developing them) represent amongst to-day's fauna, the Protracheata of the past. Surely it is a pity that the Ray Society did not adopt the suggestion of Professor Newton, at Norwich, to translate so interesting and suggestive a work as that of Haeckel. Rash his speculations may be, but they are of high interest, of much use, and are, at least, noble efforts to grasp truth.

The Glass-Rope Sponge.-The turmoil caused by this beautiful organism among systematic zoologists has taken a new direction. Professor Lovén has described a sponge which he calls Hyalonema boreale-placing it thus in the same genus as the Glass-rope; and from the examination of this Boreal species he concludes that everyone else has studied the Japanese sponge upside down. The long glassy fibres are, he says, merely the remains of a long pedicle which was attached to a rock, and on which the mass of the sponge was supported. Dr. Gray protests against this inference. Lovén's species is not a Hyalonema at all, but merely a new and interesting pedicellate form, to which there are many similar species. The Rev. A. M. Norman has pointed out several of these, and has shown how their spiculæ differ inter se, and from those of Lovén's Hyalonema boreale, which is also very different in this respect from the true Japanese Hyalonema, or from the reputed Lusitanian species obtained off Portugal.

A Viviparous Echinoderm.-Dr. Ed. Grube describes an Echinoid from the Chinese Seas under the name of Anochanus, which actually produces young Echini, like itself, having spines, feet, and even pedicellariæ. These young, though having a general resemblance to the parent, are not quite the same in detail, and must undergo modification with growth. This discovery is of remarkable interest, for it adds one more to the many diverse methods of reproduction known among Echinoderms, and completes the parallel which they present to the Worms. We now know, in both groups, of animals laying eggs which produce embryos developing directly into the adult form; of others which present strange larval conditions which either become completely altered, so as to form the adults, or bud off from their interiors a small mass of living tissue which becomes the adult, leaving the larva to perish. We know, in both groups, of hermaphrodites and of diæcious species, and now we have added a viviparous form of Echinoderm, such as was previously observed in some Nemertian worms. We have yet to discover among the Echinoderms the various modifications of asexual reproduction, by pseudova, fission, or true parthenogenesis; the first two of which methods (especially fission) are so well known among worms.

Parasites of the Sea-cucumbers.-A large division of the Holothuridæ abound in parasites, and oddly enough all these parasites belong to groups in which parasitism is quite a rare exception. In

the first place there are fishes which belong to the genus Fierasfer, these pass in through the water-tree, or lung, of the animal, they are true parasites, feeding within the Holothuria; then there are several small Crustacea; and thirdly, the Mollusc Entoconcha, described by Johann Müller, from Synapta. Dr. Carl Semper describes these in his work on the Echinoderms of the Philippine Islands, and also mentions a new Entoconcha which lives in a true seacucumber; he also describes parasitic species of Eulima; and most interesting of all, a little Lamellibranch which lives on the skin of Synapta, and crawls with a large membranous foot, whilst its shell is so much invested by the mantle as to be completely internal. An addition to the parasites of the Holothuroid Echinoderms was made last year by Mr. Ray Lankester, who discovered a very remarkable Rotifer in great abundance amongst the genitalia of the Synapta Sarniensis and inhærens, at Guernsey.

PHYSIOLOGY.

New Bodies discovered by the Spectroscope.-We would direct special attention to the very remarkable report of Dr. Thudichum, issued by the Medical Officer of the Privy Council in his last (tenth) Blue Book. Dr. Thudichum sketches in a masterly manner the history of past chemical researches into the functions and products of the human organism. He then describes some of his own researches, apparently carried out within the year, and which have yielded most extraordinary results. New bodies determined by their optical properties are described in this report at the rate of about three a page. This is rather rapid work, and does not leave a very satisfactory impression on the mind. Some most interesting fluorescent products from the chemical decomposition of blood, of albumen, and of urine are described, of which we are most anxious to hear or see more. The spectroscope used by Dr. Thudichum appears to have been an excellent one; but his method of examining only one thickness of a coloured body, has, we fear, led to some misapprehensions as to new bodies. Some of the spectra drawn as new are highly interesting and no doubt indicate new bodies, as, e. g., cruentine and its products; but others are old and well known to all physiologists, though Dr. Thudichum "reports" them as though previously undiscovered. This is a bad sign, and coupled with the hasty appearance of the work does much to diminish the value of what seems otherwise likely to prove a very notable and grand addition to the knowledge of animal chemistry.

Quarterly List of Publications received for Review.

1. The Medical Profession and its Educational and Licensing Bodies. By E. D. Mapother, M.D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. 230 pp. Fcap. 8vo. Fannin & Co.

2. Medical Education and Medical Interests. By Isaac Ashe, A.B., M.B. 170 pp. Fcap 8vo. Fannin & Co.

3. On Aniline and its Derivatives: a Treatise on the Manufacture of Aniline and Aniline Colours. By M. Reimann, P.D., L.A.M. Edited by William Crookes, F.R.S. 180 pp. 8vo. Longmans & Co.

4. Reliquiæ Aquitanice. By Edouard Lartêt and Henry Christy. Parts VI. and VII.

5. Guide to the Goldfields of Nova Scotia. By A. Heatherington. 170 pp. Fcap. 8vo.

Trübner & Co.

PAMPHLETS, PERIODICALS, AND PROCEEDINGS

OF SOCIETIES.

Die Darwinsche Theorie und das Migrationsgesetz der Organismen.
Von Moritz Wagner, München.
Williams & Norgate.

Memoirs and Publications of the Geological Survey of India.

Contributions to the History of Development in Animals. I. On

Foetal Circulation. By William Macdonald, M.D., F.R.S.E., Professor of Civil and Natural History, Zoology, and Comparative Anatomy, St. Andrew's.

Report of the First Exhibition of the Aëronautical Society of Great Britain.

Dr. Walter's Doctrines of Life. 28 pp. 8vo.

On the Temperature of the Sea and its Influence on the Climate and Agriculture of the British Isles. By Nicholas Whitley, F.M.S.

Some of the Educational Aspects of State Medicine. By H. W. Rumsey, M.D., &c.

Correspondence on the Subject of Atmospheric Electricity.
On Geological Time. By James Croll.

On Harvesting Corn in Wet Weather. By W. A. Gibbs.

Bell & Daldy.

Hints on House Drainage. By Alfred Carpenter, M.D.
Proceedings of the Essex Institute, Salem, Moss.

Journal and Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences,
Philadelphia.

The London Student.

The American Naturalist.

Mineral Statistics of Victoria for 1867.

Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, or Philosophical Society of Great Britain. Vol. II., No. 7.

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