REMARKS ON THE QUESTION OF INTERCALA- 

 TION OF VERTEBRAE. 



G. BAUR. 



PROFESSOR H. C. BUMPUS ('97) has published in the last 

 number of the Journal of Morphology, vol. ii, No. 2, February, 

 1 897, a paper on the skeletal variations of Necturus maculosus 

 Raf. 1 Radiographs of one hundred alcoholic specimens were 

 prepared, and the variations of the number of vertebrae with 

 reference to the position of the sacrum were determined. G. 

 H. Parker ('96, pp. 711-717) had already examined 27 specimens 

 and found the following variations : 



The pelvis is attached to the iQth vertebra in 19, to the 2Oth 

 vertebra in 6 specimens. In one case the igth vertebra had a 

 well-developed sacral rib on the left side, the right sacral rib 

 being on the :8th vertebra. In another specimen the sacral 

 ribs were on the 2Oth on the left and on the 2ist vertebra on 

 the right side. Among these 27 specimens were found, there- 

 fore, two with asymmetrical sacral vertebrae, to which the 

 pelvis was attached obliquely. 



Bumpus' results are the following: 



1 " Maculosus " is the correct name given by Rafinesque in the American 

 Monthly Magazine and Critical Review, vol. iv, No. i, New York, November, 

 1818, p. 41 (Sirena maculosa}. In 1819 he called it Necturus macula tus, Journ. de 

 Physique, vol. 88, 1819, p. 418, and in 1820 Necturus maculosus, Annals of Nature, 

 Or Annual Synopsis of New Genera and Species of Animals, Plants . . . Discovered 

 in North America by C. S. Rafinesque. First annual number, for 1820. Tran- 

 sylvania University, March i, 1820, Lexington, Ky. 



