June 18, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



979 



cern the beauty that lurks in a vast number 

 of the songs of the American Indian. 



Alice C. Fletcher. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



THE DORSAL SPINES OF CHAMELEO CRISTATUS, 

 STUCH 



Since the discovery of the long-spined Pely- 

 cosauria, in Texas, no similar condition has 

 been reported in any living form. Cope re- 

 ferred to the dermal spines of Iguana and 

 Basiliscus as the nearest condition to that of 

 the fossil forms. Baur noted one or two liz- 

 ards in which one or two spines were a little 



been figured and have never been referred to 

 in explanation of the Permian forms. 



Unfortunately this gives us no hint of the 

 use of the elongated spines in the ancient 

 forms. Only two species of the genus, 

 cristatus and montium, have the elevated 

 spines; the others have a crest supported by 

 dermal rods. The habits of the forms are 

 not siifficiently well known to make any sug- 

 gestion as to the use of the crest or spines. 

 It is perhaps significant that the chameleons 

 are a highly specialized and decadent group 

 just as the Pelycosauria were and that there 

 is a decided tendency to develop seemingly 



Vertebral column of Chameleo cristatus Stuch, 'from Efulen Kribi, Cameroon, showing elevated 



neural spines. 



longer than the others. Through the kind- 

 ness of Dr. A. G. Ruthven, curator of the 

 Museum in the University of Michigan, I 

 have been enabled to examine a specimen of 

 Chameleo cristatus from Efulen Kribi in the 

 Cameroon district, sent to the museum of the 

 university by the Eev. Geo. Schwab, a mis- 

 sionary. The accompanying figure shows the 

 condition of the spines of the vertebrae. The 

 elevated neural spines beginning with the 

 axis extended to the tenth caudal and then 

 rapidly diminish in size on the long and 

 slender tail. At the base of the larger spines 

 there is a very slight enlargement indicating 

 the attachment of the dorsal muscles which 

 reached to that point. The upper ends of the 

 spines were attached by a strong thread of 

 connective tissue and the interspaces between 

 the spines were filled by a very thin mem- 

 brane of the same tissue. A few scattering 

 threads of muscle were dispersed over the 

 membrane. The condition of this specimen 

 is of great interest as it shows almost exactly 

 the conditions which have been imagined to 

 exist in the Pelycosauria. In the literature of 

 this group I find the presence of the elevated 

 neural spines mentioned but they have not 



useless horns and spines in other parts of the 

 body just as there was in the Pelycosauria. 

 It leaves one with the same impression of some 

 sort of physiological excess of gTowth. 



E. C. Case 

 Univeesitt of Michigan 



ON THE chemistry AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE 



yolk platelets in the egg of the frog 

 (rana pipiens) 



The yolk platelets in the frog's egg contain 

 6 per cent, of lecithin and 94 per cent, of a 

 proteid having the following composition : 1.21 

 per cent, of phosphorus, 1.32 per cent, of sul- 

 phur and 15.14 per cent, of nitrogen. I used 

 gravimetric methods in determining phos- 

 phorus and sulphur and the Kjeldahl method 

 in determining nitrogen. This composition 

 and the precipitation reactions of the proteid 

 indicate it to be a nucleoalbumin related to 

 the vitellins and ichthulins of the yolk of the 

 eggs of birds and fish, hence I will call it 

 batrachiolin. 



In the germinal vesicles of the ovarian eggs 

 nucleoli arise from the chromatin. These 

 nucleoli grow and multiply by fission and bud- 

 ding, and during the fall of the year migrate 



