Miscellaneous. 77 



contribution to our kiiuwleclKc of the avifuunu of Central Asia, aud 

 has since been presented by him to the Indian Museum. 



This species is at once distiiipuished from AV>o/-m Huttoni and 

 !<j)(il>tco)nifs {=yesol-la) indirus of Peters* (wliich latter will in all 

 probability turn out to be identical with one of the insulHcieiitly 

 described sjjccies of the genus) by the (juality of the fur, by the 

 totally naked condition and proportional length of the tail, by the 

 greater length of the hands and feet, and by the greater size and 

 breadth of the ^-kull, mandible, and teeth. 



P.S. lu Xfsok-ia Huttoni the incisors are much broader and 

 tliicker in males tlian in females. — Proceed imjs of the Asiatic '"Society 

 of Bengal, April lS7t). 



Mr. JJenmmn von Jheriiuj on the Use of the Term ''Homogeny.'* 

 To the Editors of the Annals and Macjazine of Natural History. 



Ge.ntlemen, — Mr. Hermann von Jhering, of Gottingen, has recently 

 published, in the ' Jahrbiicber ' of the (ierman Malacozoological 

 Society, an "Attempt to establish a Natural Classification of the 

 MoUusca." The author has given much attention to the naked-eye 

 anatomy of Mollusca, very little to their ontogeny, and has recently, 

 in other journals (*Jenaischc Zeitschrift ' and ' Zeitschr. f. wiss. 

 Zool.'), in the most incomprehensible manner, misrepresented both 

 the history and the facts of recent embryological researches (my own 

 in partic\ilar) relative to these animals. Though Mr. Jhering is 

 totally disqualified for treating the question of the molluscaji i)edi- 

 gree from the point of view of ontogeny, and therefore wisely assigns 

 a supreme importance to the comparative anatomy of adult forms, 

 yet his ' Versuch ' possesses considerable interest, and has the great 

 merit of breaking with the old traditions as to classification. 



Much a-s there is which is novel, as well as much which is the 

 common property of all modern zoologists, in Mr. Jheriiig's paper, 

 the reader is not always clearly informed as to which statements in 

 it are new and which are taken from other writers. Mr. Jhering 

 has taken from me the division of Homology into the two very distinct 

 phenomena of Homogcny and Homopl;i.sy, which division I proposed 

 in this Journal in the year 1870 (" On the Use of the term Homology 

 in Modern Zoology ''). Mr. Jhering says : — *' Ich mochte fiir diese 

 Homologie den Untemamen der Homogenie vorschlagen." He also 

 gives the adjectival form " homogenetic.'" Mr. Jhering not only does 

 not indicate distinctly that he has taken this word and the arguments 

 which recommend its use from me, but he has the assurance to pro- 

 pose it as a brand-new idea of his own. The complemental term 

 " Horaoplasy " is not appropriated by Mr. Jhering. 



I am, Gentlemen, 

 Faithfully yours, 



E. Kay Lankestbr. 



• " Ueber einige nierkwiirdi;:'' Nagelbiere des Konigl. Zoologischen 

 Museiims,' .\bhandl. der Ktinij:'. .Vkad. der Wisscnsch. Berlin, 18<'0, 

 p. 130 rt $eqq. 



