198 Dr H. F. E. Junffersen on the Structure 



ti" 



We come next to Briilil *, who in the tab. p. xxv, in 

 fig. 11 A, represents the " Vorn- (Dorsal-) Sicht des linken 

 Carpus und seiner Nachbarstheile ; " the carpal bones are 

 tolerably well given, setting aside that the markings of the sur- 

 faces are rather indistinct; the radial and ulnar sides are 

 rightly distinguished, and consequently also his numbering 

 of the metacarpals and their carpals is correct f ; but never- 

 theless Briihl commits an error, quite as grave as that of his 

 predecessors, having confounded the dorsal and volar sides, 

 and besides mistaking the riglit hand for the left ! His figure 

 really represents, as will immediately appear on comparing it 

 with ray figure 2, not the fore side of the left hand but the hind 

 side of the right. 



Exactly the same mistake is found in the latest publication 

 on the carpus of the Anurans by G. B. Howes and W. Ride- 

 wood J, whose figure 1 on pi. vii. is supposed to represent the 

 left hand from above of an adult Pipa, (J, and fig. 2, the 

 left hand of a very young specimen with the carpus not yet 

 ossified, but in reality both show the right hand seen from 

 the volar side. Hence these authors describe the sesamoid s 

 as lying ventrally (/. c. p. 162), place the process a; of the 

 great ulnar carpale ti + c^, the " postaxial lobe" (* in their 

 figure 1), behind the ulna, and find the coalesced bones of 

 the forearm in a quite exceptional position, tlie outer edge of 

 the ulna being " directed dorsally. As the result of this, tlie 

 radius comes to lie in the plane of the extended hand, while 

 the ulna lies above it." In reality the forearm is essentially 

 in the same position as in other Anurans, i. e. when the 

 plane of the carpus is directed from right to left, then the 

 plane of the forearm is placed obliquely to the former, with 

 the radial edge turned forwards and inwards, the ulnar edge 

 backwards and outwards ; only this torsion of tlie forearm is 

 still more strongly marked than in other Anurans ; and the 

 carpus, moreover, forms an obtuse angle with the forearm, 

 especially aj^parent when the arm is seen from the radial side 

 [cf. fig. 3). Howes and Ridewood quote of previous authors 

 Breyer, Meckel, and Mayer j but tliey seem not to have been 

 aware of the mistakes of tJiese authors, and give the tw^o 

 papers of Mayer as by two dififerent authors. Of special 

 interest is their observation that the bone s is wanting in a 



* 'ZootoLuie aller Thierklasseii,' Atlas, tab. p. xxv (1876). 



t ^1 of ujy iigures is legavded by JJiiihl as not belonging to the carpus, 

 and is named " radio-sesamoideum ; " tiie eesamoid i< he seems not to 

 linow at all. 



t "On the f'iirjiu;' and Tarsus of the Auura," Trnr. Zool. Soc. 1888, 

 p, 141. ' 



