Jitne 1 7, I SSo] 



NATURE 



i6i 



Fa-c. vi. and vii. — On the convenience of forming national 

 nurseries of vines resistant to phylloxera, by S. Trevison. — On 

 the chronological determination of Luganese porphyries, by 

 Prof. Taranelli. — On the fundamental equation in the theory of 

 linear differential equations, by Prof. Casorati. — Representation 

 on punctuated space of some forms of the third species com- 

 posed of straight lines, by S. Archieri. — On the institution of 

 two new genera of arachnida, by Prof. Pavesi. — Electricity and 

 earthqualies, by S. Serpieri.— List of algce of the province of 

 Pavia, by Dr. Cattaneo. — Second case of peritoneal tranfusion 

 with good success in an oligocitaemic insane person, by Profs. 

 Colgi and Raggi. — On a transformation of the fundamental 

 equations of hydrodynamics, by Prof. Paci. 



The Revue Inlcniaiionalc dcs Sciences biologiipics, May, con- 

 tains : — E. A. Schaefer, on the development of animals. — Carl 

 Hoberland, infanticide among the ancients and the moderns. — 

 L. Pasteur, on the cholera morbus in fouls ; on virulent maladies 

 and on vaccination. — M. Debierre, man before and on the 

 threshhold of history, a study of paL-eontological facts and of 

 comparative archjcology and philology. — Notice of learned 

 societies. — The Academy of Science?, Paris. — The Academy of 

 Sciences, Amsterdam. — The Anthropological Society of Paris. 



Morfhoh'gisc/ies Jahrbuch, vol. vi., part 2. — Dr. A. Rauber 

 continues his articles on the evolution of form and its transfor- 

 mations in the development of vertebrata, reaching its second 

 section, on the multiplication of *!ixes, pp. 56, with four plates 

 and seven woodcuts illustrating various early stages of monstrous 

 double-axial structures in various species of Salmo and Galhi.;, 

 — Dr. J. Brock occupies 112 pages, illustrated by two plates, 

 in endeavouring to establish a satisfactory phylogeny of the 

 dibranchiate cephalopods. — Dr. PI. von Thering contributes, on 

 the vertebral column of Pipa, to the homology of its individual 

 vertebra; and nerves with those of other anura. — Smaller contri- 

 butions by Prof. Gegenbaur and by C. Rabl (on Planorbis 

 development). — Reviews of German text-books of anatomy. 



Gazctta Chiinica Italiana, Fasc. iii. and iv. — On the ulmic 

 matter obtained from sugar by action of acids, by S. Sestini. — 

 On some derivatives of 0-chlorobutyric acid, by S. Balbiano. — 

 The diffusion and physiological state of copper in the animal 

 organism, first announced by Bartolomeo Bizio, and elucidated 

 by Prof. Giovanni Bizio. — Notice on the chemical constituents 

 of Stcreocauloii v.'suvianum, by S. Paterno. 



Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geop-aphical 

 Survey of the Territories, vol. v. No. 3, November 30, 1879. — 

 J. A. Allen, on the species of the genus Bassaris. — W. H. 

 Fatton, the American Bembecidce tribe Stizini; list of a col- 

 lection of Aculeate Hymenoptera from North- Western Kansas ; 

 Generic arrangement of the bees allied to MeUssodes and 

 Authophora. — George B. Sennett, further notes on the ornitho- 

 logy of the Lower Rio Grande of Texas, made during 1S7S, with 

 annotations by Dr. E. Coues. — Henry Gannett, additional lists 

 of elevations. Among these is a list of the moimtain-peakr 

 firming the Cordilleras of North America and of their passes. — ^ 

 Dr. Morris Gibbs, annotated list of the bhds of Michigan. — 

 Dr. Le Conte, the coleoptera of the Alpine Rocky Mountain 

 Regions, Part 2. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, May 27. — "On the Structure and Develop- 

 ment of the Skull in the Batrachia, Part III.," by W. K. 

 Parker, F.R.S. (Abstract.) 



Some of the work brought forward in this paper was in hand 

 before the first part was in print. That initial piece of work 

 dealt only with the formation of the skull in the common frog, 

 but it was followed by another w-hich appeared in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions in 1S76, which treated of the skulls of the 

 comtnon and of the "aglossal" toads. 



Of the latter types only two kinds are known, viz., the nailed 

 toad of the Cape (Daclylethra), and the monstrous toad of 

 Surinam (Pipa). All the bulk of the B.itrachia are included in 

 the sub-group " Opistlioglossa." These have a tongue, and in 

 most cases it is free lie/iinds.nd not in front ; the " Proteroglossal " 

 Batrachia are very fev,' in number, and the character itself (as 

 Dr. Giinther informs me) is not well pronounced. 



I have now worked out the skull, in one or more stages, in 

 about a litAe of the known species, and in my second paper in 



both of the aberrant ("aglossal") types ; in them this was done 

 in various stages. 



I am not aware that there is any "order" of any "class" in 

 the Vertebrata where so large a percentage of species has been, 

 or indeed need be, worked out, either in the skull or in any other 

 part of their organisation. 



That which calls for it here is the great and unlooked-for 

 polymorphism of the species ; I may explain this by saying that 

 the skull, in really important modifications, differs more in the 

 species of some of the genera than it does in the orders of some 

 of the classes. As an instance, it would be no easy thing to find 

 a malacopterous fish differing from an acanthopterous type, in 

 deep-seated essential matters, so much as the common toad does 

 from the other native species, viz., the N'atlerjack ; and the 

 common frog has only about half as many cranial elements as the 

 bull-frog of North America. 



If the metamorphosis of a single species be worked out 

 exhaustively, it gives a range of structural characters which rises 

 up from a larval creature on the level of the lampreys to a 

 reptilian form not far below the Chelonia, and evidently related 

 (obliquely, not genetically) to that " order." 



Moreover, whilst the " opisthoglossa " have larvse with 

 suctorial mouths, and a quasi- fetromyzine structure altogether, the 

 Inrvje of the "aglossa" need only to be arrested as larvx and to 

 acquire a dense bony armature to be very close counterparts of 

 the most bizarre forms of the ganoids of the "old red sand- 

 stone," such as Pterichthys and Coccosieus. 



The Batrachia show some remarkable things in their meta- 

 morphosis, both as to the size their larvos obtain and the time 

 during which metamorphosis is taking place. 



In tlie bull-frog (Rana pipiens) the larvEe attain the length of 

 about 5 inches, and take two or three years for their transforma- 

 tion ; they may be hindered in this, and be made to take twice 

 that time. In these the larvae bear a moderate relation, as to 

 size, to the adult form, which may be 7 inches long, although 

 tailless. 



But in a frog from the neotropical region [Pscudis] scarcely 

 larger than our native form, the tadpole attains the length of 

 nearly a foot, the tail acquiring a breadth of 4 inches. 



As zoologists well know, it is easy to procm-e tadpoles of this 

 species, but very hard to get an adult. I am of opinion that the 

 adult condition is not attained until after many yenrs; and it 

 suggests itself to me that this species may be the not remote 

 descendant of a type which did not finish its anural meta- 

 morphosis. 



On the other hand, some of the neotropical forms have very 

 small tadpoles. Bufo chilensis, a large toad, has them about half 

 the size of those of our common native Batrachia, and the nev.Iy- 

 metamorphosed individuals are no larger than a house-fly. 



But in Pipa the small larvce are thorouglily metamorphosed in 

 the maternal dorsal pouches, and at first only do they show a 

 trace (and only a trace) of branchial tufts. 



These tadpoles, which never see the light as such, have wide 

 mouths (not suctorial), and so also have the tadpoles of the other 

 waif of the sub-order "Aglossa," viz., Dactyhihra. In that 

 kind, however, the larvje become large, and are a long while 

 undergoing their transformations, which take place in the w ater, 

 according to rule. 



In the skull of the adults much variation is evidently due to 

 the different size to which the species attains ; some, as the bull- 

 frog, are as large as the common Greek tortoise ; others grow 

 scarcely larger than a blnebottle fly. As a rule these small 

 kinds show two kinds of modification : they are apt to retain 

 certain larval characters, and they are apt to acquire generalised 

 characters such as do not normally appear in this group, which 

 is very remarkable for the fewness of the parts or elements 

 composing the adult skull. 



Some of the large forms, as Rana pipiens, have many invest- 

 ing bones in their skull, such as must be looked for again in 

 archaic and extinct types, whilst others, as Ceratophrys and 

 CalyptocephaUis, have a cranial armature that is dense, extended, 

 and almost "ganoid; " this kind of skull, however, is found in 

 middle-sized types also, as in Pelobates and Nototrenia. 



In the terminal suctorial mouth of the lana of the Opistho- 

 glossa the mandibular pier and its free "ramus" are can-ied 

 to the front of the head. After transformation, in the larger 

 kinds, the gape is caixied behind the head, as in the crocodile ; 

 it can be guessed how much modification such a change as this 

 will necessitate. 



But it is evident that a low suctorial fish, such as the tadfole 



