Literary Notices. xvii 



Before this homology can be universally applied, however, the 

 aberrant teleosts must be brought into line. Here the post-hyoid por- 

 tion of the ventral musculature is supplied from the first spinals in the 

 usual way, while the pre-hyoid portion is innervated from the V-(-VII 

 complex. The question now is, What are the homologies of this pre- 

 hyoid ventral musculature (m. geniohyoideus) and of its innervation 

 in the bony fishes ? That it is not the m. geniohyoideus of the Amni 

 Ota seems clear. . c. j. H. 



The Nasal Organs of the Surinam Toad.^ 



This paper is welcomed because it is an addition to the slowly 

 accumulating literature upon the olfactory organs of a most instruc- 

 tive group of animals — the Batrachia. Here, if anywhere, are to be 

 worked out those problems in the morphology of the olfactory organ 

 which at present baffle the best investigators. 



If the results of this investigation are to be taken as indicatmg a 

 condition constant for the Aglossate group of the Anura, then the 

 present writer's theory ^ as to the revolution of Jacobson's organ from 

 a lateral to a ventral-median position seems to be supported. This 

 view claims that the diverticle which Wiedersheim found in Gymno- 

 phiona (Ichthyophis), which has a lateral position, is the original con- 

 dition of the primitive Jacobson's organ, and that in the course of the 

 evolution of the higher types it revolved from without inward to its 

 present position as found in Ophidia. 



Now the similarity of conditions found in the writer's examina- 

 tion of the nasal organs of the Urodela ( Amblystoma ), which are 

 probably arrested Amphibian types, and these anomalous Anura 

 (Pipa) renders this view still more probable. The words of the 

 writer whose article is here reviewed suggest a transition stage in this 

 revolution. He says, "It [Jacobson's organ] is the most external of 

 the cavities connected with the nasal organ and lies on a lower plane 

 than the rest" (p. 102). Rana presents a further revolution : in this 

 type Jacobson's organ "lies beneath the main nasal canal (cavum 

 nasale ) and extends inward as far as does any other structure connec- 

 ted with the olfactory region. In Pipa, on the other hand, it is not 

 covered by any of the other nasal structures, and it is placed entirely 



1 The Nasal Organs of Pipa Americana, by Irving Reed Bancroft. Contri- 

 butions from the Biological Laboratories of Tufts College, under the directions 

 of J. S. Kingsley, No. XVII. (From the the Bulletin of the Essex Institute, 

 Vol. XXVII, 1895.) The Salem Press. Salem, Mass., 1897. 



^ See Jour. Compar. Neurol., July, 1894, p. 141. 



