124 REPORT—1858. 
chian tube opens just within the posterior extremity of the nares, whence a bristle 
may be passed into the cavity of the tympanum. In the Ornithorhynchus it appears 
to be wider. In the Echidna the Vidian nerve, with another twig or two, is seen in 
the roof of the cavity, and may be traced to the portio dura; there is also a very 
distinct tensor tympani muscle. The cochlea only makes one imperfect turn in 
both animals, but the semicircular canals are completely formed. In the Ornitho- 
rhynchus one surrounds the opening of the side cavity in the cranium, and gives origin 
to one end of another which descends just outside the condyle, the third lying hori- 
zontally round the floor of the said cavity. In this animal there is one large opening 
for the passage of the eighth and ninth nerves, partly closed by a membrane and 
situated before the large occipital foramen; the Hchidna has openings for them in 
the temporal bone. 
Whilst the Ornithorhynchus is a sort of quadrupedic wingless duck, the Echidna 
is, as is well known, an ant-eater, having a very extensible tongue, without teeth, 
and its mouth situated at the end of a callous tubular muzzle. Of course, however, 
such a muzzle must present a great difference in its nerves. In this animal the 
nasal portion of the ophthalmic, for instance, is small (this nerve being scarcely 
related to the nose as an organ of smell), and the other branches of the fifth are 
also moderate in size. The two specimens of Echidna examined by the author 
had evidently been amongst the ants, and the friend who forwarded them observed 
that the animal’s’ strength is enormous, that it burrowed in banks, and could roll 
itself up into a ball, How beautifully the Ornithorhynchus or Platypus is adapted 
to obtain its food, insects and mollusks found at the bottom of rivers, must strike 
any observer. 
In three or four species of marsupial animals, Phalangista and Petauri, the brain 
was principally remarkable for the peculiarity mentioned above, the absence of the 
corpus callosum, the fornix taking its place somewhat, and having in front four pro- 
longations, two going forwards above the anterior commissure, and two downwards 
behind it. The cerebrum in all was perfectly smooth, whilst the cerebellum in all 
the animals described in this paper is divided into lamelle. There are moderate 
olfactory bulbs in front, the cerebellum has the ‘ flocks” or small side lobules, the 
corpora quadrigemina are well-marked and their tubercles equal, a little exposed, and 
the hippocampus large. Indeed, with the exception of the peculiar absence of the 
corpus callosum, leaving the third ventricle exposed between the hemispheres, the 
brain in all these animals may well be compared to that of a hare or rabbit. 
These remarks were closed with a few words on the encephalon of those curious 
animals the moles, two or three species of which have been examined, including the 
Condylura with a curious star-like snout, to supply which enigmatical part, the 
supermaxillary nerves are greatly developed. Generally there was no difference 
between the brains of foreign species and that of the common European species. 
This creature, admirably furnished with an acute organ of smell, and a very perfect 
internal ear (opening by a very wide orifice on the shoulder in the Condylura), has, 
as is well known, a very small rudimentary eye, a mere dot in fact. Nevertheless 
this eye has undoubtedly a true optic nerve, as was maintained by Treviranus and 
Carus; in fact, the figure given by the latter appears to me to be correct; at any 
rate, an optic nerve may be seen (by the lens) to whiten by the action of spirit, 
when examined at its commissure. The brain of this little creature, in some respects 
like that of the Echidna, has nevertheless a well-marked corpus callosum. The 
olfactory bulbs and tracts are ample, and connected through the hippocampus with 
the fornix, disposed as mentioned above. ‘The anterior commissure is bifurcate on 
each side, with extensive connexions. The optic lobes, or corpora quadrigemina, 
are fairly developed, though the posterior one is certainly not so well marked; but 
still both are more so than could be the case if the sole relation of these parts were 
to the organs of vision, so rudimentary in the mole. The circle of Willis and other 
vessels are as regular and complicated as in the largest of the Mammalia, 
On the Death of the Common Hive Bee, supposed to be occasioned by a 
Parasitic Fungus. By the Rev. H. H. Hieerns. 
On the 18th of March last a gentleman of Liverpool communicated to me some 
