298 Proceedings-of Philosophical Socteties. (Supr. 
palpz had been already observed in some moths; but it is to M. 
Savigny that we owe the knowledge that they exist in the whole 
family. ‘This skilful observer bas likewise estalilished ‘a marked 
analogy between the silk and sonie other small parts which usually 
aecompany the sucker of insects with two wings, and the mandibles 
and maxille of chewing insects; so that the structure of this nu- 
merous class of animals offers in this important part of its erganiza- 
tion an uniformity more satis‘actory than had been hitherto sup- 
osed, . 
i M. Savigny has likewise examined the mouth of insects which 
join to jaws evidently discoverable as such a trump formed ‘by the 
prolongation of the under lip. The most remarkable of these sects 
are the bees. It was supposed that the opening of the pharynx was 
situated below this trump and that lip, while in the ordinary chewers 
it is situated above. But this was a mistake. The pharynx is always 
‘on the base of the trump, and it is even environed with parts inte- 
resting to know, and of which M. Savigny has given a description. 
His memoir is destined for the great work on Egypt, the termina= 
oe of which we shall scon owe to the generous munificence of the 
ing. 
M. Cuvier has examined another class of animals, whose mouth 
presents likewise, at least in appearance, numerous ‘atomialies ; 
namely, fishes. We fitd in them at bottom all the parts which 
belong to the mouth of quadrupeds ; but some of them are more 
subdivided, anda part of their subdivisions are sometimes reduced 
to so small a size, that they cannot fulfil their functions, and that it 
Is even difficult to perceive them. By far the greater number of 
fishes have intermaxillaries and maxillaries that are very visible ; but 
these bones differ much from each other in proportion. The maxil- 
aries especially sometimes make a part of the border of the jaw, 
and carry the teeth; sometimes they are placed more behind, and 
carry no teeth; from which circumstance ichthyologists have not 
recognized them: for what they are, but have called them mystacea 
or labial bones. ‘These differences furnish the author with generic 
characters very convenient for forming a niore natural distribution 
of the species; but they cannot serve to distinguish the orders. For 
this last object M. Cuvier has recourse to more striking differences, 
such as thé coalition or sector of the maxillaries to the intermaxil- 
laries, which takes place, for example, in the ¢etradons, the coffres, 
the taliste; or the disappearing of the one or the other, and the 
obligation in which Nature is to employ the palatine bones to forin 
the upper jaw. This we observe in the ray, the shark, and the 
other chondropterigie. 
The author was unable to discover other charncters than these to 
establish a first distribution of the class of fishes. In consequence, 
he places among ordinary fishes the genera which, having the satne 
structure of mouth and bronchie, had, however, been placed 
among cartilaginous fishes, on accourit of some singularities in their 
ee ae le ns oe ee 
