304 MR. W. K. PARKER ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF BAL^NICEPS REX. 



traces of ossification of the nasal septum below the nasal passages in front. In the 

 "Woodpecker (Picus viridis) there is more or less ossification of the septum both in the 

 anterior and posterior ethmoidal regions. 



We quite agree with Professor Goodsir in his determination of the maxillaries as bones 

 having a hcemal relation to the facial sclerotome, but not that the 'quadrato-jugal' of 

 the Bird is the representative of the ' squamosal ' of the Mammal. The views of this 

 excellent anatomist " on the actinapophyses of the ethmoidal sclerotome " are too long 

 to be transcribed here, but are likewise too concentrated to be given in abstract (see op. cit. 

 p. l.Ol). We may, however, mention that Professor Goodsir classes the upper and middle 

 turbinals in the same category ; but they are, according to him, the internal or posterior 

 actinapophyses of this cincture : the posterior of these processes becomes ossified in 

 Parrots and in Picus viridis, and is anchylosed to the anterior and inner face of the ant- 

 orbital: the same author considers the palatine or inferior turbinals to be ' neurapophyses.' 

 In the Vulture there are an upper and a lower pair of ethmoidal pterapophyses ; the 

 former having an ethmoidal, and the latter a maxillary origin. 



Palatines and Vomer in Vertebrata. 



The imperative necessity for a thorough re-examination of the subject of the deve- 

 lopment of the bones of the palatine region in the Vertebrata must be felt by every one 

 who has endeavoured to make Professor Goodsir's views on this subject clear to himself, 

 whilst for the time all " old experience" is forcibly set aside (see op. cit. pp. 142-1.54, 

 &pp. 159-162). 



"What the ' squamosal ' and ' tympanic ' have been to Professor Owen, that the ' pala- 

 tine ' and ' vomer ' have been to Professor Goodsir ; and, once wrong, we all know that 

 the noblest minds go farthest astray. 



There is evidently every reason to suppose that the ossified anterior and inferior part 

 of the ethmo-vomerine cartilage of the osseous Fish is the true homologue of the divided 

 ' vomer ' of the Batrachian, Lacertian, and Ophidian, of the vomerine splints of the 

 Crocodile, of the ' vomer ' of the Chelonian, the Bird, and the Mammal. Even in 

 Fishes it is sometimes double, as in Sudis gigas. "What the ' transverse bones ' or ' ecto- 

 pterygoids ' of the Crocodile, Lacertian, and Ophidian agree with in other vertebrata, it 

 is impossible to say at present ; it is not certain, at any rate, that Cuvier's ' transverse ' 

 and Owen's ' pterygoids ' are their representatives in the Fish ; they may be ; and then 

 it might turn out that Professor Owen's ' pre-tympanics ' (Professor Huxley's ' meta- 

 pterygoids ') were the actual homologues of the ornithic and mammalian ' pterygoids ' : 

 even then the ento-pterygoids would have to be accounted for. Evidently there are no 

 ecto-pterygoids or transverse bones in these two latter classes, the Birds and Mammals, 

 nor in the Chelonians and Batrachians'. The palatines of the Crocodilian are very peculiar, 



' Query : — How can the ento-pterygoids of the Fish represent the ' bones of Bertin' in Man and their repre- 

 sentatives in other mammalia ? They seem to have a very slight connexion with the vomer, whilst the mam- 

 malian ossicles are evidently dismemberments of it. 



