ZOOLOGY. 641 



this breaking-down of inflammatory products, and on tbree occasions 

 pneumothorax has resulted from the rupture of a vomica." Even en- 

 cysted parasites may be mistaken for tubercle. After due study of the 

 disease and its conditions, i\Ir. Sutton reached the contusion that "the 

 disease had its orij>in in the food or at least in the alimentary canal," 

 and bacilli were found by " thousands and tens of thousands." The 

 viscera of such animals as had died of consumption exiiibited certain 

 lesions, and it was supposed that the disease was due to feeding on 

 fowls that already had consumption. Two animals aflbrded the means 

 for determining whether such was likely to be the case or not. The two 

 animals were " fed on birds' heads and viscera, and as their livers con- 

 tained ' bacilli ' it was fair to infer that they had accidentally contracted 

 the disease by feeding on tuberculous fowls." But " what the precise 

 nature and origin of these organisms may eventually turn out to be, is 

 of course very uncertain ; the matter is still being investigated and 

 must for the present remain suh judice.^' As to the monkeys, tubercle 

 was found only in three cases among 110 individuals that died ; of these 

 two were Rhesus monkeys and one a Vervet monkey, all Old World spe- 

 cies. In these cases " the disease was unmistakable tubercular phthisis 

 associated with cavities in the apices of the lungs, in every point re- 

 sembling the disease as met with in the human subject." {Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. London, 1881..) 



TJie Monotremes, egg-laying Mammals. — In 1799, Shaw ventured to de- 

 scribe, as a new generic type of mammals, a skin obtained from Australia 

 which combined the body of a quadruped with a bill resembling that of 

 a duck. On account of such a combination, Shaw was at first doubtful 

 whether it was not an artefact, but, seeing no evidence of the handi- 

 work of man, he proceeded, with some hesi^dtion, to describe the object 

 as a new s[)ecies, giving it the name of Platypus anathms. Very soon after 

 (in 1800), Blumenbach, in Germany, also described a similar specimen 

 under the name of Ornithorliynchns paradoxus. The name Platypus being 

 pre-occupied, the animal, for such it proved to be, bears now the name 

 of Ornithorhynchus anatinus, its validity as a true animal being estab- 

 lished. But later, skepticism was awakened on another point. It was 

 affirmed that this animal laid eggs, and, indeed, a couple of anatomists in- 

 ferred that it did from observations of its genitalia. Inasmuch, however, 

 as all other mammals were supposed to be viviparous, and in such the 

 ovarian eggs are excessively minute, it was thought by many that there 

 must be some error in the observations, or falsi ti cation. The assertion 

 was taken up and corroborated later by several observers of the animal 

 in nature, and an egg was even figured by Geoflroy St. Hilaire. Sev- 

 eral of the old naturalists, including Charles Bonaparte, on account of 

 its oviparity, regarded it as the representative of a peculiar class inter- 

 mediate between mammals and birds. A French naturalist claimed 

 to have found a specimen pregnant with young, but skepticism prc- 

 S. Mis. .'^3 41 



