318 THE NATURAL HISTOET REVIEW. 



of the Palsearctic Fauna. The other, and more striking exception, ia 

 a species of the North American genus Plethodon, stated to have 

 been found in Siam by the late M. Mouhot.* In the latter case, we 

 cannot help thinking that there may have been some error. Either 

 the two specimens stated to have been found in Mr. Mouhot's col- 

 lection, which are the sole authority for the Siamese locality, may 

 have been accidentally introduced from elsewhere — we know 

 that such accidents do occur even in the best-ordered establishments 

 ^or we think it possible that the animal may have been brought 

 over to Siam in an American vessel. Certainly, further evidence as 

 to the occurrence of Tailed Eatrachians in Siam is very desirable. 

 "We are not yet quite convinced of the fact ! 



Of the worm-like Csecilians or Burrowing Batrachians, as Dr. 

 Giinther terms them, three species occur in British India. It is not 

 long ago that the late Johannes Miiller's discovery of the metamor- 

 phosis of these singular creatures caused their degradation into the 

 class of Batrachia. Dr. Grdnther's discoveries as to the structure of 

 the uro-genital apparatus in Epicrium glutinosum (see p. 442), will 

 probably cause their elevation to the head of the Batrachians, and 

 certainly tends to diminish the ordinarily insisted on distinction 

 between the Batrachia and the true Eeptilia. If Dr. Giinther's 

 views are correct, the middle portion of the cloaca in this species is 

 developed into a copulatory organ, provided with special muscles for 

 its retraction, and imitates a similar structure known to exist in 

 certain Saurians. 



"We now take our leave of Dr. Giinther's work, which on several 

 accounts we take to be one of the most important contributions to 

 Zoological science that have lately appeared in this country. It is 

 important, not only for its own sake, as a highly elaborate account 

 of the present state of our knowledge of a part of the Fauna of a 

 rich tropical region, of which we had previously no connected history, 

 but also for the results which will slowly but surely follow it. It 

 will certainly bring a number of new workers, who will now have 

 something to start upon, into a very neglected branch of Natural 

 History. It will also tend to wipe away the national reproach that 

 might have been deservedly cast upon us, of not caring for the 



* Cf. Gray, P.Z.S. 1859, p. 230. 



