174 DR. G. BAUR. 



periotic, as well as from the scale of the temporal, in a skull 

 of Hydrochoerus, which we have under observation." 



Thus Duvernoy, more than forty years ago, partly 

 on the same grounds as Albrecht, arrived at the 

 same conclusion as he did. 



I now turn to Dollo's researches. He says : ff It is sufficient 

 for me to find in Uromastix and its allies a malleus, which 

 is homologous with that of the Mammalia." 



Unfortunately, I cannot grant to Dollo the right of having 

 just discovered this fact. This belongs to Peters, 1 who had, 

 indeed, nearly ten years previously, found this, and very dis- 

 tinctly, in Uromastix. 



Afterwards, Peters pointed out that in Sphenodon a true 

 malleus is present, which Huxley 3 had interpreted as the outer 

 stapes-cartilage. 



Peters says, on pages 43, 44 of his paper : " For the pur- 

 pose of this research I availed myself, for comparison, of an 

 example of Uromastix spinipes from Egypt; in this reptile, 

 the relation of the cartilage, described by me as a malleus, with 

 the lower jaw or Meckel's cartilage, remains so very distinct 

 without any preparation that anyone will easily be able to 

 form an opinion on the point in question by simply examining 

 this very common form, which ought scarcely to be absent 

 in any collection. When the head has been removed the stapes 

 will readily be seen lying exposed, in the same way as in 

 Sphenodon, by the side of the exoccipital bone. But in 

 Uromastix it does not lie so near this bone as in Sphenodon, 

 and especially at its outer end, where it passes round under the 

 inner edge of the quadrate bone to unite itself in an articular 

 pit, with the head of the cartilaginous malleus. The body of 

 the malleus consists of a cylindrical piece, which fixes itself at 

 the tympanum, and here ends in a small plate, the longer part 

 of which is directed forwards, whilst the shorter end approaches 



1 W. Peters, " Uber die Gekorknockelcken und ihre Verkaltniss zu den 

 ersten Zungenbeinbogen bei Sphenoden punctatus," ' Monatsber. d. k. 

 preuss. Akad. d. Wiss.,' Berlin, 1874, p. 40. 



2 "On the Malleus and Incus, &c.," 'Proc. Zool. Soc.,' Lond., 1869. 



