The Lymphatic Hearts (continuation). By Professor Ranvier. Observations on the Termination of the Motor Nerves of the Striated Muscles of the Torpedoes and the Rays (conclusion). By Professor Ciaccio.

Preliminary Note on the Development of the Blood and the Vessels (continuation). By Drs. V. Brigidi and Al. Tafani.

On the Isogenic Groups of the Cellular Elements of Cartilage. By Professor J. Renaut. (From 'Comptes Rendus.')

On the "Gum Disease" of the Lemon Trees (Fusisporium limoni) (continuation). By G. Briosi.

A New Field for the Microscopist (continuation of the translation of Mr. Kent's paper).

Microscopical Society of Dunkirk (U.S.).

Paraboloid Illuminator of Dr. Edmunds.

Microscopic Technics. (Extract from Dr. J. Pelletan's Practical Manual of Histology').

&c. &c. &c.

ANNALES DES SCIENCES NATURELLES (BOTANY), Sixth Series, Vol. V. No. 6 (issued in August):

Investigations on the Secretory Canals of the Fruit of the Umbelliferæ. By M. R. Moynier de Villepoix. (With 2 plates.)

Vol. VI., Nos. 1 and 2 (issued in August):

Researches on the Terminal Growth of the Root in the Phanero gams. By M. Ch. Flahault. (With 8 plates.)

Vol. VI., Nos. 3 and 4 (issued in September):

Researches on the Terminal Growth of the Root in the Phanerogams (conclusion). By M. Ch. Flahault.

Development of the Embryo-sac of the Angiospermous Phanerogams. By M. Julien Vesque.

BULLETIN DE LA SOCIÉTÉ BELGE DE MICROSCOPIE, Vol. IV., No. 10:

A Case of Parasitism observed on a Diatom. By M. Guimard. (With a woodcut.)

Ross's Patent Stand. By Dr. Henri Van Heurck. (With a plate.)

Analytical and Critical Review-of 'Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History,' 'Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society' of London, and 'Journal de Micrographie' of Dr. J. Pelletan, with "Contribution to the History of Ligula" and "Observations on the Rotatoria and the Infusoria" extracted from the latter journal.

Proceedings of the Meeting of the Society on 25th July.

No. 11:

Further Note on the Ordinary Microscope as a Polariscope for Convergent Light, and an Apparatus for measuring the Distance of the Poles in the Interference Image. By Professor A. de Lasaulx. (With a plate.)

A New Field for the Microscopist (the first part of a translation of Mr. W. S. Kent's article in the 'Popular Science Review').

Proceedings of the Meeting of the Society on 29th August.

ARCHIV FÜR MIKROSKOPISCHE ANATOMIE, Vol. XV., Part 2 (issued in June):—

Contributions to the Development-History of the Vertebrates. By Dr. A. Goette, Professor at Strassburg. III. On the Development of the Central Nervous System of the Teleostei. (With 4 plates.)

Researches on the Stellated Cells of the Tubules of the Testes and other Glands. By Dr. B. Afanassiew, of St. Petersburg. (With a plate.)

On the Connexion of the Anterior Eye Chamber with the Anterior Ciliary Veins. By F. Heisrath.

On the Blood-vessels of the Eye of the Cephalopods. By Dr. Jos. Schöbl, of Prague. (With 2 plates.)

On the Blood-cells of the Acephalæ, and Observations on their Blood-course. By W. Flemming. (With a plate.)

Note on the Injection of the Invertebrates. By W. Flemming.

On the Theory of Peristalsis. By Th. W. Engelmann, of Utrecht.

"Bismarck Brown" as a Colouring Substance. By Dr. C. Weigert, First Assistant at Pathological Institute at Leipsic.

Vol. XV., Part 3 (issued 23rd August):

The Genesis of the Spermatic Bodies. By V. la Valette St. George. Fifth communication. (With 5 plates.)

Contributions to the Comparative Morphology of the Skeletal System of the Vertebrates. By Dr. A. Goette, Professor at Strassburg. II. The Vertebral Column and its Appendages. (With a plate.)

The Acoustic Apparatus of the Organs of Hearing of the Heteropods. By C. Claus, of Vienna. (With a plate.)

On Tetrapteron (Tetraplatia) volitans. By C. Claus. (With a plate.)
The Architecture of imperfectly divided Teeth-roots.

Chr. Aeby, of Bern. (With a plate and a woodcut.)

By Professor Dr.

The Histological Relations of Fossil Bone and Tooth Tissue. By Professor Dr. Chr. Aeby, of Bern. (With a plate.)

The Development of the Egg in Batrachians and Bone Fishes. By N. Kolessnikow, of St. Petersburg. (With a plate.)

The Taste Cells of the Duck. By Fr. Merkel, of Rostock. (With a plate.) Supplement to the article "The Vertebral Column and its Appendages": 1. The Cyclostomata. By Dr. Götte.

ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR MIKROSKOPIE for May:

The Development and present Position of Microscopy in Germany (continuation). By Dr. E. Kaiser.

Contribution on Plant Crystals, particularly on the forms of Quadratic Oxalate of Lime. By Dr. G. Holzner. (With a plate.)

The "Plastides" of the Lower Plants.

The Rivet Microtome.

Minor Communications.-Orth's Course of Histology.'-Wenzel's Atlas of Histology.'-Programme of Fifty-first Meeting of German Naturalists and Medical Men at Cassel.

SIEBOLD AND KÖLLIKER'S ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTLICHE ZOOLOGIE, Vol. XXXI., Part 1 (issued 30th July) :

66

On the Siphonophora of Deep Water. By Th. Studer. (With 3 plates.) Supplement to Contributions on the Post-embryonal Formation of the Limbs in Insects." By H. Dewitz.

Contributions to the Morphology of the Oxytrichida. By V. Sterki. (With a plate.)

Contributions to the Knowledge of the Tomopterida. By F. Vejdovsky. (With 2 plates.)

Contributions to the Knowledge of the Natural History of the Caprellæ. By A. Gamroth. (With 3 plates.)

Part 2:

Contributions to the Knowledge of the Iulidæ. By E. Voges. (With 3

plates.)

On the Formation of the Blastoderm and the Mesoblasts in Insects. By N. Bobretsky. (With a plate.)

Researches on the Structure and Development of Sponges. 5th Part. The Metamorphosis of Sycandra raphanus. By F. E. Schultze. (With 2 plates.)

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY.

MEETING OF 9TH OCTOBER, 1878, AT KING'S COLLEGE, STRAND, W.C. THE PRESIDENT (H. J. SLACK, ESQ.) IN THE CHAIR.

The Minutes of the meeting of 5th June were read and confirmed, and were signed by the President.

A list of the Donations since the last meeting was submitted and the thanks of the Society given to the donors.

The President said they had the pleasure of seeing amongst them that evening Professor Owen, who was their first President, and who had come to read a paper which he had sent to the Society.

The President said they would no doubt all remember that some time ago, Mr. McIntire presented to the Society a slide of the perforating proboscis of a moth, and in connection with it they would also remember that reference was made to a paper in Comptes Rendus' which described at some length a moth which possessed a similar perforating organ, and was reported as doing damage to oranges. A few days ago, he had received from Mr. Green of Colombo, through Mr. Curties, a specimen of a moth which was also able to perforate oranges in a similar manner, and it was described as hanging on to the fruit by means of the proboscis whilst it sucked the juice. On examining this proboscis, he found that it differed somewhat from those which had been described, in that it possessed a peculiarity which he hoped Mr. Green would work out. It seemed that the proboscis was armed with a series of cutting hooks, having cutting edges on both sides, thus enabling the insect to cut its way out as well as to cut a way into the fruit. At the base of these hooks or spikes was an organ which looked as if it might be a ball-and-socket joint, and the spike appeared to pass down to its attachment with this through a countersunk orifice, which enabled the spike to move through a large angle, and when extended would of course assist the creature to hang on in the manner described. He hoped that the attention of those of their friends who might be living in orange-growing districts, would be called to the matter with a view to ascertain if there were any other moths of this kind to be found, which might form an intermediate link between the two kinds already observed, and which presented very distinctive characters.

Figures in illustration of his remarks were drawn upon the blackboard by the President as he proceeded.

Professor Owen, C.B., F.R.S., &c., then read a paper "On the Fossils called 'Granicones,' being a contribution to the Histology of the Exo-skeleton in Reptilia," illustrating the subject by a number of drawings, and by sections exhibited under a microscope (the paper will be found printed in extenso at p. 233).

The President, in proposing a vote of thanks to Professor Owen for his paper, said that all would feel the interest it possessed, although as the subject was quite new it was hardly possible for any discussion now to take place upon it. He was sure that the Fellows would not only thank the Professor for his paper, but would also join him in saying that they were specially glad to be able to give him a personal welcome on account of his long connexion with the Society.

A vote of thanks to Professor Owen for his paper was unanimously passed.

Professor Owen said that it might be familiar to them all that so many of the fossil remains which were found in the Mesozoic strata -both of animals, plants, and shells-belong to a class of which the nearest living representatives are now found at the antipodes. Those beautiful specimens containing the well known teeth of Cestracion were well known, and there was still living in Australia a creature exhibiting the same kind of dentition and which was described as going along the reefs and picking off the Terebratulæ and crushing them between these teeth. The evidences as to the Stonesfield slate and similar formations, showed that all the individuals forming the group found there were Marsupials, the only living representatives of which class are now found in Australia. He had often been disposed to say, that the further they had to go in the strata for their fossils the further afield they had to go in the world for their present representatives; thus these things which had been puzzling him for so long were at last found to belong to a class of creatures which were only now represented by the horrid little lizard in Australia, Moloch horridus.

Mr. Crisp (Secretary) read a communication by Colonel Woodward, entitled "Further Remarks on a 'Simple Device' for the Illumination of Balsam-mounted Objects for Examination with Immersion Objectives whose Balsam Angle is 90°" (see p. 246), previously reminding the meeting of Colonel Woodward's first paper on the subject which appeared in the M. M. J.' of August, 1877. The original apparatus as there described, and the two prisms referred to in the further remarks, were placed on the table for examination.

He also read extracts from a letter from Colonel Woodward, stating that "he hoped to have something to say to the Society in the autumn about the treatment of A. pellucida in balsam by objectives of moderate power, but excessive angle amplified to high powers. To illustrate the possibilities of the method, he had sent a paper print of A. pellucida in balsam as shown by a Spencer duplex, of rather more than 110° balsam angle, amplified so as to give equal powers with equal distances to those given by Powell and Lealand's. The whole frustule shown on the print was 0038 of an inch long, so that the magnifying power obtained was about 2420 diameters, and he thought it would be said, with very little distortion and good resolution of the lines from end to end. The striæ on this frustule were, as would be seen by counting the number to the inch and multiplying by the magnifying power, about 100 to the Too of an inch, so that

the test was sufficiently difficult. On the whole, the result seemed to him quite satisfactory, but there was a certain muddiness in the picture, due to the use of an old amplifier which needed repolishing. He was having some new amplifiers made with which he expected to get more sparkling pictures."

The photograph accompanying the letter was handed round for examination; it showed the stria with remarkable distinctness.

Mr. Ingpen inquired if any question as to priority in regard to the invention or use of this prism arose out of the paper. He had himself seen a prism with four faces, made by Messrs. Powell and Lealand, from drawings by Dr. Edmunds, which appeared to more than cover the ground aimed at by the prisms now shown.

Dr. Edmunds, in reply to a question from the President, said that, as to the prism to which Mr. Ingpen had referred, he had not thought it of sufficiently marked novelty to make it the subject of a formal communication, but he would be pleased to submit it to the next meeting. Upon the question of priority, it would be recollected that in 1856 Mr. Wenham described a small right-angled prism, which he attached to the under surface of the slide with oil or balsam, and used for oblique illumination. This application of a right-angled immersion prism was clearly due to Mr. Wenham. What was due to Colonel Woodward in his beautiful work was not the invention of the right-angled prism, but its combination with a pin-hole shutter, through which a small beam of parallel light could be thrown into a balsam-mounted object outside the angle of 41° from the optic axis; thus demonstrating that pencils outside 82° balsam-angle could be used to form an image if only the objective were of sufficiently large aperture. With reference to his own prism, he had had the advantage of working with that sent over by Colonel Woodward, and finding it difficult to manage, and that its corners practically prevented its rotation under the slide, he had had another form constructed by Messrs. Powell and Lealand, and this had proved most useful and very easily managed. It was made from rather more than a hemisphere of glass, of which the spheroidal surface was ground down into four faces making practically two right-angled prisms at right angles to each other, one having its faces inclined to the plane surface at 41° and 49°, and the other at 30° and 60°. The prism was set in a simple brass tube with a slot for each face, and fitting below into the substage. The faces were so arranged that an object in focus was illuminated equally through each face by light entering it at the normal. The upper surface was inch in diameter and was made optically continuous with the slide by oil or glycerine. By simply turning the substage, the prism gave unrefracted light at 30°, 41°, 49°, and 60° from the optic axis, and each angle could be varied a little without practical detriment. The light reflected from the top surface of the prism passed out through the other side at the normal, and thus glare was prevented. The prism worked charmingly.

Mr. Crisp said that the interest of Colonel Woodward's present apparatus arose entirely out of the angle of aperture discussion. Colonel Woodward certainly had never claimed and did not intend to