Sf% Miscellaneous. 



nearly in the form in which it is printed hefore any part of the 

 * Principles of Biology ' could have been issued. Under these cir- 

 cumstances I did not feel called upon to award to Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer the enunciation of views which I had been urging for years 

 in private, and which I had only not published in full because, being 

 absolutely opposite to the received doctrine that structures produce 

 and determine functions, I did not wish to incur that "faint praise" 

 which I had already found to be the reward of young men who 

 propound new views. 



The actual priority is a matter of no scientific importance ; and 

 for all that I care, any one who pleases to claim it is welcome to any 

 credit that there may be in it. I do not doubt but the award of 

 that credit will be made by others. 



I am Gentlemen, 



Very faithfully yours, 



Harry Seeley. 



A new Rodent. 



M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards described lately before the Philo- 

 mathic Society of Paris a very beautiful new rodent lately living in 

 the Jardin d'Acclimatation. It is covered with long soft fur on the 

 body and tail, and black, with white stripes, like a skunk. The 

 teeth are like those of the Hamsters. The skull is most peculiar : 

 the sides of the crown are extended, covering the muscles of the jaw 

 like a hood ; and all parts of the skull are studded with regular 

 minute bony processes, only to be compared with the rugosities on 

 the sternum of the TrionyceSy but differing from them in all the pro- 

 cesses being separate and nearly of equal size. M. Alphonse Milne- 

 Edwards has given the name of Lophiomys Jmhausii to the animal, 

 which was sent from Aden. — L'Listitut, Feb. 6, 1867. 



On Euphysetes simus. By Sir Walter Elliot. 

 2(0 the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, — On taking up the April Number of the * Annals' 

 this forenoon in the library of the Linnean Society, I observed a 

 note by Dr. Gray, on Prof. Owen's description of Indian Cetacea 

 from materials furnished by me, in which a statement occurs at 

 page 263, made, no doubt, under an entire misapprehension of the 

 facts, but which may lead to further error unless at once explained. 



It is quite true tbat two representations of the same specimen of 

 Physetrr simus have been given, the one as a male, the other as a 

 female ; but the mistake arose from my having failed to observe, 

 when communicating my notes and drawings to Prof. Owen, that I 

 had inadvertently allowed a cancelled drawing of the wongu to re- 

 main in the packet. This incorrect sketch has been in my portfolio 

 from the day it was made, fourteen years ago. During that interval 

 it lias been lent, with other drawings, at various times, to persons 

 interested in natural history, and has been out of my possession for 

 days, and sometimes for weeks. It is only now, on carefully jex- 

 amining it, that I have discovered a pencil aote, made by some per- 



