Dec. 7, 1876] 



NATURE 



127 



serves for investigating the phenomena of the agricultural region, 

 the most interesting of the environs of Rome, along with another 

 station placed at Velletri, on the other side of the volcanic 

 group, 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES 



The Primary Elements of the Skull. — At a i-ecent 

 meeting of the Cambridge Philosophical Society Mr. Bettany 

 brought forward some of the ideas resulting from Prof. Parker's 

 most recent researches, which will be embodied in a forthcoming 

 work on the " Morphology of the Skull," by Messrs. Parker and 

 Btltan-. A fundamental point in researches of this kind 

 appears to be the question what are axial and appendicular 

 elements in the skull. For some years past Profs. Pluxley and 

 Paiker have regarded the primary rods or traheculcg occupying 

 the base of the forepart of the skull as being the foremost of the 

 series of facial or visceral arches (trandibular, branchial, and the 

 like). In several types, although these traheculcB lie in the true 

 base of the cranium, they are at an early stage more or less 

 parallel with the visceral arches ; and certain nerve-relations 

 appeared to show a close similarity between them. But Mr, 

 Parker now believes their facial nature cannot be maintained. 

 They arise in tissue immediately beneath the brain cavity as the 

 vertebrae arise beneath the spinal canal j the temporary flexure 

 of the fore-part of the skull does not make this tissue other than 

 axial. Every rela'ion of the trabeculjc proper is to the nervous 

 centres, and cartilaginous growths continuous with them bound 

 the cranium laterally just like thi lateral occipital or vertebral 

 regions. Mr, Bettany also directed attention to the nasal, pre- 

 nasal, and antorbital regions of the skull as probably showing 

 rudiments of true appendicular parts in the anterior regions of 

 the head. In the discussion which followed. Prof, Humphry 

 cordially welcomed this rehabilitation of the trabeculse, having 

 never been able to agree with Prof, Huxley that they were facial 

 in their origin. He could not doubt that the bones formed in 

 them, the basisphenoid and presphenoid, were axial in character. 

 He thought that further research would but demonstrate more 

 clearly the vertebral or segmental theory of the skull.— Mr. 

 Balfour thought research was .not yet sufficiently advanced for a 

 true er.timate of the skull to be formed. Although the trabeculse 

 might be morphological continuations of the basal cartilages in 

 the hinder part of the skull, yet the greater part of the vertebrae 

 end part of the base of the skull, arose from an unpaired carti- 

 laginous mass surrounding the notochord, while no such element 

 existed in the anterior part of the skull. It appeared very pos- 

 sible that the lateral parts of the cranial floor behind were really 

 equivalent to the base of the cartilages which formed the ver- 

 tebral arches, and thus the trabeculse might similarly be regarded 

 as only the basal parts of the continuous lateral wall of the 

 skull. 



The Anatomy of the Gorilla. — Dr. H. Bolau, director 

 of the Zoological Gardens at Hamburg, has recently had the 

 fortunate opportunity of dissecting three gorillas preserved in 

 spirit, with the viscera intact. His results are just published in 

 the •* Abhandlungen aus dem GebietederNaturwissenschaften," 

 and they add much to our zoological information. The brain is 

 figured by photography from three aspects. Dr. Ad. Pausch 

 describing the convolutions. In all the specimens the liver ex- 

 hibited the lateral fissures or incisions which are not found in 

 man, the orang, the chimpanzee, or the gibbon, but in all the 

 lower monkeys. This agrees with the descriptions given by 

 Professors Huxley and Flower of the specimen in the Museum 

 of the College of Surgeons ; and serves to separate off the 

 gorilla from the rest of the anthropoid apes. The caudate lobe 

 is minute, and the spigelian lobelet of fair size. As in man 

 only among the primates, valvule conniventes, the transverse 

 folds of the mucous membrane of the small intestine, so large in 



the Sumatran rhinoceros, are present, although they are not large. 

 We hope to be able to enter more fully into the results arrived 

 at by Dr. Bolau next week. 



The Windpipe in Manucodia, — For a long time it has 

 been known that in the Paradise Bird, Manucodia, the windpipe, 

 instead of running straight from the neck into the chest, takes 

 a turn forming] a spiral over the front of the breast under the 

 skin before it divides to enter the lungs. M. P. Pavcsi has 

 just read an interesting paper on the subject, published in the 

 Annali del Mus. Civ. di St. Nat. di Genova, in which he shows 

 that in the three species of the genus examined by him this 

 superficial spiral is only developed in the adult M. k'ratidrenii, 

 in the female of which an irregular and crooked loop only exists ; 

 whilst in M. chalybea it is only in the male that any superficial 

 loop is found, this being straight and longitudinal, like that in 

 many of the Guans and Curassows of South America. In M. 

 atra there is no loop in either sex, M, Pave^i also demon- 

 strates that different specimens of the same species differ slightly 

 in detail. 



NOTES 

 We announce with sincere regret the death, on Tuesday 

 morning, from malarial fever, o Mr. David Forbes, F.R.S., the 

 well-known Foreign Secretary of the Iron and Steel Institute, 

 Mr, Forbes was only forty-nine years of age. We hope to give 

 a memoir next week. 



We regret to announce the death of Mr, Louis A. Lucas, the 

 African traveller, at the early age of twenty-five. He reached 

 the equatorial provinces in the month of June last, but his escort 

 proving too weak to allow him to penetrate further into the 

 interior, he returned to Khartoum, en route for Suez, intending to 

 reorganise his expedition, and proceed by way of Zanzibar to 

 the Congo, After repeated attacks of fever, he left Khartoum on 

 October 26, but died on the Red Sea, near Jeddah, on his way 

 back, having abandoned all idea of further exploration. 



Capt. Nares has been made a K.C.B. There can only bs 

 one opinion that by his conduct both of the Challenger and 

 Arctic Expedition he has well earned such an honour. The 

 Alert and Discovery have been paid off, and the crews were 

 entertained at the Mansion House on Tuesday evening. 



Col. Gordon has arrived in Cairo, after an absence in equa- 

 torial Africa of three years, 



A Nairnshire African Association has been formed in con- 

 nection with the International African Association instituted by 

 the King of Belgium, 



The just published Cosmos of Guido Cora is mainly devoted 

 to Africa, One paper describes the explorations of Antinori, 

 Beccari, and Issel in the region of the Red Sea about the Straits of 

 Babelmandeb, and another contains letters from various members 

 of the Italian Expedition to Equatorial Africa. There is also an 

 address on Italian Travellers in Africa, by Signor F. Bonola, 

 given to the Egyptian Geographical Society, 



According to Behm and Wagner's just published Yearly 

 Review of the Population of the Earth, the total population of 

 the globe amounts to 1,423,917,000, Of this number Europe 

 claims 309,178,300; Asia, 824,548,500; Africa, 199,921,600; 

 Australia and Polynesia, 4,748,600; and America, 85,519,800. 

 The average density of population of the whole globe is about 

 28 inhabitants to one square mile of land surface. The density 

 is of course greatest in Europe, where it is 82 per square mile ; 

 in Asia, 48 ; in Africa, 18 ; in America, ^\ ; and in Australia 

 and Polynesia, about i^. The pubhcation is accompanied by 

 two maps, one showing density of population in India, and the 

 other recent changes in the boundaries of various districts and 

 countries. 



