and its Natural Affinities. 371 



branchm, I became convinced that this genus is much more in- 

 timately connected with Proteus than with Cryptobranchus. I 

 would again repeat that appearances in these matters are ex- 

 tremely deceptive, and that they are by no means to be depended 

 on in a natural system of classification. Such a system should 

 be the result of serious study and conscientious investigation. 



I may hereafter give publicity to some results of my examina- 

 tion of Menobranchus — an examination undertaken, in the first 

 instance, solely with a view to my own instruction. It is to be 

 hoped that Dr. Fischer, of Hamburg, will soon bring out the 

 continuation of his researches on the anatomy of the doubtful 

 Reptiles*. 



Some details relative to the anatomy of Menobranchus are to 

 be found in Mayer^s 'Analecten fiir vergl. Anatomic,^ Bonn, 

 1835, 4to, pp. 82, 85, together with figures of the skull, brain, 

 and organs of generation of the male. This latter figure hardly 

 corresponds with my own actual observation. M. Gegenbaur 

 has given a description and figure of the carpus and tarsus 

 as well as of the claviculo-scapular apparatus in the Menobran- 

 chus. (Untersuchungen zur vergl. Anatomic, I. Heft. Carpus 

 und Tarsus: Leipzig, 1864; II. Heft. Schultergiirtel der Wir- 

 belthiere: 1865.) 



Meanwhile I will be content to notice that the skull and the 

 hyoid apparatus, the conformation of the bones or cartilages of 

 the shoulder, the disposition of the viscera, the form of the 

 lungs, and the structure of the organs of generation appear to 

 indicate that the subterranean and, so to speak, atrophied Pro- 

 teus of Europe t finds its representative in a robuster and larger 

 creature which inhabits the lakes of the United States. It is, 

 however, proper to remark that the number of the vertebrae 

 is greater in Proteus, which thus more nearly approaches the 

 Siren', while the attachment of the pelvis at the thirtieth or 

 thirty-first vertebra in Proteus shows a still greater departure 

 from the Menobranchus, in which the pelvis is attached to the 

 eighteenth or nineteenth vertebra, as in the Cryptobranchus Alle- 

 ghaniensis : this latter condition differs but little from that found 

 in the Japan species, in which the pelvis adheres to the twentieth 

 or twenty-first vertebral, and in the Axolotl and Tritons, in 



* Anatomische Abhandhingen iiber Perennibranchiaten und Derotremen, 

 von Dr. J. G. Fischer. Erstes Heft. Hamburg, 1864. 



t " II [M. Schreiber] ajoute qu'il est plutot porte a regarder les Protees 

 comme des especes A'albinos ou de cretins, que comme des larves ; mais il 

 faudra toujours convenir que ce ne peuvent pas etre des albinos d'especes 

 connues, puisque leur ostdologie n'a rien de commun, pour le nombre et la 

 forme des pieces, avec celle d'aucun autre reptile." (Cuv. Rech. sur les 

 Reptiles douteux, p. 123.) 



X In the specimen of the Japan Cryptobranchus dissected some years 



