Nova Acta Academie Nature Curiosorum. 473 
doctrine of unity of composition, since so strenuously inculcated by many 
of his countrymen, and adopted by a large and increasing school in 
France and England, was maintained by Geethe long before the close of 
the last century, not merely as a bold and speculative hypothesis, but as 
a theory resting on the detailed investigation of facts. Among these 
one of the most obvious, which forms the basis of the Memoir before us, 
was the existence in man, as well as in other Mammalia, of inter- 
maxillary bones, capable of ready demonstration, although at that time 
~ denied by the almost universal voice of human anatomists. The plates 
which accompany the Memoir exhibit a comparative view of these bones 
in the roebuck, the ox, the camel, the horse, the babyrussa, the lion, 
the polar bear, the wolf, the walruss, a monkey, and man; and prove 
how attentively and how successfully the youthful philosopher had studied 
the limited materials within his reach, It is unnecessary to enter into the 
details of a question on which no difference of opinion can any longer exist; 
but it may not be uninteresting to observe, in addition, that so early as 
the year 1791 Goethe appears to have arrived at the conclusion that the 
bones of the head were reducible to six vertebre, and that consequently 
the long agitated question as to the right of priority in this hypothesis is 
completely set at rest. } 
Dr. Barkow’s paper ‘ Ueber angebornen Mangel des Unterkiefers bei 
‘* Saugethieren,”’ is an interesting addition to the history of monstrosity 
in the “higher animals. It offers a detailed account of the external 
appearances and internal anatomy in two cases of congenital absence of 
the lower jaw in lambs, and compares these with the particulars of 
similar cases furnished by previous writers. The modifications in various 
parts of the structure of the animals coincident with this mal-formation 
are carefully described; and figures of the head, and of the separate 
parts, in different aspects, give a clear idea of the peculiarities observed. 
For the details of these, which are stated with great minuteness, the 
paper itself must be consulted, 
Dr. Rosenthal’s contributions ‘* zur Anatomie der Seehunde’’ are 
interesting as the last labour of an excellent observer, whose anatomical 
researches, especially as regards the structure of fishes, are deserving of 
