RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 57 



Snake of the Genus Oligodon from Upper Burma " (Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. Parts 1 and 2, August 191 8) ; Lantz, " Reptiles from the 

 River Tajan (Transcaspia) " (ibid.); and Procter, "On the 

 Variation of the Pit-viper, Lachesis atrox." 



Papers on birds include : Riddle, " A Demonstration of the 

 Origin of two pairs of Identical Female Twins from the two 

 Ova of high-storage Metabolism " (Jour. Exp. Zool. vol. xxvi. 

 No. 2, July 191 8) and Slonaker, " A Physiological Study of the 

 Anatomy of the Eye and its accessory parts of the English 

 Sparrow (Passer domesticus) " (Jour. Morph. vol. xxxi. No. 3, 

 December 191 8). 



" On the External Characters of the Lemurs and of Tarsius " 

 (Proc. Zool. Soc. Parts 1 and 2, August 191 8) is an account by 

 Pocock of the results of a detailed examination of the external 

 characters of a number of different species which have led to 

 certain conclusions with regard to the systematic position of 

 these forms. Tarsius is removed from the Lemurs and placed 

 with the higher Primates. The Primates are thus divided into 

 two groups, for which the author proposes the names Strep- 

 sirhini, embracing the Lemurs, and Haplorhini, comprising 

 Tarsius and the Pithecoidea. The last name is suggested as 

 being preferable to the name Anthropoidea. The Strepsirhini 

 may then be divided into Lemuroidea and Chyromoidea. 

 " Neuro meres and Metameres " is the title of a paper by Neal 

 (Jour. Morph. vol. xxxi. No. 2, September 191 8), summarising 

 the observations based on the nidular relations of the cranial 

 nerves in Squalus embryos fixed in various ways. The author 

 concludes that " The nervous connection of four rhombo meres 

 with a single visceral arch (the hyoid) and of three visceral 

 arches with one rhombomere (the seventh) are facts not easily 

 reconciled with the assumption that rhombomeres are metameric 

 structures. If they are, the factors which have brought about 

 their present non-metameric relations are wholly obscure." 

 Stewart writes " On the Thymus IV. (so-called) and the Ultimo- 

 Branchial Body of the Cat (Felis domestica) " (Amer. Jour. 

 Anat. vol. xxiv. No. 2, July 191 8). More than seventy embryos 

 were examined and the author could find no evidence for 

 thinking that it is only the diverticulum ventrale of the fourth 

 branchial pouch that contributes to the epithelial primordium 

 of the internal thymic lobule of the thyroid. It appears 

 more probable that the entire caudal pharyngeal complex is 



