38o NATURAL SCIENCE. Dec, 



Since Professor Lankester's memoir on the subject, it has been accepted 

 generally that the entire avian valve corresponds to one-half only of 

 the complete valve of the crocodile and of the mammal. The valve 

 is attached by a muscular bridge to the wall of the heart, and this 

 point of attachment divides it into a long fleshy flap on the right side, 

 and a membranous, shorter flap on the septal side. Messrs. Beddard 

 and Chalmers Mitchell regard the septal flap as a valve corresponding 

 to the septal valve of the alligator : its anatomical relations are 

 identical with those of the alligator's septal valve, and in several birds 

 they have found a considerable portion of muscle present in it. 



The Anatomy of Chauna. 



To the same number of the P/oceedings Mr. Chalmers Mitchell 

 contributes a detailed paper on the anatomy of the Crested Screamer. 

 It is, no doubt, becoming more and more certain that the value of 

 investigations in vertebrate anatomy is comparatively small until a 

 large number of individuals in each species has been examined ; but 

 in the meantime a detailed examination of a comparatively rare and 

 isolated form like a screamer has a considerable value. Of the three 

 species of screamers known, Garrod has written an account of the 

 anatomy of Palamsdea ; Beddard and Mitchell of that of Chauna 

 derhiana, and Mr. Mitchell now compares C. chavaria with the others. 

 To anatomists in general, the most interesting part of his paper will 

 be the comparison he makes between the alimentary canals in the 

 ostrich, in the crested screamer, and in the Anatidae. In all three, the 

 dispositions of the intestine are comparatively simple, and are not 

 much modified from a primitive straight gut, but of the three the 

 screamer is least modified. Dr. Gadow has already made a memorable 

 contribution to knowledge of the alimentary canal in his series of 

 papers upon the taxonomic value of the intestinal convolutions, but it 

 is evident that the subject is yet far from exhaustion. 



An Autograph Portrait of Huxley. 



Mr. Thomas Whitelegge, of the Australian Museum, Sydney, 

 has been so kind as to write to us as follows : " I read with great 

 interest the account in your August number of the late Professor 

 T. H. Huxley ; the portrait was especially interesting. I send you a 

 copy of a sketch drawn by himself when in Sydney in 1848, which I 

 think you will admit is a capital likeness if compared with the one 

 you publish. . . . The original sketch is on the fly-leaf of a book, 

 ' The Pilgrims of the Rhine ' (Lytton), and is now in the possession 

 of Mrs. Deane, of ' Waimea,' Woollahra, Sydney," From a note 

 on this drawing contributed by Mr. Charles Hedley to the Austra- 

 lasian edition of the Review of Reviews, we extract the following remarks : 

 " Before he became a celebrity, the late Professor Huxley visited 

 Australia in the capacity of surgeon to H.M.S. * Rattlesnake.' Not 



