SH 349 



somewhat misleading; further he mentions that the vertebral column in Lophobranchs, where 

 the tail-fin is absent, is pointed behind, while in forms with a caudal fin the last vertebra 

 is provided with "deux lames cartilagineuses situées dans le plan médian de Symmetrie, l'une 

 dorsalement, et lautre venlralemcnf (both are really ventral in position'. 



Reoan (45 c, p. 5) remarks that, in contrast to the Centriscidæ and Araphisilidse (his 

 Soleniehthyes\ the "anterior vertebræ are not elongate." 



I'l p. 308 [42], The skeleton of the head has been examined by several authors. Curiously 

 enough some facts have been correctly slated by older observers which later authors have 

 failed to interpret properly, apparently because they did not know the previous literature 

 or at all events did not consult it carefully enough, every support from illustrations being 

 missing. 



Already Lackpede (31, T. Ill, p. 44, p. 60) correctly gave the number of branchiostegal 

 rays as two in Siphonostoma tijphle (and the Syngnathi) and in Hippocampus. 



Meckee (35, p. 343), speaking of the suspensorial a])paratus in Teleosts, which (with 

 exception of the pterygo-palatine part) he calls "Gelenktheil des Schlafbeins" and regards as 

 representing the quadrate of Reptiles and Birds in spite of his own statement, that it consists 

 "at least of two bones", says: "In Hinsicht auf die Grösse ist sie bei den Siingnalhen vielleicht 

 am ansehnlichsten. Hier wird der bei weitem gröste Theil des Unterkiefers nicht durch 

 das eigentliche Unterkieferbein, sondern durch sie gebildet. Das oberste Stück li. e. the hyo- 

 mandibular; ist klein und bildet kaum den dreissigsten Theil der ganzen Knochensammlung, 

 die aus mehreren länglichen, einander ganz oder zum Theil von innen nach aussen bedecken- 

 den besteht." With these words M. only shows that he did not partake in the old mistake, 

 involved in the name ""Syiigitathus", viz. that the upper and lower jaws were partly coalesced; 

 but M. does not attempt to analyse these parts which even to the latest authors have been 

 most difficult to make out and have almost never been correctly interpreted. 



The brain-case proper is not at all mentioned by M. But in the last volume of his 

 work, completed much later than the first vl833i, several more or less correct statements 

 concerning the opercular and branchial apparatus are given. Thus he correctly describes 

 the three opercular bones (p. 110); further he gives the number of branchiostegal rays as 

 2—3 in Siingnalhiis and Hippocampus (p. 118; later, p. 129, he says 3—4); he says (p. 1261 that 

 the hyoid only consists of one piece, that a urohyal C'das mittlere oberflächliche Zungenbein") 

 is present ,p. 135i, in Hippocampus very short and slender, and that it does not reach the 

 clavicles p. 142, 144); on the other side he does not find any glossohyal ("der vor der Vereini- 

 gung der vorderen Seitenäste liegende Knochen oder Knorpel"); it is absent together with all 

 the other unpaired parts lying behind the hyoid (the basibranchials, which he names "die 

 tiefe mittlere Zungenbeinschicht") or at most developed in the shape of a slender and long 

 cartilage (p. 145, 148). The branchial arches, which Tiedemann (Deutsches Archiv T. 2, p. Ill) 

 had declared to be cartilaginous, he correctly regards as ossified (p. 135, 155). The presence 

 of gill-rakers he denies on p. 162, but later, p. 168, be states their presence. 



Before the publication of the last volume of Mfickee's work Cuvier and Valexciexnes 

 (lO, T. 1, p. 296) had declared the branchiostegal rays to be absent, and in the excellent work 

 on the branchial apparatus in the Vertebrates, published about at the same time (1832) as the 

 6th volume of MECKEL s work, Rathke too was of this opinion (44, p. 6); and he — like 

 Meckel — thought that the hyoid consisted of only one piece (p. 3). Among fishes lacking 

 the copula for the hyoid (i. e. my first basibranchial) R. mentions Syngnalhus, while the 

 glossohyal is present as a slender rod as well as the urohyal ("Zungenbeinkiel") (p. 4i; he 

 found no basibranchials (p. 12), and no teeth on the lower pharyngeals, which are "schmale 

 und schlanke Bogen." On p. 76 he regards the opercular apparatus as only consisting of 

 one piece. In the tabular view on p. 20 he resumes his observations of the branchial skeleton 

 in Synyn. rondelctii in the following way: 



45- 



