MUSEUM OF COMPARxVTIVE ZOOLOGY. 161 



of whose affinities the zoologist remains in doubt, a careful examination 

 of the ethmoid bone should be made. — Much might be said of the re- 

 lation existing between the size of the olfactory bulb and the degree of 

 development attained by the ethmotai-binal plates, — the bulbs, as has 

 been found, being well developed in animals having large ethmoturbi- 

 nals, and being small in others having small endoturbinals, — and of 

 the mechanism of the act of smelling, and the significance, in a word, of 

 tlie function of smelling in connection with habit. But any such ex- 

 tended discussion would be out of place in a communication planned as 

 this has been, and would in no way strengthen the proposition which it 

 was the original object of the paper to demonstrate.* 



* I may here add, that a careful microscopic study of the cells of the olfactory plates, 

 and a comparative study of tlie olfactory sense, and the tactile sense of hats as devel- 

 oped in the external nasal appendages, yielded at the hands of my friend, Dr. Francis 

 X. Dercuni, a negative result. The forms that were taken for study were Phyllostoma 

 hastatum undNyctcris Thcbaica. 



VOL. X. — NO. 3. 11 



