and its Natural Affinities. 371 
branchus, I became convinced that this genus is much more in- 
timately connected with Proteus than with Cryptobranchus. I 
would again repeat that appearances in these matters are ex- 
tremely deceptive, and that they are by no means to be depended. 
on in a natural system of classification. Such a system should 
be the result of serious study and conscientious investigation. 
I may hereafter give publicity to some results of my examina- 
tion of Menobranchus—an examination undertaken, in the first 
instance, solely with a view to my own instruction. It is to be 
hoped that Dr. Fischer, of Hamburg, will soon bring out the 
continuation of his researches on the anatomy of the doubtful 
Reptiles*. 
Some details relative to the anatomy of Menobranchus are to 
be found in Mayer’s ‘ Analecten fiir vergl. Anatomie,’ Bonn, 
1835, 4to, pp. 82, 85, together with figures of the skull, brain, 
and organs of generation of the male. This latter figure hardly 
corresponds with my own actual observation. M. Gegenbaur 
has given a description and figure of the carpus and tarsus 
as well as of the claviculo-scapular apparatus in the Menobran- 
chus. (Untersuchungen zur vergl. Anatomie, I. Heft. Carpus 
und Tarsus: Leipzig, 1864; II. Heft. Schultergiirtel der Wir- 
belthiere : 1865.) 
Meanwhile I will be content to notice that the skull and the 
hyoid apparatus, the’ conformation of the bones or cartilages of 
the shoulder, the disposition of the viscera, the form of the 
lungs, and the structure of the organs of generation appear to 
indicate that the subterranean and, so to speak, atrophied Pro- 
teus of Kuropey finds its representative im a robuster and larger 
creature which inhabits the lakes of the United States. It is, 
however, proper to remark that the number of the vertebre 
is greater in Proteus, which thus more nearly approaches the 
Siren; while the attachment of the pelvis at the thirtieth or 
thirty-first vertebra in Proteus shows a still greater departure 
from the Menobranchus, in which the pelvis is attached to the 
eighteenth or nincteenth vertebra, as in the Cryptobranchus Alle- 
ghaniensis : this latter condition differs but little from that found 
in the Japan species, in which the pelvis adheres to the twentieth 
or twenty-first vertebrat, and in the Axolotl and Tritons, in 
* Anatomische Abhandlungen tber Perennibranchiaten und Derotremen, 
von Dr. J. G. Fischer. Erstes Heft. Hamburg, 1864. 
+ “Tl ([M. Schreiber] ajoute qu’il est plutét porté a regarder les Protées 
comme des espéces d’albinos ou de crétins, que comme des larves; mais il 
faudra toujours convenir que ce ne peuvent pas étre des albinos d’espéces 
connues, puisque leur ostéologie n’a rien de commun, pour le nombre et la 
forme des pieces, avec celle d’aucun autre reptile.” (Cuv. Rech. sur les 
Reptiles douteux, p. 123.) 
~ In the specimen of the Japan Cryptobranchus dissected some years 
