156 REPORT— 1872. 



On tin Nonnxl an I Abnormal Growth of Liinnajiis. 

 Bi/ Trofessor Carl Semper. 



On the Occurrence of the Sujiracondijloid Process !n Man. 

 Bi/ Prof. Strtttheus, M.D., of Aberdeen. 



The author showed dissections of this part in several animals. An arch of bone 

 is thrown, like a bridge, over the great nerve, and generally also the great artery 

 of the limb, a little above the elbow, protecting them from pressure and injury. No 

 such structure exists normally in the human arm, but it occurs occasionally a=i a 

 variation. When it exists, the process grows from exactly the same spot as in 

 animals which possess it, and the arch is completed b}' a ligament, the nerve and 

 generally also the artery passing under the arch. This variety had attracted 

 some notice lately, and is supposed to be very rare; but the author has fouud it 

 often, and he exhibited a large number of speciiueas of it from the human arm, in 

 its various degrees of development. lie had also met with it occasionally in the 

 living body, and had lately been able to prove the correctness of his previous sup- 

 position that it may be hereditary, having met with it in the members of a family', 

 in the father and in four sons. The author remarked on the great interest attach- 

 ing to this vai'iation. In animals which possess it, it is wliat, in olden phra- 

 seology, would be called a contrivance specially designed for the protection of the 

 nerve in them. But why should the same contrivance occur as a variety in man ? 

 The old ai'giiment from final cause, and no less its successor the theory of" type," be- 

 sides being metaphj'sical, become untenable in the face of the existence of these rudi- 

 mentary structures. The theory of so-called type has a great deal to answer for 

 in obscuring the natural interpretation. If species are of independent origin, how 

 comes it that animals have in their bodies parts of other animals, parts which are 

 of no use to them, sometimes even dangerous to them ? To those who are able to 

 overcome the prejudices of their early education, the evidence comes with irresistible 

 force in support of the hj'pothesis of the origin of species by evolution. 



On the Sternum and Pelvic Bone in the IVujht Whale and in Great Fin- 

 Whales. By Prof. Strutrers, M.D. 



The sternum exhibited showed a very different form from that of the same species 

 of Fin-Whale which Prof Struthers had brought under the notice of the Associa- 

 tion last year. Instead of a single median cervical process, it has a deep median 

 notch with a broad crest on each side, and the posterior process is very narrow. 

 Two sterna of the Greenland Right Whale exhibited were large. The author 

 divides the sternum into three parts. The middle, between the first ribs, is thick, 

 completing the thoracic girdle, and essential ; the part in front of this and the 

 part behind it vary greatly, being more or less rudimentary. The sternum of the 

 Finner has two joints with the first rib, that of tlm liiglit Whale only one joint; 

 and this difference in the thoracic adaptation, together with the great breadth of 

 the first rib in the Right Whale, might explain the very different forms presented 

 by this bone in these two kinds of whales. 



One of these breast-bones exhibited marks of former inflammation of the bones. 

 The author inentioned that he had often met with this condition in whales ; in some 

 cases ankylosis of tlie vertebras had resulted, .and in some there must have been 

 considerable suffering to the animal. This fact might be commended to the notice 

 of those, if there be yet any such, who have the notion that disease occurs in animals 

 only when they come under the influence of man. 



On the Occurrence of Finger-muscles in the Bottle-nose Whale (Hyperoodon 



bideus). B>j Prof. Struthers, J/.Z». 

 This bottle-nose stranded on the Aberdeenshire coast just after the Meeting of 

 the Association last year at Edinburgh, at which the author read an account of the 



