366 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



some are provided. In Dipnoi, as Ceratodus and Protoptevus, 

 the terminal portion of the tail is reproduced, but without 

 the notochord. Dr Traquair has, however, shown from two 

 specimens of Protopteriis annectans, that the restoration of 

 the tail carried with it the restoration of the notochord also. 

 In the same paper, read at the Edinburgh Meeting of the 

 British Association, 1871, it was stated that the neural and 

 haemal arches, spines, and fin-supports were restored, these 

 elements, however, remaining entirely cartilaginous. But, as 

 regards the restoration of injured fins, there are many excep- 

 tions. For example. Sir William Jardine refers, in the 

 Edinhurgh Philosophical Journal for 1856, to the case of 

 salmon which were marked as " parrs " by cutting off their 

 small thick dorsal fin, and this served to mark the individuals 

 till the " grilse " state. The wound made by marking became 

 covered with skin, and in some of the specimens a coating of 

 scales had partly formed. In addition to the parts already 

 mentioned, the cephalic tentacles of the fishing frog {Zophius 

 piscatorius) are very frequently injured, and as frequently 

 reproduced. 



But, perhaps, it is among the Eeptilia that we meet with 

 the most numerous instances of waste and repair, loss and 

 reproduction of organs. When characterising the Water 

 Salamanders, Van der Hoeven, referring to the observations 

 of Blumenbach and Bonnet, says their " reproductive power 

 is very great : in these not only the tail and legs that have 

 been removed grow again, but the eye also can be restored, 

 if only the entire ball as far as the optic nerve be not cut 

 away" ('* Handbook," vol. ii., p. 234). Gunther has shown 

 that the tail of the tadpole, if cut off early, will be repro- 

 duced before the time when its absorption normally begins, 

 and if a hind limb be cut off when the larva is about two 

 lines long it is reproduced. 



One of the three lizards (Tiliqua Fernandi) now on the 

 table supplies an exceedingly good instance of a bifid or 

 bifurcate tail. The forks are nearly equal in thickness 

 and in length. The whole length of the specimen is 9f in. 

 from snout to end of the forks. The break has been made 

 at the first caudal vertebra, if we may judge from external 



