Nos. IAND2.] ANATOMY OF SCOMBER SCOMBER. 47 



pleted, in certain details, by reference to sections of larvae, thus 

 reversing the method I had pursued in my investigations of Amia. 

 It, however, soon became evident that I had seriously underesti- 

 mated the scope and difficulty of the task proposed, and I have 

 been obliged to limit it considerably. 



During the course of these several investigations several staining 

 methods were tried, under the direction of Dr. Dewitz, more par- 

 ticularly for the nerves, but they were all finally abandoned for the 

 simple and patient use of the scalpel and dissecting microscope. 



The nomenclature employed in the descriptions is, with a few 

 slight changes, the same as that used in my several works on Amia; 

 where I adopted, with slight modifications, the terms employed by 

 Sagemehl and van Wijhe, because of the necessary references to 

 those authors' descriptions of the same fish. The occipitale laterale, 

 as there and here used, is, accordingly, the exoccipital of English 

 writers ; the extrascapular is the supratemporal ; and the exoccipi- 

 tale, petrosal, squamosal and intercalar are, respectively, the epiotic, 

 prootic, pterotic, and opisthotic. In place of Sagemehl's auto-pre- 

 frontal and auto-postfrontal, I have employed the terms preorbital 

 ossification and postorbital ossification, not wishing to introduce 

 definite and special names. The preorbital ossification is, accord- 

 ingly, the lateral ethmoid, or ectethmoid of English writers, and 

 the postorbital ossification, the sphenotic. That there are regret- 

 table features in the use, in English writings, of the nomencla- 

 ture thus first adopted by accident rather than intention, and here 

 continued simply for the sake of uniformity in my several works, 

 is only too evident. 



The term median is applied only to structures that lie in the 

 mid-vertical plane of the head, or in the middle line or plane of 

 some particular structure. Mesial is used to indicate the opposite 

 to lateral. 



The numerous specimens of Scomber used during the course of 

 the investigation were obtained partly from the Halles Centrales at 

 Paris, and partly from the iMediterranean coast from A^entimiglia 

 to Marseilles ; and I am not sure that two varieties, or perhaps 

 species, of the fish were not used. Certain differences in the 

 shape of the head seemed constant and were perhaps sufficient to 

 indicate a difference in variety. 



