1910.] Taxonoinic Historij of the liiscctivorcC. 235 



This expresses very nearly the conception of relationships held by the 

 writer. 



1874-75. Gill, in his 'Synopsis of Insectivorous Mammals' gives a full 

 review of the literature, taxonomy and osteology of the group. In the 

 classification adopted the suborders "Dermoptera seu Pterophora" (Gray) 

 and "Bestite seu Insectivora Vera" are recognized. In the diagram repre- 

 senting the supposed degrees of relationships the Bestise are divided into two 

 sections, corresponding to the later terms Zalambdodonta and Dilambdo- 

 donta Gill, the first subdividing into the Centetoid and Chrysochloroid 

 families, the second into the Tupaioid, Erinaceoid, and Soricoid families. 



1876-1884. Cope associates the Insectivora with various grou{)S, 

 especially the Creodonta, Mesodonta and Tillodonta, as suborders of the 

 order Bunotheria, a generalized Placental group. 



1880. Huxley emphasizes the "central position" of the Insectivora, 

 among the higher jNIammalia, regarding them as giving the ancestral char- 

 acters of practically all the other orders. 



1882 (1883). Dobson, in his monograph on the Insectivora, Part I, 

 adopts Gill's classification with the addition of a new family (Solenodontidse) 

 and two subfamilies (Oryzorictinfe and Geogalina?). He gives a very 

 thorough and fully illustrated account of the osteology, myology, visceral 

 anatomy, urinary and generative organs of the principal families, except the 

 Tupaioidea and Dermoptera. 



1885. Gill, in the Standard Natural History, Vol. V, p. 136, adopts the 

 terms "Zalambdodonta" and "Dilambdodonta," constituted as above. 



1888. Osborn, "while admitting the risk of systematic determination 

 upon the basis of such analogies" (/. c, of the dentition), holds that "we 

 cannot deny there is far more ground at present for placing the Stylacodon- 

 tidpe [a Jurassic family] in or near the line of the Insectivora than in any other 

 order." He accordingly names this group the "Insectivora primitiva," 

 i. e., as a suborder of the Insectivora (1888, p. 261). 



1903. Wortman removes the Eocene Hyopsodontida? from the Primates 

 and places it in the Insectivora. 



1905. Matthew describes the important tEocene genus Pantolestes 

 Cope (p. 305). 



1907. Leche contributes to his work 'Zur Entwickelungsgeschichte 

 des Zahnsystems der Saugetiere,' an important monograph on the phylogeny 

 of the Centetidte, Solenodontidfc and Chrysochloridae. 



1909. Matthew, in his monograph on the Bridger Eocene Carnivora 

 and Insectivora, favors Huxley's view that "the Insectivora represent more 

 nearly than any other order the central stock from which the various groups 

 of placental mammals have descended ". He shows that the Hyopsodontidse 



