Different Classes Of Animals Research Articles

Behavioral and physiological effects of capsaicin in red-winged blackbirds

We injected red-winged blackbirds ( Agelaius phoeniceus) subcutaneously with capsaicin, and assessed (a) changes in basal body temperature, (b) ability to discriminate warm from cool drinking water, and (c) sensitivity to oral and topical applications of capsaicin, a trigeminal irritant. As predicted from studies of mammals, the injections seemed to disrupt thermoregulation when the ambient temperature increased, and eliminated discrimination between warm and cool drinking water (Figs. 1 and 2). In contrast to effects on mammals, injections failed to observably diminish oral or topical sensitivity to capsaicin and apparently induced a capsaicin preference in two-bottle drinking tests between capsaicin and its vehicle (Fig. 3). Such preferences were context-dependent, however, since water was reliably preferred to capsaicin or vehicle in three-bottle tests. To our knowledge, the present work is the first to report physiological and behavioral effects of capsaicin on birds, and the first to suggest that the substance may have different behavioral and physiological effects on different classes of animals.

Conclusions

The collected evidence of the Symposium illustrates that sufficient information is now available to enable initial broad definition of the skin surface ecosystems for the different animal classes. As may be expected more is known about the ecosystems of classes (mammal, fish) and genera (e.g. Bos, Salmo) of commercial interest. A notable exception is the skin surface of the bird, about which, despite the development of intensive poultry husbandry, surprisingly little is known. The work to date on the morphology, chemical nature and inhabitants of the different ecosystems, however, provides only limited data on the dynamic processes, actions and co-actions occurring within them and the interchange of inhabitants between them. In particular, the role of the surface micro-climates in the development, survival and transfer of micro-organisms has still to be determined. Our present knowledge is thus almost entirely limited to recognition of the basic elements of the skin surface ecosystems and there is still a paucity of data on the variation between species, individuals and body regions, some of which appear to have specialised functions or like the joints of arthropods may be more susceptible to colonisation and invasion. Nonetheless, although the definition of the various surface ecosystems has by no means been completed, a stage has been reached where identification, classification and comparison of the defence mechanisms operating at the skin surface of different classes of animals can be attempted.

The interferons and their inducers: molecular and therapeutic considerations. 2.

Properties of InterferonCells from several different classes of animals, including teleost fishes, have been shown to produce interferon.4,112 One interesting biologic property of interferon is its so-called "species specificity," a term that is probably a misnomer. Cross-reactivity between human and simian cells by heterologous interferons has been noted,113 and among a number of avian species there was considerable cross-reactivity within orders.114 It may therefore be more accurate to refer to family or order specificity. Nonetheless, it is true that, in general, interferon is most active in the cells of the same animal species that produce . . .

A comparative survey of steroids and steroidogenic pathways throughout the vertebrates

Corticosteroid hormone biosynthesis has been demonstrated in most classes of vertebrates, both Agnatha and Gnathostomata. Though comparative steroid endocrinology is still a young discipline, it is possible to group, tentatively, the different classes of animals according to the chemical nature of the corticosteroid hormones elaborated. In many instances these results were obtained in vitro and only on a limited number of representatives of a class. Thus our classification is only preliminary. Group I. Animals that secrete both 17-hydroxylated (e.g., cortisol, cortisone, 11-deoxycortisol) and 17-deoxycorticosteroids (e.g., corticosterone, 11-deoxycorticosterone, 18-hydroxycorticosterone, aldosterone). Most mammals investigated belong to this group, including subeutherian and eutherian orders. Notable exceptions from this endocrine pattern are found in the order of Rodentia, and some amphibians, both urodeles ( Amphiuma) and anurans ( Bufo), can be included in this group. Group II. Animals that secrete only 17-deoxycorticosteroids. The group comprises Aves, Reptilia, amphibians (Ranidae), and the rat and mouse (Order Rodentia). Group III. Animals that secrete only 17α-hydroxycorticosteroids. The few orders of Osteichthyes investigated can be classified in this group, but with some reservations, as both corticosterone and aldosterone were reported in bony fishes. Group IV. This chemically heterogeneous group comprises mostly chondrichthians. In this class adrenocortical secretion seems to vary from order to order. Thus, in the genus Raja the main, and possibly only, secretory product is 1-α-hydroxycorticosterone; the elaboration of cortisol was reported in the ratfish ( Hydrolagus), and of corticosterone in dogfishes ( Squalus and Mustelus). This tentative classification demonstrates that for adrenocortical secretion the same chemical building-blocks are used throughout the vertebrates. No quantitative classification has been attempted. Studies on the biosynthesis of steroid hormones in mammalian adrenals are numerous, but few reports exist on biosynthetic routes operating in the adrenals of nonmammalian vertebrates. The pathway acetate-cholesterol corticosteroids was shown to exist in birds, and the route cholesterol-corticosteroids in one species of bony fish ( Anguilla). Pregnenolone and progesterone are precursors of both 17-hydroxy and 17-deoxycorticosteroids in all four groups. Aldosterone is biosynthesized from corticosterone in all aldosterone-producing species; it is accompanied in most instances by the production of 18-hydroxycorticosterone. On the intracellular level, adrenal mitochondria were shown to be the main source of steroid 18-oxygenating enzymes in Mammalia, Aves, and Amphibia. These synthetic routes are found in mammalian adrenals as well. Thus there seems to be a basic uniformity in steroid biochemistry in all hormone-producing adrenal cells. The adrenal itself shows progressive evolution from the scattered secretory cells in fishes to the encapsulated and zonated organ in mammals, but no evolutionary trend is yet apparent in the chemical nature of adrenocortical secretion. Nor can obvious connections be seen between the type of hormone synthesized and the habitat of the animal. The full potential of steroid hormone biosynthesis may have been acquired with the development of an inner supporting structure, and from this pool of possible reactions each class, order, or genus may have adopted biosynthetic routes to solve its adaptive and metabolic problems.

Explicit estimates from capture-recapture data with both death and immigration-stochastic model

A brief review, with references, of the literature on capture-recapture theory is given in Jolly (1963). More recently, Cormack (1964) gives a solution, including asymptotic variances, for a specific situation involving the marking and release of a non-random sample of fulmar petrels. His model is stochastic and will be referred to in ? 4. Seber (1962, 1965) has also produced some interesting solutions, and these together with Darroch (1958, 1959) are most directly relevant to our present problem. Darroch (1958, 1959) shows that in a fully stochastic model with either immigration (often called dilution) or death (or emigration), the population parameters can be easily estimated by maximum likelihood. For the more general case when death and immigration are operating simultaneously he derives estimation equations by equating certain observations to their expectations, but does not give variances or covariances for the estimates. In a later paper, (Darroch, 1961), he considers estimation for a closed population consisting of different strata. Seber (1962) establishes a stochastic model for what he calls the multi-sample single recapture census in which an individual cannot be recaptured more than once. This situation arises, for example, when the recaptures are made in the course of hunting or fishing. He allows for both death and immigration in the population, provides explicit maximumlikelihood estimates of the parameters with variances, and suggests tests for certain of the assumptions. In a second paper, (Seber, 1965), he considers a multiple-recapture model differing only slightly from that of Darroch (1959), with both death and immigration. Again, he provides explicit maximum-likelihood estimates of the parameters with variances. A test is also given for equi-catchability in a closed population of individuals with different capture histories. The first purpose of the present paper is to derive a general probability distribution designed to fit the majority of capture-recapture problems involving a 'single' population. The word 'single' here denotes a population covering an area within whose boundaries the animals (or, in general, individuals or members) are free to move and to mix with others of their kind, but which is regarded as a single area in respect of which parameters are to be estimated. The type of situation which is thus excluded by this definition is one where the population is split into a number of defined areas, and separate population estimates are required for each area as well as for numbers of animals moving from one area to another. The single population, however, need not be homogeneous but may consist of different classes of animals behaving in different ways. The other assumptions underlying the model are stated with the notation in ? 2, and the generalized probability distribution is derived in ?3.

Societies and Academies

PARIS Academy of Sciences, July 29 (CM., 201, 309–368). GABRIEL BERTRAND: Observations concerning the contributions by the atmosphere of sulphur to arable soils. Results of a series of determinations of sulphur as sulphate in rain water collected at Paris, 1931–1932, and of one year at Grignon, 1934-1935. The latter figure, although small, is sufficient to meet the requirements in sulphur of most cultivated plants. CHARLES NICOLLE and J. LAIGRET: Vaccination against yellow fever by the living amaril bacillus, dried and coated. The dried material was coated with either yolk of egg or olive oil before inoculation. Ninety-one persons were inoculated: there was no local reaction and no anaphylactic trouble. A single vaccination by this method replaces three inoculations by the current method. EMILE MATHIAS: Dauzere's theory on the conductivity of the air in regions exposed to lightning. E. J. GUMBEL: The greatest age, distribution and series. Statistical study of tables of survival. ALFRED LIENARD: The problem of the oblique derivative in the theory of potential. PAUL MONTEL: A formula of Weierstrass. PAUL BOURGEOIS and J. F. Cox:—The origin of comets. BASILE FESSENKOFF: A method of evaluation of the absorption in galactic nebulae. FERNAND BALDET: The resolution of Nova Herculis, 1934. According to an observation made at the Lick Observatory on July 4, Nova Herculis is double, with two com-ponents with 0.2 in. apparent distance. This is confirmed by observations made at Meudon on July 23 and 24. FRANgois CANAO: The study of intercrystalline corrosion by the method of luminous diffusion. D. G. DERVICHIAN: The interfacial tension between two liquids. ARCADIUS PIEKARA and MAURICE SCHERER: New experiments on the magnetic change of the dielectric constant of liquids. The large Bellevue electromagnet has been utilised in the study of the effect of the magnetic field on the dielectric constant as a function of the intensity of the magnetic field, the wave-length, and the angle between the electric and magnetic fields. E. FRIED-LANDER: The absence of natural p-radioactivity of beryllium. All commercial beryllium salts possess a marked radioactivity, but this is removed by careful purification, and it would appear that the pure products possess neither (3- nor radioactivity. MLLE. NIUTA KLEIN: The variation of the refractive index of non-annealed glass as a function of the time. The experimental results described appear to indicate that the variation of the refractive index with time is due to the transformation of the p variety into the a variety of the glass, a transformation prevented by rapid cooling. MLLE. MARIE LOUISE DELWAULLE: The system bismuth iodide-ammonium iodide water. ANDRE DE PASSILLE: The existence of a series of ammonium orthophosphates and orthoarsenates. G. DEDEBANT, PH. SCHERE-SCHEWSKY and PH. WEHRLE: The theory of the general circulation of the atmosphere. The average field of temperature. MME. ODETTE THELLIER: Condensation nuclei and particles in suspension in the atmosphere. PAUL CHABANAUD: The vomer, the ethmoidian complex and the peripheral path of the olfactory nerves of the soleiform Teleosteans. TIFFENEAU and BROUN: The microdetermination of ethyl, propyl and isopropyl bromides in the tissues of animals anaesthetised by these substances. OLIVIER GAUDIN: The comparative toxicity of the pyrethrines towards different classes of animals. Pyrethrines are highly toxic to Crustacea; with other animals, the toxic action is variable. MAURICE ROSE and HENRI BERRIER: The appearance of substances functioning as plant auxins, in the course of the development of Discoglossus pictus. JACQUES BENOIT: New experiments relating to the stimulation by light of the testicular development in the duck. CLEMENT COURTY: The magnetic micro-estimation of iron in the blood. MAURICE PIETTRE: The physico-chemical action of some electrolytes on the myxo-proteid of the blood serum. SERGE METALNIKOV and L. Y. MENG: The utilisation of micro-organisms against mole-crickets (Gryllotalpa vulgaris).

The interrelations of the mesonephros, kidney and placenta in different classes of animals

The interrelations of the mesonephros, kidney and placenta in different classes of animals

On the functions of the membrana tympani, the ossicles and muscles of the tympanum, and of the eustachian tube in the human ear, with an account of the muscles of the eustachian tube and their action in different classes of animals

The author commences his paper by making some observations on the general arrangements of the ossicula auditûs . The malleus and incus being firmly connected together by ligaments, are considered as a single bone, forming an elastic arch, the anterior extremity of which is firmly attached to the Glasserian fissure, the posterior to the anterior part of the mastoid cells. This arch is kept steady by the actions of the tensor tympani. The movement of this arch is that of rotation; and it is effected by the tensor tympani muscle. When this muscle contracts, the lower part of the arch, consisting of the handle of the malleus and the long process of the incus, is drawn inwards; by this action the membrana tympani is rendered tense, and the stapes being pressed towards the cavity of the labyrinth, the fluid in the latter is compressed.

Observations on the relation which exists between the respiratory organs of animals, and the preservation of independent temperatures

The author expresses his dissent from the prevailing opinion that the temperature maintained by animals above the surrounding medium is proportionate to the extent of their respiration; and ad­duces many instances among different classes of animals in which he can trace no such correspondence, and others, on the contrary, where increased powers of respiration appear to diminish instead of raising the animal temperature. Hence the author is disposed to regard respiration as a refrigerating rather than a heating process. The Society then adjourned over the long vacation, to meet again on the 16th of November next.

On the inverse ratio which subsists between respiration and irritability in the animal kingdom; and on hybernation

The object of the author, in the investigation which he has undertaken, and of which some of the results are given in the present paper, is to establish a law of the animal economy, which he expresses in the following terms: “The quantity of the respiration is inversely as the degree of the irritability.” Other authors, such as Cuvier, attaching a different meaning to the term irritability , have stated this property, in the different classes of animals, as being directly proportional to the energy of the respiratory functions; the purposes of which they have considered to be those of restoring to the exhausted muscular fibre its contractile power. The author of the present paper regards animal life as consisting in two essential ingredients; namely, stimulus and irritability; atmospheric air being the principal source of the former; the heart, where it exists, being the principal organ of the latter; and the blood being the medium by which these are brought into contact. For the purpose of ascertaining the quantity of respiration in any given animal, the author contrived an apparatus, to which he gives the name of the ' Pneumatometer '. It consists of a glass jar inverted over mercury, and over the mouth of a bent tube, by which it communicates with a water-gauge of one tenth the capacity of the jar. Annexed to this apparatus, but unconnected with it, is a glass ball, containing ten cubic inches, and terminating in a tube, bent at its upper part, and of the capacity of one cubic inch, and inserted into a wider tube containing water, so as to correspond in all its pneumatic conditions with the jar and its gauge, and to point out whatever changes may have taken place in the volume of the air examined in the course of the experiment, from circumstances extraneous to it, such as variations of temperature, or of barometrical pressure. The animal, whose respiration is to be examined, is placed on a stand and covered with a jar; and the carbonic acid produced is absorbed by pieces of calico moistened with a strong solution of caustic potass, fixed by a wire frame in the upper part of the jar. The animal, at the end of the experiment, is withdrawn under mercury, without displacing the jar; the space it had occupied is filled with an equal volume of atmospheric air admitted into the jar; and the volume of oxygen gas absorbed is estimated by the column of water which has risen in the gauge.

An account of a membrane in the eye, now first described

In this paper the author describes a delicate transparent membrane, covering the external surface of the retina, and united to it by cellular substance and vessels. Its appearance varies in the different classes of animals, and at different ages. In young animals it is transparent and tender; but in the adult firm, and stained by the pigment. In fishes, it has been described by Haller and Cuvier as the medullary layer of the retina; but the author thinks incorrectly, since it presents no character of nervous structure, and the retina remains perfect before it. The author concludes this communication by describing his mode of examining delicate anatomical structures:—He procures a hollow sphere of glass, between two and three inches in diameter, of which one fourth is cut off at the open part, and the edges ground so as to fit upon a plate of glass to which the object is attached and immersed in water; the sphere is then filled with water, and inverted over the object upon the plate. The whole being withdrawn from the basin the object may be examined, and the portion of the sphere filled with water furnishes a convenient magnifying power.

On the mode of breeding of the ovo-viviparous shark, and on the aëration of the fætal blood in different classes of animals

With a view to understanding more fully the structure of the Squalus maximus, of which Mr. Home has lately published an account, he has examined with attention that of the Squalus acanthius, which appears to resemble it closely in its internal structure, and has the advantage of being very easily obtained upon the Sussex coast, where it is very common. After describing minutely the external organs of generation in both male and female, the author traces the progress of the ovaria from the time that the yolks are no larger than peas, till they become as large as walnuts, when they pass into the oviduct. The number of yolks differs in different fish; and even in the same fish Mr. H. has seen five yolks in one ovarium and only two in the other. The oviducts then enlarge, and become exceedingly extended, and divided by contraction of its coats into three cavities, the last of which is ten inches in length, and is that in which the eggs are retained till the young fishes are formed, and capable of taking care of themselves. The eggs, however, are not loose as in the oviducts of birds, but are grouped together to the number of three, four, or five, in membranous bags, containing a transparent jelly, in which the young fish swims about after it is formed, with the yolk attached to its belly by a long chord, consisting of blood-vessels. If the bag be torn and the fish taken out and put into water with its yolk attached to it, it swims about; but if the vessels of the chord are wounded, it dies immediately.

XII. On the mode of breeding of the oviviviparous shark, and on the aeration of the fœtal blood in different classes of animals

That some of the shark tribe do not lay their eggs, but hatch them within the body, and that others lay them in the same manner as the skate, has long been known; but nothing seems to have been accurately made out upon either of these subjects, I am therefore induced to lay before the Society the following observations. In my examination of the squalus maximus, an account of which is published, I found that it closely resembled in its in­ternal structure, the squalus acanthius of Linnaeus, a fish common on the Sussex coast, which made me pay particular attention to the anatomy of all the parts of this species of dogfish.