the pancreatic 
juice almost ceases to adt, and complete the conversion into 
dextrose. 
Dr. J. Burdon-Sanderson, F.R.S., and Mr. F. J. M. Page, 
B.Sc., have submitted to the Royal Society the results of expe- 
rimental researches on the time-relations of the excitatory process 
in the ventricle of the heart of the frog. The fadls observed 
agree with the following theories : — Every excited part is nega- 
tive to every unexcited part as long as the state of excitation 
