370 Analytical Notices of Books. 
a very curious, although for the present an isolated, observation indicative 
of the early period at which the embryo may exhibit a monstrous forma- 
tion. Among the ova contained in the uterus of a sow, and which from 
their magnitude and degree of development, appeared to have just passed 
the third week of their growth, Dr. Von Baer observed one of much 
smaller size, but which, on being opened, was found to contain two 
diminutive saccul’, having the appearance of hydatids. In one of these 
sacs, the larger of the two, was found an embryo, deficient in the skull ; 
and in the other, which was extremely minute, a second without any 
vestige of head and destitute also of the anterior part of the body. In 
both these embryos, notwithstanding their small size, the developement 
of the abdomen and limbs was such as to evince that they had been 
expelled from the ovary at the same time with the other ova among which 
they were found. The authour thinks it improbable that these embryos 
could ever have attained their full growth; and states his belief that the 
deficiency of skull and head at so early a period can only be accounted 
for by assuming this monstrosity to have its origin in the ovary itself, 
although the want of skull may also frequently be the consequence of 
hydrocephalus. 
In a paper “ Ueber die geheilte Verletzung eines Fossilen Hyznen- 
‘© Schedels,”’ by Samuel Thomas von Scemmering, we have an exposition 
of some of the latest opinions of that great anatomist on the subject of 
fossil bones. The object of the paper is to illustrate the fossil skull of a 
hyzna, remarkable for an extensive fracture of its occipital crest, which 
had entirely healed, although in a very irregular manner. Of this skull 
some account had previously been given both by M. Cuvier and by Dr. 
Buckland, who concurred in opinion that the injury was the result of a 
bite, inflicted, according to M. Cuvier, either by its fellow hyzenas or by 
the lions and tigers, the bones of which found in the same cavern prove 
them to have inhabited the same locality. Dr. Buckland does not admit 
the latter conjecture, and M. Scemmering agrees with him in thinking that 
the bite was received from another hyena. His paper commences with 
an enumeration of the places in which fossil remains of hyenas have 
hitherto been found, and of the figures of them that have been published 
from time to time. He states that fossil skulls of hyenas appear to be 
more rare in Germany than those of bears; and minutely compares one 
