570 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Swim-bladder and Lungs.* — J. Graham Kerr supports the hypo- 

 thesis of SagemehJ that the condition in which there exists a pair of 

 lungs with a mid-venl ral glottis is the primitive one. Sagemehl supposed 

 that with increasing predominance of the hydrostatic function of the 

 lungs in fish-like forms, one was lost, and the other passed up dorsally. 

 The author shows that this is supported by various facts in the develop- 

 ment of Crossopterygians and Dipnoans. 



Function of Spleen in Fishes.f — R. Blumenthal has studied the 

 role of the spleen in skate, dogfish, conger, sole, sand-eel and other 

 fishes. He finds evidence that it is the normal place for the destruction 

 of red blood-corpuscles. 



New Sub-order of Fishes.}— E. C. Starke defines a new sub-order, 

 Atalaxia, for the reception of the Stylephoridse, a family represented by 

 Stylephorus chordatus. The first specimen of this remarkable fish was 

 obtained about 1790, in the Western Atlantic between Cuba and 

 Martinique ; the second specimen — on which Starks 1 paper is based — was 

 obtained by the Agassiz Expedition (1904-5), just south of the Galapagos 

 Islands. 



The vertebra? consist of centra only ; the opposite halves of the 

 hyoid are remote from each other ; the palato-quadrate bar has atrophied ; 

 the ethmoid is far anterior to the vomer, and supported by a pro- 

 jection from the parasphenoid ; there is no orbitosphenoid ; the caudal 

 fin is divided and part of the rays turned upward : the lower three are 

 enlarged and produced backward into a long process. 



This remarkable aberrant form has some, probably distant, affinities 

 with the Taeniosomi (including Trachypteridre) and Regalecidse. 

 Its affinity is shown, for instance, by the poorly ossified skeleton, the 

 horizontal pectoral base, the upturned caudal fin, the absence of cross 

 articulations in the dorsal rays, the reduction of the lower pharyngeals, 

 the presence of four pairs of superior pharyngeals, and the ascending 

 processes on maxillae as well as on premaxillas. 



Copulatory Appendages of Lasviraia oxyrhynchus.§ — 0. Huber 

 describes the skeleton and musculature of this " clasper," which comes 

 nearest to that of Bain bulk. On the knife-like edge of one of the 

 cartilages there is a saw-like row of eight sharp teeth, covered with 

 chondrodentin. They are not separate pieces like denticles, but re- 

 present a marginal modification of the cartilage. No similar speciali- 

 sation is known. Huber comments on the specific distinctiveness of 

 the structure of these copulatory appendages, and on their individual 

 variability. 



Species of Trout.|| — A. Cligny points out that a young sea-trout 

 cannot be distinguished from a young common trout, though the adult 

 forms are readily distinguished. He gives evidence in support of the 



* Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edinburgh, xvii. (190S) pp. 170-4 (2 figs.). 



t ComptesRendus, cxlvi. (190S)/pp. 190-1. 



J Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard, lii. (1908) pp. 17-22 (5 pis.). 



§ Zool. Anzeig., xxxii. (1908) pp. 717-20 (4 figs.). 



|| Comptes Rendus, cxlv. (1907) pp. 1302-4. 



