Lect. III.] FOSSIL MARSUPIALS. 83 



to us in a similar series of memoirs in the Zoolorjical Transaction^^. 

 Tliese, and many others come flocking to my mind wliilst I Avrite. 

 Having begun my own biological studies by the help of some of his 

 earlier works, I take pleasure in making mention of these noble 

 monuments of the labour of a long life. 



The great men who did so much for palaeontology half a centiiry 

 ago, of Avhom Owen is almost the only survivor, have now their 

 rivals in the present generation of American geologists, who are daily 

 giving us new and pleasant surprises. 



But, whilst one man will " cut Colossus out of a rock, another Avill 

 carve a head in a cherry-stone." 



Great as is the value to be set upon the work of our palaeontolo- 

 gical fathers, the work of the rising biologists is of still greater value ; 

 and that even with regard to the past history of these Metatherian 

 types. Palaeontology is good, but Embryology is better, for if all 

 Sir Kichard Owen's giants could he made to live again — an exceeding 

 great army — they would tell \is less of the origin of the Marsupials 

 than we should gain by the knowledge of the development of a single 

 germ of any one living t3''i)e. 



]\Ir J. J. Fletcher, B.A., B.Sc, has lately sent me two of his 

 ])apers, the beginnings of his researches into the anatomy of the 

 internal organs of the Australian Marsupials. These have been 

 published in the Pwccedinr/s of the Ldmuean Society of New South 

 Wales, Nov. 30, 1881, part i. (Introductory), pp. 796-811, and Xov. 

 .31, 1883, partii. pp. 6-11.1 



There have also come across the Atlantic, lately, two noteworthy 

 memoirs ; the first, " On the Embryo of the Kangaroo," is hj Dr. 

 H. C. Chapman (Proceedi7ujs of the Philadelphia Acadcm//, 1881, 

 ])art iii. p. 469), and the second, Observations upon the Fa' tat 

 Membranes of the Opossum and other Mars2ipials, is hj Henry 

 r. Osborn, Sc.D. 



The two papers just mentioned might, literally, be folded up and 

 ])acked inside a nut-shell, and yet, if I am not greatly mistaken, they 

 let in more light upon the incoming of both the Metatheria and 

 the Eutheria than anything that has gone before. 



^ On the same page (11) there is a paper by Mr C. W. de Vis, M.A., "On 

 the Remains of an Extinct Marsupial, a new Type," called by him Sthcnomcrufi 

 cliaron. 



