MORPHOLOGICAL METHOD AND IIKCENT ]'ROGRESS IN ZOOLOGY'. 589 



of the Elephant Shrew, a lowl}' in.sectivore, alone among- that of all 

 Placentalia known realizes the marsupial state, as does its accessory 

 organ of smell, we have to admit the discovary of annectant conditions 

 just where they should occur. 



The morphological method is sound! 



The master hand which has given us this result has also reinvesti- 

 gated the Lemurs. From an exhaustive study of the brain or its cast 

 of all species of the order, living and extinct, there has come the 

 proof that the distinctive^ characters of the lenmroid l)rain are intelli- 

 gible only on a knowledge of the pithecoid type; that its structural 

 simplicity in the so-called lower lemurs is due to retrogressive change, 

 in some species proved to 1)0 ontogenetic, and that the Tarsier, recently 

 claimed to be an insectivore, is a lemur of lemurs. It is impossi})le 

 to overestimate the importance of this conclusion, which receives con- 

 firmation in recent paleontological work; and there is demanded a 

 reinvestigation of those early described Tertiary fossil forms placed 

 on the Ungulo-lemuroid border line, as also a reconsideration of cur- 

 rent views on the evolution of the primates and of man. 



In dismissing the Mammalia we recall the capture during the period 

 we review of three new genera, a fourth, the so-called Ncoiuylodo)), 

 having proved by its skull to ])e (TPypotlierluiii ddrnun!!^ already 

 known. The African Okapi, an object of sensation beyond its deserts, 

 has found its place at last. To have l)een dubbed a donkey, a zebra, 

 and a primitive hornless giratt'e is distinction indeed; and we can not 

 refrain from contrasting the nonsensical statement that its discovery 

 is "the most important since Archa^opteryx" with the truth that it is 

 a giraffine, horned for both sexes; annectant between two groups well 

 known. As a discovery it does not compare with that of the Mole- 

 marsupial, and it falls into insigniticance beside that of the South 

 American diprotodont CamoleKifei^, the survivor of a family which there 

 flourished in Middle Tertiary tunes. 



Passing to birds and reptiles, it will be convenient to consider them 

 together. A knowledge of their anatomy has extended on all hands, 

 and in respect to nothing more instructively than their organs of res- 

 piration. Surprise nmst ])e expressed at the discover^' in the chelo- 

 nian of a mode of advancing complication of the lung suggestive of that 

 of birds. On looking into this I find that Huxley, who rationalized 

 our knowledge of the avian lung and its sacs, was aware of the fact 

 that in our connuon water tortoise (7i)j///.^ orhioi/aris) the lung is 

 sharply difi'erentiated along the l)ronchial line into a postero-dorsal 

 more cellular mass, an antero-ventral more sacculai', of which the 

 posterior vesicle, in its extension and bronchial rcdationships, 

 strangely simulates the so-called abdominal sac of birds. He had 

 alread}^ institutcnl com])arison with the crocodiles, and was clearly 

 coming to the'conclusion that th" ai'ranoement in the bird is but the 



