368 NATURAL SCIENCE. June, 



the former are the highest of the Order and the latter the lowest, or 

 vice versa. And are the Aplodontia to be considered as intermediate 

 between the Sciuromorpha and the Myomorpha, as their place in the 

 list seems to imply ? 



Where unfamiliar names are introduced, on the ground of priority, 

 care has been taken to add the better-known terms in brackets. In 

 matters of nomenclature we agree that there is dura lex sed lex ; but 

 there is a limit to everything, and Coendou, for example, is beyond 

 that limit, since it is merely a gallicised barbarism. 



This " Attempt," however, must we repeat, be taken for what it 

 is meant, and here we think that not only the category of persons 

 mentioned by the author will be thankful to him, but the paper will 

 be still more appreciated by all specialists of the Order. Numbers 

 of genera have not been known hitherto otherwise than by quite 

 insufficient diagnoses, the authors being apparently themselves often 

 uncertain where to place them. In several instances of this kind, 

 amongst the Murida, the present list is quite a revelation ; and so is 

 the assigning to Typhlomys its place side by side with Platacanthomys. 



Only, what Mr. Thomas has given us, is not enough ; it must 

 do for the present, but we want something more from him hereafter. 

 We want a Catalogue of Rodentia, a work which can only be done with 

 the help of the material in the British Museum ; and the scientific 

 world is entitled to claim it as a right from the authorities of that 

 establishment. Not only is no specialist living so well situated as 

 Mr. Thomas for such an undertaking, but at the same time none is so 

 well qualified for it as himself. 



" Guts and Other Charnel-house Stuff." 



Dr. Gadow showed us long since that, though despised and 

 spurned by Ruskin, the " more uncomely parts " of our feathered 

 friends are as capable of affording us valuable material for study as is 

 their more pleasing exterior. 



Mr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, in a paper in the Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society for January, i8g6, attacks the study of intestinal 

 convolutions from a different standpoint, but with results very similar 

 to those of Dr. Gadow. 



The method of procedure differs entirely from that of Gadow. 

 The intestinal tract is removed from the body-cavity after section of 

 the oesophagus and rectum. The stomach is then placed to the 

 right, ventral surface uppermost, and the loops of the intestine are 

 carefully displayed. Three principal loops are now distinguishable : 

 (i) the duodenal loop, (2) the circular loop, and (3) the rectal loop: 

 and each of these loops possesses some characteristic feature. 



The duodenal loop is usually a simple loop containing the 

 pancreas, but it may be expanded into a branching system of folds, or 

 form spirally twisted coils. Its vein is the anterior mesenteric. 

 Branches from this, bridging the intermediate space, supply part of 



