Miscellaneous. 77 



contribution to oui* knowledge of the avifauna of Central Asia, and 

 has since been presented by him to the Indian Musei;m. 



This species is at once distinguished from NesoTcia Huttoni and 

 Spalacomys {=Neso1i-ia) indicus of Peters* (which latter will in all 

 probability turn out to be identical with one of the insufficiently 

 described species of the genus) by the quality of the fur, by the 

 totally naked condition and proportional length of the tail, by the 

 greater length of the hands and feet, and by the greater size and 

 breadth of the skull, mandible, and teeth. 



P.S. In NesoTcia Huttoni the incisors are much broader and 

 thicker in males than in females. — Procecdincjs of the Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal, April 1876. 



Mr. Hermann von Jherimj on the Use of the Term ^^Homogenyy 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, — Mr. Hermann von Jhering, of Gcittingen, has recently 

 published, in the ' Jahrbiicher ' of the German Malacozoological 

 Society, an "Attempt to establish a Natural Classification of the 

 Mollusca." The author has given much attention to the naked-eye 

 anatomy of Mollusca, very little to their ontogeny, and has recently, 

 in other journals (' Jenaische Zeitschrift' and ' Zeitschr. f. wiss. 

 Zool.'), in the most incomprehensible manner, misrepresented both 

 the history and the facts of recent embryological researches (my own 

 in particular) relative to these animals. Though Mr. Jhering is 

 totally disqualified for treating the question of the molluscan pedi- 

 gree from the point of view of ontogeny, and therefore wisely assigns 

 a supreme importance to the comparative anatomy of adult forms, 

 yet his ' Versuch ' possesses considerable interest, and has the great 

 merit of breaking with the old traditions as to classification. 



Much as there is which is novel, as well as much which is the 

 common property of all modern zoologists, in Mr. Jhering's paper, 

 the reader is not always clearly informed as to which statements in 

 it are new and which are taken from other writers. Mr. Jhering 

 has taken from me the division of Homology into the two very distinct 

 phenomena of Homogeny and Homoplasy, which division I proposed 

 in this Journal in the year 1870 (" On the Use of the term Homology 

 in Modern Zoology "). Mr. Jhering says : — " Ich mochte fiir diese 

 Homologie den Unternamen der Homogenie vorschlagen." He also 

 gives the adjectival form " homogenetic." Mr. Jhering not only does 

 not indicate distinctly that he has taken this word and the arguments 

 which recommend its use from me, but he has the assurance to pro- 

 pose it as a brand-new idea of his own. The complemental term 

 " Homoplasy " is not appropriated by Mr. Jhering. 



I am. Gentlemen, 

 Faithfully yours, 



E. Eay Lankestbe. 



* " Ueber einige merkwiirdige Nagethiere des Konigl. Zoologischen 

 Museums," Abhandl. der Konigl. Akad. der Wissensch. Berlin, 18C0, 

 p. 139 et seqq. 



