AUGUST 13, 1914] 
NATURE 
619 
courage sustained by patriotism, spurning fear, 
despair, and death, the figure courage being crowned 
by immortality. The front of the pylon bears the 
names of the five men, and portrait medallions, in 
bronze, occupy prominent positions on the monument. 
On the back are represented a pair of snowshoes, a 
replica of the cross erected on Observation Hill, and 
a wreath. Beneath is given an extract from Capt. 
Scott’s last message. On the four sides of the base 
are bronze relief panels depicting the course of the 
expedition, under the headings ‘‘to strive,’ “to seek,” 
‘“*to find,’ ‘‘and not to yield.’’ The Wilson memorial 
was designed by Lady Scott. It is in bronze 7 feet 
high, on a base of Portland stone, and represents the 
explorer in Polar dress in a natural attitude. 
WE are asked to state that, in consequence of the 
war, the editorial duties in connection with the Gipsy 
Lore Society have been assumed, in collaboration, by 
the Rev. F. G. Ackerley, Grindleton Vicarage, near 
Clitheroe; Mr. E. O. Winstedt, Oxford; and Mr. A. 
Russell, Stromness. Members of the society are re- 
quested to address business communications to the 
first-named gentleman. 
Tue fifth report of the Royal Commission appointed 
to make an inventory of the ancient and _ historical 
monuments and constructions of Wales and Mon- 
mouthshire has just been issued. The inventories of 
Denbighshire are in the press, and will be issued in 
the course of the present year. The inspection of the 
monuments of Carmarthenshire has been completed, 
and the inventories are in preparation for the press. 
The volume on that county will be taken in hand 
immediately on the publication of that for Denbigh- 
shire. The inspection of the antiquities in the county 
of Merioneth is in progress, and will be concluded this 
year. Occasional reports are received of damage done 
to the monuments, as a rule to those of the prehistoric 
class, and, though the commission is powerless to 
exert active interference in such cases, endeavours 
are made to exert what influence is possessed by it in 
the best interests of the public. 
Tue July number of the Journal ef Anatomy and 
Physiology contains three interesting embryological 
studies based on the construction of wax models, N.C. 
Rutherford points out certain resemblances between 
the fore-limb of the human embryo and that of the 
toothed whale and certain reptiles, suggestive of the 
fact that the history of the race is here repeated in 
the development of the individual. J. E. Frazer has 
investigated the development in the human embryo of 
the region of the internal and middle ear, while J. K. 
Milne Dickie has described the anatomy of the head 
end of a human embryo. The remaining articles are 
purely anatomical studies. Miss J. Meiklejohn gives 
an interesting series of illustrations demonstrating the 
position and relations of the groups of nerve cells in 
the heart of the rat. H. Blakeway’s investigation on 
the anatomy of the palate is mainly of surgical interest, 
while that of D. E. Derry deals with a pathological 
perforation of the skull of an ancient Egyptian. 
AN interesting feature in Captain S. S. Flower’s 
report on the Giza Zoological Gardens for 1913 (in- 
NO. 32337, VOL. 93] 
cluded in the report on the Zoological Service for the 
same year, issued by the Ministry of Public Works, 
Egypt) is the reproduction of a photograph of a living 
Nubian ibex with the largest horns on record; the 
left horn measuring 514 and the right 502 inches, 
while the tip-to-tip interval is 35 inches.. The enclo- 
sure of the two large paddocks for giraffes, together 
with the erection of the necessary buildings, has been 
completed, and the series of twenty-eight paddocks for 
antelopes were all but finished at the close of the 
year. 
ALTHOUGH described by the late Prof. Cope so long 
ago as 1870, on the evidence of a fragmentary skull 
and teeth from the Puerco, or Lowest, Eocene of 
New Mexico, the genus Polymastodon, belonging to 
that group of early mammals known as the Mullti- 
tuberculata, has hitherto been very imperfectly known. 
A recent expedition dispatched by the American 
Museum to the Puerco beds of New Mexico was, how- 
ever, fortunate enough to discover a number of remains 
of the genus, among these being a skull which, 
although much 
crushed _ and 
broken, -was 
found to be 
capable of re- 
storation. This 
unique specimen 
is described and 
figured in vol. 
ROK (pp. Tt5— 
134) of the Bull. 
Aum er.) Miu 
Nat. Hist. by 
Dr Ro Brooms 
whose figure is 
here reproduced. 
In the general 
characters of its 
dentition and its 
relative short- 
ness and breadth, the skull, which measures about 6 
in. in length, distantly recalls that of a rodent; the 
dental formula being 
Skull of Polymaston tadensis. 
Fr, frontal; Jz, 
jugal; Mz, maxilla; Pa, parietal; Pz, 
premaxilla; Sg, squamosal. 
oe oe ptm.>. 
Among its many peculiarities are the cutting-off, by 
means of processes of the parietals and nasals, of the 
frontals from the orbits, and the apparent absence of 
lachrymals. As regards the affinities of the multi- 
tuberculates, Dr. Broom (in opposition to the opinion 
of Dr. Gidley, who, as recorded in NaTurRE in 1909, 
definitely included them in the marsupials) considers 
that these are with the monotremes (duck-billed 
platypus and echidna), a remarkable feature being 
that the Tertiary Polymastodon comes nearer to that 
group than does the South African Triassic Tritylodon. 
On the whole, it seems probable that mammals 
originated during the Trias from cynodont reptiles, 
and that from this original stock diverged at an 
early date a branch which gave rise to the multi- 
tuberculates, and later, after considerable specialisa- 
tion and degeneration, to monotremes. 
