200L0GY. 647 



jejuium killed a very fine lemur ;" (10) leucocy themia was met with in 

 a lemur, " the spleeu of the auimal having become enlarged to fifty times 

 the normal bulk ;" (11) " typhoid fever proved fatal in four cases, three 

 lemurs and one monkey." 



A " very unexpected cause of death manifested itself in bone disease, 

 in the form of typical rickets. Kext to bronchitis this is the most fre- 

 quent cause of death among the monkeys." For a detailed clinical 

 account reference must be made to Mr. Sutton's original communica- 

 tion. {ProG. Zool. Soc. London, 1883, pp. 581-586.) 



A new fresh-water Manatee. — It has recently been shown that not onlj^ 

 is there a difference between the African and American Manatees, but 

 that there are two species of the genus represented along the American 

 coast, one being that of Florida and the other found along the South 

 American coast. Still more recently, the mammals collected many years 

 ago by Dr. Natterer, the Austrian naturalist, so well known for his 

 travels in Brazil, have been worked over by Dr. Von Pelzeln, who has 

 now charge of the collections in Vienna of which the old traveller's 

 gatherings form a part. It seems that among' them were found speci- 

 mens of a manatee that lives high up the Amazon as well as the Eio 

 Negro, the Eio Brancho, and Madeira. It is stated that Natterer him- 

 self had perceived the differences between this manatee and the others 

 that are known, and had given it the name Manatus inunguis, referring 

 to its nailless fingers. The specific distinction of the form has been in- 

 sisted upon by Dr. Von Pelzeln, and theanimal has been fully described. 

 {Am. Nat., xviii, p. 941.) 



The fltikes of Whales. — What are the flukes of whales ? This, it ap- 

 jiears, is a question that cannot be satisfactorily answered at the pres- 

 ent time, and at least there is a diversity of opinions in respect to their 

 homologies. Do they simply represent a laterally expanded tail, or are 

 they the remnants of the posterior feet of quadruped ancestors? A 

 difl'erence in interpretation has long prevailed, and the subject has been 

 made prominent recently by some memoirs or addresses of Prof. W. 

 H. Flower. By some old naturalists, and even by Linnaeus, the flukes 

 were regarded as tantamount to the entire hind limbs. Not long ago, Gill 

 suggested that the flukes represent the hypertrophied integuments of the 

 hind limbs, while the osseous portions partially persist in the rudimentary 

 bones located far in front of them. Lastly, Professor Flower has again 

 taken up the question. " One of the methods," says he, "by which a land 

 mammal may have been changed into an aquatic one is clearly shown 

 in the stages which still survive among the carnivora. The seals are 

 obviously modifications of the land carnivora, the Otaria, or sea-lions and 

 sea-bears, being curiously intermediate. Many naturalists have been 

 tempted to think that the whales represent a still further stage of the 

 same kind of modifications. But there is to my mind a fatal objection 

 to this view. The seal, of course, has much in common with this whale, 



