ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 287 



abolition or lessening of the acuteness of taste may be found to exist 

 over the anterior and anaesthetic portion of the tongue for some days 

 after the operation. (3) This temporary loss of function may possibly 

 be occasioned by some interference with chorda transmission brought 

 about by a mechanical or toxic disturbance due to degeneration of the 

 iV. lingwlis. (4) A lesion of the trigeminal nerve may be associated 

 with disturbance of taste over the chorda territory without the necessary 

 inference jthat this nerve is a path for gustatory impulses. (5) The 

 trigeminal in all probability does not convey taste-fibres to the brain either 

 from the anterior or posterior portion of the tongue. 



Note on the Great Sea Serpent* — E. G. Racovitza discusses 

 seriously what Oudemanns and others have recorded concerning Mego- 

 phias, the Great Sea Serpent, and publishes a report of the observations 

 of M. Lagresille on a huge animal seen in 1898 in the waters off 

 Tonkin. That something remarkable was seen seems beyond doubt, 

 and Racovitza gives detailed directions as to future observation. The 

 Zoological Society of France has decided to send fifty copies of the 

 paper to observers in the region which Megophias is believed to favour. 



Largest known Dinosaur.f — Elmer S. Riggs describes the remains 

 of Brachiosaurus altithorax g. et sp. n., a herbivorous Dinosaur of huge 

 proportions from the Jurassic of western Colorado. The specimen con- 

 sists of the humerus, coracoid, femur, and ilium, all from the right side ; 

 the sacrum, seven thoracic and two caudal vertebras, together with a 

 number of ribs and other bones. The humerus measured 2 • 04 metres 

 in length, the femur 2'03 metres, and the animal was not only the 

 largest and longest-limbed of all known land animals, but is also the 

 only known Dinosaur in which the humerus surpasses the femur in 

 length. "Assuming that the lower fore-leg bones were proportionately 

 long, we have to do with a creature whose shoulders were carried far 

 above his hips, and whose fore-legs played a more important part than 

 the hind ones. Such proportions at once suggest arboreal food-habits. 

 Instead of rearing upon the hind-legs and supporting itself by means 

 of a ponderous tail, as were the evident habits of Brontosaurus and 

 Diplodocus, this animal may from sheer length of limb have been able 

 to browse at will upon the foliage of tree and shrub." It was the 

 giraffe among Dinosaurs, just as Glaosaurus was the kangaroo. 



Optic Chiasma in Teleosts.j — G. H. Parker has examined ten 

 common symmetrical Teleosts {Fundidus, Menidia, Gadus morrhua, &c), 

 and finds that the optic chiasmata are dimorphic, in that in some 

 instances the right optic nerve is dorsal, in others the left. In a 

 thousand cases the right nerve was dorsal 514 times, the left 486 times. 

 The two types of chiasmata are not correlated with sex. 



In the Soleidae the chiasmata are also dimorphic. In Pleuronectidae 

 they are monomorphic for each species ; in dextral species the left nerve 

 is dorsal, in sinistral species the right. 



All species of Pleuronectids that turn in only one direction have 



* Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xxviii. (1903) pp. 11-29 (3 figs.). 

 f Amer. Journ. Science, xv. (1903) pp. 299-306 '1 figs.). 

 \ Bull. Mus. Zool. Harvard, xl. (1903) pp. 221-42 (1 pi.). 



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