Veo) REPORT—1890. 
will, I think, confirm this. It will be seen, for instance, that I have been 
placed in most favourable conditions for studying the development of 
Elasmobranch fishes, and of Lacerta, and for obtaining a general idea of 
the fauna (pelagic and other) of a sea such as the Mediterranean. And 
supposing for the moment that it be possible to draw a definite line 
between the confirmation of views that exist and the substitution for 
these of others more or less different, it is obvious that, in weighing the 
value of a zoological station such as this, the benefit which younger 
students in particular derive from the former process should not be left. 
out of consideration. 
I came here with the intention of studying one or both of the follow- 
ing subjects: (1) the development of the air-bladder of fishes, with 
special regard to the question of its homologue, if any, in other types; 
(2) the anatomy and development of the Chelonia. 
Turning first to the latter of these subjects, I have been able to 
dissect three specimens of the turtle (Thalassochelys corticata) from the 
neighbouring sea, which died in the aquarium. Being interested in the 
question of the subdivision of the body cavity, I was glad to be able to 
make out the true relations of the peritoneum and the different viscera 
more clearly than I had previously done from the examination of Emys and 
Testudo. For instance, the lesser or omental sac of the peritoneum has 
its relations to the rest of the peritoneal cavity rendered clear by the 
fact that the two communicate by a well-marked foramen of Winslow, 
which appears not to exist in Hmys and Testudo, where, consequently, 
the dextro-dorsal lobe of the liver seems to lie in a closed sac. The rela- 
tions of the spleen were also clear in this type. It is in the usual position, 
and its proximity to the rectum in some Chelonia has no morphological 
significance. In Thalassochelys, again, the lungs, as in Testudo, project 
but little into the peritoneal cavity. 
As to the embryology of the Chelonia, both Hmys and Testudo breed 
in the neighbourhood of Naples, but it appears to be impossible to find 
eggs laid by these animals in their natural haunts. I have accordingly 
procured some thirty or more specimens of Testudo for the chance of their 
depositing the eggs in a small enclosure here at the Zoclogical Station. 
It is mainly for this chance that I am now waiting at Naples. The 
question to which I specially desire an answer is, Are the lungs of 
Testudo, and other Chelonia like it, at one time surrounded by a pleural 
cavity which, as in birds, becomes afterwards obliterated ; or, as seems 
to me more probable, are they always practically outside and dorsal to 
the body-cavity P 
My work, however, on reptiles has not been confined to the Chelonia. 
I have been glad since the beginning of the summer to seize the splendid 
opportunity that Naples affords, and preserve a pretty complete series of 
embryos of Lacerta, and also to obtain a certain number of stages of 
Tropidonotus and other snakes. With this material I hope to be able to 
clear up certain points in the anatomy of these animals, especially concern- 
ing the subdivision of the body cavity and the relations of the ‘ fat- 
bodies’ to it. 
I may here state that, examining at Naples better specimens of Tropi- 
donotus natri« than I have before obtained, I find that in this snake (and 
apparently the conditions are exactly the same in Elaphis, and perhaps 
this is true of many or even all snakes) there is apparently the same 
transverse division of the body cavity behind the liver, by a post-hepatic 
