Notes and Comments. 



245 



EDESTUS NEWTONI. 



The specimen of Edestus newtoni described in these pages 

 for Nov. 1916 (pp. 352-353) by Mr. J. R. Simpson, has recently 

 been described in detail by Dr. A. Smith Woodward in the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, and we are kindly 

 permitted to reproduce, on a smaller scale, the illustration 

 there given. Dr. Smith Woodward states that the new fossil 

 displays a single example of Edestus with a detached dental 

 crown and another fragment of the same form, near the tapering 

 ends of a symmetrical pair of cartilages (c) which evidently 

 represent a jaw. Whether they are upper or lower is uncertain, 

 on account of shortness if the portions preserved ; but, as the 



anterior ends suddenly begin to taper and eventually become 

 very slender, they are probably the pterygo-quadrates of the 

 upper jaw. The cartilage is well calcined in very small tesserse, 

 and, as shown both by the portions of jaws themselves and 

 by remains in front of the fossil, the calcification penetrates 

 more deeply than is usual in recent Elasmobranchs. The 

 best-preserved outer surface of the cartilage, on the side of 

 the specimen not shown in the figure, is slightly marked with 

 scattered fine pittings, such as have already been described in 

 Edestus minis. 



A TRANSPARENT RAT. 



We learn from The Publishers' Circular that the Trustees 

 of the British Museum (Natural History), South Kensington, 

 applied to the Controller of Patents, recently, for licence to 

 use the German patent 8621, of 1909, in the name of Streller, 

 which asserts a sure process ' for rendering organic and in- 



1917 Aug. 1. 



