436 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



The Theory of the Vertebrate Skeleton. 

 To the Editors of the Afinals of Natural llistorij. 



Gentlemen, — Is it that Mr. Seeley, before -writing his letter con- 

 tained in your last Number, did not re-read my letter published by 

 you in December last ? This seems a very improbable supposition ; 

 and yet, without some other supposition which I should be reluc- 

 tant to make, I cannot account for the fact that Mr. Seeley ignores 

 absolutely the essential point of my letter. 



The first indication of his views he dates back to a paper on 

 "Homologies of the Bivalve Mollusca," made public on March 17, 

 1862. He says they were again propounded in a paper read on 

 Nov. 10, 1862. And he winds up his historical statement by saying 

 " it is known to certain of my friends that the paper * A Theory of 

 the Skeleton ' was written nearly in the form in which it is printed 

 before any part of the * Principles of Biology' could have been 

 issued." 



This has the appearance of being a sufficient reply. Every 

 reader will, as a matter of course, infer from it that the view to 

 which I had drawn Mr. Seeley' s attention as in great measure iden- 

 tical with his own was first published in the ' Principles of Biology ;' 

 and every reader will conclude that, having traced back his view to an 

 earlier date than the ' Principles of Biology,' Mr. Seeley has proved his 

 case. Any one, however, who takes the trouble of referring to my 

 letter of December last, will find that what Mr. Seeley proves is 

 wholly beside the question. In that letter I pointed out to Mr. 

 Seeley that, in " the * British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review* 

 for October 1858, he will find, at the close of a criticism on Prof. 

 Owen's 'Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton,' a 

 brief outline of the theory that the vertebrate skeleton is a product 

 of mechanical actions;" and I referred to the * Principles of Biology* 

 merely as containing this theory " more fully worked out." 



Thus Mr. Seeley passes over in silence the date of 1858, as that 

 at which an outline of this theory was given by me ; and saying that 

 an indication of this theory was given by him in 1862, dwells on the 

 fact that this is earlier than the issue of the ' Principles of Biology,' 

 in which I have elaborated the theory. 



I am, Gentlemen, 



37 Queen's Gardens, Bayswatcr. Yours, &c., 



May 4, 1867. Herbert Spencer. 



On the Type of a new Family of the Order Rodentia* 

 By A. Milne-Edwards. 



The class Mammalia has been studied with so much care, and is 

 now so well known, that zoologists rarely meet with species belonging 

 to it new to science ; and in general these readily find their place iu 

 the generic divisions already established. 



