47] THE NASAL ORGAN IN AMPHIBIA—HIGGINS 47 
His conclusion is based largely upon the absence of certain cranial bones, 
such as the nasals, prefrontals and maxillaries, which are present in other 
Urodeles. Rudimentary nasal capsules exist in the larvae of both Speler- 
pes and Necturus, and in the former a completely developed capsule is not 
present until a relatively late period, correlated with its retarded metas 
morphosis, the individual often not transforming until two or three years 
after hatching. On the basis of the nasal capsule, I am inclined to regard 
Necturus as a permanent larva, possibly related to the other Urodeles 
through a Spelerpes-like ancestor. The retention of the larval characters 
of the trabeculae and of the planum basale can certainly not be regarded 
as ancestral, nor can degeneration alone explain the present structure of 
the capsule of Necturus. 
The phylogenetic position of the Gymnophiona has occasioned much 
diversity of opinion. Huxley (1875) stated that there was not the slightest 
indication of any approximation to either the Anura or the Urodeles. On 
the other hand, Cope (1889) even placed the family Caecilidae among the 
Urodeles, and regarded them as degenerate and related to the main line 
through Amphiuma; while the Sarasin cousins (1890) took the position 
that Amphiuma was a neotenic condition of the Caecilian. Kingsley 
(1902) discussed the views of both Cope and the Sarasins and established 
the conclusion, now generally accepted, that the Gymnophiona are to be 
regarded as distinct from either Urodela or Anura and placed in a separate 
order. 
The nasal capsule of Epicrium presents little of classificatory value, 
except that it presents only distant resemblances to the characteristic 
Urodelan capsule. In the presence of dorsal and ventral trabeculae, Epicrium 
differs from all other Urodeles where the alisphenoid and trabecula are 
continuous and form the lateral wall of the cavum cranii. In the earlier 
stage, which Winslow studied, the ventral trabeculae unite to form the 
planum basale, but there is no extension forward of the trabeculae into 
cornua as in Urodeles; although in my earlier stage, which is considerably 
later than that of Winslow, small processes occur at the anterior margin of 
the basale, the probable tips of the trabeculae. The solum nasale, how- 
ever, or floor of the capsule which unites the lamina externa to the planum 
basale, is a modified cornu, which in the older stage especially, is greatly 
removed from the position of the cornu trabeculae in Urodeles. The 
antorbital process, a lateral growth from the trabecula in the early stage of 
Winslow, later unites to the other parts of the capsule, as in Urodeles, 
bounding the orbito-nasal foramen. That the antorbital was at one time 
related to the parts of the pterygoid just posterior to it, is suggested by a 
sharp protuberance on its ventral margin toward the small independent 
part of the pterygoid; so that it would appear as if the processus antor- 
bitalis and pterygoid cartilage of Epicrium were at one time united as in 
