25!i Analytical Notices of Books. 



traordinary deviation of the artery as a consequence of their general or- 

 ganization, and more pailicularly of the very great developement of 

 their internal ears, which renders this change of its usual course abso- 

 lutely necessary. The paper is terminated by some cursory remarks on 

 the advantages to be derived from consulting the structure of the internal 

 ear, in determining the character of certain genera, and their place in the 

 series. 



The " Bemerkungen ueber ein paar Schleslscher Saugthierarten," by 

 Constantin Gloger, are the first production of a young zoologist, of whose 

 future labours in the field of science Dr. Gravenhorst, in his prefatory 

 observations, augurs most favourably ; and the paper itself, so far as it 

 goes, appears to justify the eulogium pronounced upon its authour. 

 IVeither of the animals described in it are positively new ; but the indi- 

 -cations on which they have hitherto rested, although supported in both 

 cases by the weighty authority of Pallas, were so imperfect as to have 

 given rise to doubts of their actual existence as distinct species. These 

 doubts are now, however, completely removed. Of the first, the Sorex 

 pygmceus of Laxmann and of Pallas, the smallest quadruped hitherto dis- 

 covered, weighing, when full grown, no more than thirty-six grains, and 

 measuring, in the largest specimens, only one inch and ten lines, from 

 the tip of its elongated snout to the origin of its tail, M. Gloger obtained 

 a -single specimen, which had been killed by a cat, fortunately v^ithout 

 injury to its skin. From the description of this animal, which is given 

 at length, compared with that of Pallas in his excessively rare work, the 

 Zoographia Rosso- Asiatica, it is clear that the Silesian animal is identi- 

 cal with the Siberian ; and a review of the history of the species, from 

 -the period of its discovery to the present day, proves that it is also the 

 Si,minutus of Laxmann and Linnseus, the S. exilis of Gmelin, and in all 

 probability the S. minimus of M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire. Much of the 

 confusjon in the synonymy appears to have arisen from the circumstance 

 of Pallas having first described it in his journey v^thout a name, and as 

 distinct from S. minutus, with which latter, however, he identifies it in 

 the work above quoted, where he also applies to it Laxmann's original 

 name of pygm<Bus. The extreme scarcity of this work, 2& M. Gloger 

 •observes, will in all probability account for the continued propagation of 

 the original error, which has in various ways pervaded the writings of 



