158 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Agriotype of Domestic Asses.* — R. I. Pocock calls attention to 

 the large black or dark brown patch which almost always marks the base 

 of the ear in domestic asses. So constant is this feature that it is im- 

 possible to avoid the conclusion that it has been inherited from their 

 ancestral form. If this be so, that ancestral form was not E. asinus 

 africanus, nor E. asinus tseniopus, nor E. asinus somaliensis, in which 

 the ears are decidedly black or brown behind or at the tip, the basal 

 patch being evanescent. There is some evidence of a Nubian wild ass 

 with a distinct patch. 



Organ of Jacobson in Ant-Bear.f — R. Broom has studied this in 

 a recently born specimen of Orycteropus. As the organ seems to be less 

 affected by change of habits than almost any other, it is of great im- 

 portance in revealing the obscured affinities of aberrant forms. On the 

 whole, the condition in Orycteropus comes nearest to that in Marsupials, 

 but there are many points of difference. The evidence would seem to 

 point to Orycteropus being descended from a line of ancestors the earlier 

 members of which were probably allied to Marsupials, whilst the later 

 members branched off from the Eutherian stem before any of the higher 

 Eutherian types had been specialised. If the Orycteropus line ever 

 coincided with that of Dasypus, the two must very early have diverged. 



Classification of Edentates. t— H. H. Lane believes that the Eden- 

 tates transcend the limits of an " order." They may be regarded as a 

 super-order, comprising four orders : — 



Tgeniodonta (Cope) . Conoryctidre, Stylinodontida?. 



Xenarfchra (Gill) . . Bradypodida?, Megalonychida?, Megatheriidtc, 



Myrmecophagidae, Orophodontida?, Dasy- 



podidge, Glyptodontidas. 

 Pholidota (Weber) . Manidae. 

 Tubulidenta (Flower) Orycteropodidse. 



It is suggested that the orders diverged from some ancestral group at 

 present unrecognised, and that the Tseniodonta are more nearly related 

 to the Xenarthra than to the other orders. 



Seminal Vesicles and Infection.§ — R. H. J. G. Huet has studied 

 the seminal vesicles in horse, bull, ram, goat, etc. He finds that there 

 may be micro-organisms in the seminal vesicles of healthy animals. In 

 the secretion of the seminal vesicles of animals which died of acute 

 septicaemia the specific micro-organisms were present. Virus may be 

 transferred in act of coition. In artificially infected animals the virus 

 lingers in the seminal vesicles after it has apparently disappeared from 

 the circulation and from the parenchymatous organs. 



Mechanism of Respiration in Lizard. || — Ch. E. Francois-Franek 

 describes the costo-sternal and muscular apparatus in the lizard {Lacerta 

 ocellatus), and gives an account of his observations on the respiratory 

 movements. He also discusses the structure of the lung, its contractility, 

 the innervation, and the process of respiration in general. 



* Ann. Nat. Hist., iv. (1909) pp. 523-8. 



t Proc. Zool. Soc, 1909, pp. 680-3 (1 pi.). 



% Bull. State Univ. Oklahoma 1909, No. 2, pp. 21-7. 



§ Centralbl. Bakt. Parasitenk., lii. (1909) pp. 477-97. 



I| Arch. Zool. Exper., x. (1909) pp. 547-615 (61 figs.). 



