~ 
148 
NATURE 
[ Fane 22, 1871 
nn EEE aE EEE SUSI SSSSSUSU ORES REE 
the quadrate of the Sauropsida. It forms an acute angle 
with the basi-cranial line, as in most other fishes, but in 
Murena hélena (see Huxley, Croon. Lect., p.34, and Osteol. 
Catal. Mus. Coll. Surg., vol. i., p. 14), the suspensorium is 
very frog-like, forming an obtuse angle. The well-developed 
heads of the hyo-mandibular fit into proper glenoid_cavi- 
ties, the foremost of which is made in the post-frontal 
and pro-otic, and the hinder pit is in the pterotic. The 
knob for the opercular is very large in the adult, and in 
eels five or six inches long the only sign of the separate- 
“ness of the symplectic is the transverse cartilaginous 
tract which connects it with the hyo-mandibular; but in 
my youngest specimen it can be seen separate, with its 
own ectosteal sheath (Fig. A, sy.); it is very short, and 
the cartilaginous interspace above is very large. From 
the middle of that synchondrosis there arises a small 
semi-segmented bud of cartilage, the “stylo-hyal” (sz. /.); 
this becomes ligamentous inthe adult ; in other Teleostei 
it forms a rather small cylinder, completely segmented off, 
and it acquires a bony sheath. The rest of the descend- 
ing hyoid cornu isa thickish arcuate rod of cartilage ossified 
by two ectosteal sheaths, the “ epi”- and “cerato-hyals.” 
In Teleostei generally, the distal end is cut off by a joint 
cavity, and ossifies from two more ossicles, forming the 
“hypo-hyal” segment ; this structure is not attained in the 
less specialised eel. The arch is finished by a long and 
stout glosso-hyal. Even the free bar of the first post- 
stomal arch—the mandible—has its peculiarities, for, 
contrary to rule, it has no angular splint—and the 
“ coronoid,” so seldom present in Teleostei, and so con- 
stant in Sauropsida, is well developed in the eel ; it is 
very small in old individuals of the cod-fish. The 
dentary alone is dentigerous, and is very large and 
strong, with a large coronoid process ; the “articulare” 
is short and massive. In the upper part of the face the 
specialised subcutaneous bones (faraqstoses) are very 
instructive ; several belong to the lateral-line series, but, 
modified and broken up into two rows in the head, they 
formtubularmucous bones ; theseare the nasals and “sub”- 
and “ pre-orbitals.” Another facial series, which may run 
obliquely from the snout to the hinge of the lower jaw, 
has only two on each side,—the pre-maxillary and maxil- 
lary. Here we have, contrary to rule, the short pre- 
maxillary edentulous and the maxillary bearing teeth. 
The specialised bones of the back-face and throat are 
worth mention; the pre-opercular is oblong, twisted, 
strongly convexo-concave, and burrowed by mucous 
glands. The opercular fits by a deep cup to the knob on 
the hyo-mandibular ; like the feebler sub-opercular, it is 
strongly falcate ; the latter fits by a sliding joint to the 
pedate upper end of the wedge-shaped large inter- 
opercular. The long, thick-based, slender-pointed “ bran- 
chiostegals” are eleven in number on each side in the 
common eel; the basal bone of this wondrously 
specialised series of dermal bones is the so-called “ uro- 
hyal ;” it is knife-shaped behind, and in front terminates 
in a massive head, facetted for the cerato-hyals. I call 
this bone the “ basi-branchiostegal ;” for the “ uro-hyal ” of | 
the bird is the remnant of the basi-branchial bar. The 
student can easily obtain both the gigantic conger and the 
larger specimens of the common eel, and, having become 
familiar with the parts of the skull and face of such an 
ordinary teleostean as the cod, and of the larger amphibian 
types, both tailed and tailless, he will then be able to gain 
a much clearer idea of the fundamental harmony existing 
between such diverse types, if this intermediate eel-type 
be once well understood. 
The development of the skull in the culminating 
amphibian, the frog, has yielded me already such 
satisfactory results that I am somewhat restless to 
know the early conditions of that of the fish: then 
whole groups of low vertebrate types will begin to be 
seen in harmonious relation. 
W. K. PARKER 

NOTES 
Tue following is a list of the Presidents of Sections nominated 
by the Council of the British Association for the approaching 
meeting at Edinburgh :—Section A, Prof. P. G. Tait, of 
Edinburgh ; Section B, Dr. Andrews, of Belfast ; Section C, 
Prof. Geikie ; Section D, Prof. Allen Thomson; Section E, 
Alex. Keith Johnston, sen. ; Section F, Lord Neaves; Section 
G, Prof. Fleeming Jenkin. The Evening Discourses will be 
delivered by Prof. Abel and Mr. E. B. Tylor. 
Ir is stated that the labours of the Royal Commission on Coal, 
appointed a few years ago by Sir George Grey, are on the point 
of completion, and the result is the demonstration of the fact that, 
assuming a certain annual increase in the rate of consumption, 
sufficient economically gettable coal exists in Great Britain and 
Ireland to last from 800 to 1,000 years. We shall be very glad 
to see such an important fact demonstrated. 
WE have to record the death of Mr. George Grote, Vice- 
Chancellor of the University of London, whose serious ill- 
ness we mentioned a fortnight since. He died on Sunday 
last, after a long illness, in his seventy-seventh year. We can ill 
afford to lose men who have so long and so ably thrown their 
influence and their abilities into the cause of the higher education 
of all classes of the community. 
WE regret to announce that Mr. Numa Edward Hartog, Senior 
Wrangler of the University of Cambridge in 1869, died on Mon- 
day last of smallpox. Mr. Hartog was still, in common with 
other Nonconformists, excluded from the substantial reward of 
his exertions ; but in the present Session he gave important evi- 
dence before the Lords’ Committee on University Tests, and it 
is due perhaps to the sympathy which his exclusion excited that 
the Lords proposed a measure which would have admitted him 
to a Trinity Fellowship. Before, however, he could take advan- 
tage of the passing of the University Tests Bill the man who was 
expected to be the first to reap its fruits had passed away. 
AT the recent examination for the newly-established Diploma 
in State Medicine given by the University of Dublin, the first 
place was taken by Mr. J. W. Moore, ex-scholar Trinity College, 
Dublin ; the second by Dr. A. W. Foot, Junior Physician to the 
Meath Hospital and County of Dublin Infirmary ; the third by 
Mr. Yeo, who obtained the Junior Medical Exhibition in 1864, 
and the Senior Medical Exhibition in 1866 ; and the fourth by 
Mr. Todhunter, a gentleman already well known in certain 
circles for his literary abilities. 
THE new museum and library at Clifton College were inaugu- 
rated on Saturday last by a conversasione. There was a good 
collection of objects of interest contributed by gentlemen of the 
neighbourhood ; some music, and a speech from the Rev. Princi- 
pal of the College, interested the large company, and Prof. Church 
delivered an address on ‘‘ Colour.” 
THE new buildings of St. Thomas’s Hospital on the southern 
Thames Embankment, opposite the Houses of Parliament, were 
opened yesterday by the Queen in person. 
THE Victoria Institute concluded its fifth session on Monday. 
Its;members are now 305 in number, seventy having joined since 
February ; the papers for the coming session include two on 
subjects connected with the vegetable kingdom. 
THE managers of the London Institution, in accordance with 
the recommendation of the annual meeting of proprietors, have 
resolved to afford opportunities during the ensuing season for the 
reading and discussion of papers on subjects of special interest in 
science, literature, commerce, and the arts, provided they receive 
sich offers as will insurea succession of suitable communications. 
It is believed that this proposed extension of the use of the 
Lecture Theatre in Finsbury Circus will produce a series of 
attractive meetings similar in character to those of the Society of 

