L66 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



described as a persistent young stage of Centetes ; in the history of the 

 Itli deciduous premolar of Hemicentetes nigriceps, there is a good instance 

 of " function-change," and among other interesting points emphasized is 

 the evolution of similar forms of teeth along different paths and the 

 I insistence of a hypobasal chorda dorsalis in the skull of /'e/itetes and 

 Ericulus. 



New Acanthoglossus.*— Oldfield Thomas describes a new long- 

 nosed Echidna (Acttntlioglossus goodfplloivi sp. n.) obtained by 

 Walter Goodfellow in the island of Salawatti. The genus has not 

 hitherto been recorded out of New Guinea itself, and there mainly or 

 entirely at high altitudes, for which the thick coat of A. bruignii 

 is admirably suited. The island of Salawatti is throughout comparatively 

 low, and it is not surprising that the species of Acanthoglossus occurring 

 there should have a coat much more spinous and less hairy than in any 

 of the forms of A. brnignii. 



Relationships of Sparassodonta.* — W. D. Matthew discusses this 

 interesting group of extinct mammals found in the Tertiary formations 

 of Patagonia. They appear to have taken the place of true Carnivora in 

 South America during most of the Tertiary period, as the carnivorous 

 Marsupials do in the modern fauna of Australia. The Sparassodonts 

 appear to be related to Marsupials, such as Thylacinus, rather than to 

 Placentals, such as the Creodonts and modern Carnivora. 



Kidney of Elephant.} — A. Pettit describes the kidney of Elephas 

 (Loxodon) africanus, which consists of a variable number of lobes sur- 

 rounded by a sort of muscular sacking. In some other mammals smooth 

 muscle-fibres have been found associated with the capsule and calices of 

 the kidney, and even in the renal parenchyma. It is possible that the 

 marked development in the African elephant may have to do with the 

 evacuation of the urine from the immense organ, but there are 

 no facts to prove this. The kidney of the elephant has,' as usual, a 

 " pluri-reniculate " stage, but the peculiarity is that this persists, though 

 with a tendency to a reduction of the number of lobes, in the adult. It 

 is intermediate between the " conglobate " and " pluri-reniculate " types, 

 and is remarkable for the system of contractile partitions. 



Comparative Anatomy of Tongue of Woodpecker.§ — A. Leiber pub- 

 lishes a monograph dealing with the structure, comparative anatomy, 

 mechanism and phylogeny of the woodpecker's tongue. He deduces the 

 somewhat complicated anatomy of this organ from the simpler relations 

 observed in the genera C'itta and Certhia, where the development is less 

 extreme but in the same direction. 



Circulatory Mechanism in Teleosteans.|| — Wilhelmina Kolff finds 

 that the propulsion of the blood is due not merely to the action of the 

 heart, but to numerous subsidiary factors — the negative pericardial pres- 



* Ann. Nat. Hist., xx. (1907) pp. 498-9. 



t Geol. Mag., iv. (1907) pp. 531-5. 



% Arch. Zool. Exper., vii. (1907) Notes et Revue, No. 4, pp. ciii.-xi. (2 rigs.). 



§ Zoologica, xx. Heft 51 (Stuttgart, 1907) pp. 1-79 (6 pis. and 13 figs.). 



|j Atti R. Accad. Lincei Roma, xxi. (1907) pp. 479-90 (5 figs.). 



