G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 245 



This primordial condition is most approximated, among mam-, 

 mals, by the flying lemur ( Galeopithecus) and sloths, and is 

 very nearly the normal position of some reptiles, especially 

 the tortoises. The chief modifications consist in the rotation 

 backward, from its primitive position, of the humerus, and the 

 rotation forward of the femur. Finally, " there can be no 

 question but that the carpus and tarsus, the metacarpus and 

 metatarsus, and the various digits, beginning at the pollex 

 (thumb) in the one, and the hallux (great toe) in the other, 

 are really homologous: the circumstance of the constant ab- 

 sence of one of the bones of the preaxial digit in both fore 

 and hind limbs is most significant." 



SKULLS OF HINDOOS. 



At the meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History 

 for March 1, a communication was presented by Mr. George 

 Sceva, in which attention was called to the fact of the short- 

 ness of the upper jaws in the skulls of the Hindoos, and the 

 frequent absence of the third molar. This generalization was 

 based upon the examination of a number of crania; and it 

 was found that about fifteen per cent, of the whole exhibit 

 this peculiarity, while in an extensive series of skulls of Eu- 

 ropean races only about one per cent, showed the same feat- 

 ure. 



RELATION OF MAN TO THE GIBBONS. 



Mr. St. George Mi v art, an eminent English comparative an- 

 atomist, and one of the few first-class naturalists of the pres- 

 ent day who positively oppose in their writings the views of 

 Mr. Darwin as to the modus operandi of evolution, has late- 

 ly called attention, in Nature, to the omission, on the part of 

 that gentleman, to cite the species of monkey actually most 

 nearly related to man, in his opinion. According to his view, 

 it is in -the gibbons, or long-armed apes, of the genus Hylo- 

 bates, that the closest affinities to the human structure are to 

 be met with ; and although, there are, perhaps, more points 

 of apparent relationship between man and the chimpanzee, 

 gorilla, or orang, than between man and the gibbon, yet there 

 are certain points in which the latter genus resembles Homo 

 in a more striking; and significant degree. Although the 

 enormous length of the arms of the gibbon apparently dis- 



