244 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



great distinction of humanity ; and the most pre-eminently 

 human of creatures are those that possess this distinction in 

 the highest degree. Consequently the most eminent of the 

 artists of the day is to be considered the highest specimen 

 of mankind ! 20 A, May 6, 1871, 517. 



OSTEOLOGY OF THE MAMMALIA, AND SERIAL HOMOLOGY OF 



THE LIMBS. 



The accomplished anatomist, Professor W. H. Flower, to- 

 ward the end of last year published "An Introduction to the 

 Osteology of the Mammalia, being the substance of the course 

 of lectures delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of En- 

 gland in 1870," which is one of the most valuable and satis- 

 factory compendiums hitherto published. Combining in an 

 eminent degree great anatomical knowledge, and that acute 

 appreciation of relations which mark the systematic zoolo- 

 gist, he has produced a work which is addressed to both 

 classes. Commencing with a summary of the classification 

 of the mammalia, he makes known, in successive chapters, the 

 general characters of the skeleton and vertebral column, and 

 its modifications in the various orders, considering in separate 

 chapters the cervical, the thoracic and lumbar, and the sacral 

 and caudal vertebra?, as well as the sternum and the ribs, 

 and in succeeding chapters the modifications, in the various 

 orders, of the skull, the shoulder girdle, the fore limb, the 

 pelvic girdle, and the hind limb ; and a concluding chapter 

 is given on " the correspondence between the bones of the an- 

 terior and posterior extremity, and the modifications of the 

 positions of the limbs." The subject-matter of the last chap- 

 ter has excited much interest among American anatomists, 

 some of whom claim that there is an antero-posterior sym- 

 metry in animals, and that in the posterior members the hom- 

 ologue of the thumb is found, not in the great toe, but in the 

 outer or smaller one. Professor Flower, however, contends 

 that " it is necessary to place the limbs (at least in imagina- 

 tion) in an exactly corresponding position one, in fact, which 

 is often impossible in the adult animal, on account of the mod- 

 ifications of the articular surfaces to suit the posture best 

 adapted for the habits and mode of life of the individual, but 

 which is the position of all limbs when they first appear as 

 budlike processes from the side of the body of the embryo." 



