Miscellaneous. 453 
organ of smell, it does not appear until after exclusion; and this is 
the case also with the rudiments of the generative organs. 
The two blastodermic lamelle, which play so important a part in 
the development of the Sepiole, are called by M. Mecznikow the 
epithelial (exterior) and parenchymatous (interior) lamelle. The 
author does not use these terms in an absolute sense, since the epi- 
thelial membranes of the vessels are formed at the expense of the 
interior lamella. We may say that the epithelial lamella gives 
- origin to the general envelope of the body, the cartilages, the organs 
of sense and digestion (except the pharynx), and the ink-bag. The 
inner layer gives origin to the muscles, the nervous system, the mass 
of the pharynx, and the vascular system. According to M. Mecz- 
nikow, these two lamelle correspond exactly to what he has described 
in the embryos of the scorpions. 
From the preceding statements it appears that the formation of 
the nervous system of the Sepiole cannot be paralleled with that of 
the same system in the Vertebrata. On the other hand, the forma- 
tion of the skin and of the organs of sense in the Sepiole is effected, 
as in the Vertebrata, at the expense of the interior lamella. Hen- 
sen’s observations upon chickens seem also to authorize a parallelism 
between the formation of the internal skeleton of the Sepiole and 
that of the chorda dorsalis in the Vertebrata. The intestinal canal 
of the Sepiole is produced chiefly at the expense of the epithelial 
lamella, which is not usually the case in Vertebrata. However, in 
Amphioxus, according to M. Kowalewsky, the intestinal canal is 
formed by an invagination of the epithelial lamella. M.Mecznikow 
rejects all analogy between the foot of the Cephalophora and the 
siphon (infundibulum) of the Cephalopoda. He is equally adverse 
to the hypothesis of M. Hiickel, according to which the Pteropoda 
are the immediate ancestors of the Cephalopoda.—Bz6l. Univ. Oct. 
25, 1867; Bull. Sci. pp. 186-192. 
M. LeVaillant, the African Traveller. 
Mr. Edgar Layard says :—‘‘I have been at some little pains to 
trace LeVaillant’s footsteps in Southern Africa, in order, if possible, 
to identify such of the birds as have been introduced into his great 
work as South African, but which are supposed by some to have 
been obtained from other countries. A statement which appeared 
some time ago in the serial ‘Household Words,’ to the effect that 
LeVaillant never was in South Africa, also stimulated my desire to 
obtain full information regarding him. 
*«T need not follow him through all his wanderings at this mo- 
ment; this I may perhaps do at some future time. Suffice it for my 
present purpose to say that I do not believe that he ever crossed the 
Orange River. 
** He describes in his travels how he was floated across the swollen 
river, and his chase after the giraffe. I question much if this account 
is true. There was living at Camiesburg, within the last few years, 
an aged woman named Van Zyl, who related to my informant that 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xx. 31 
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