468 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. IG. 



crowded towards the central canal, early marking the 

 central position of the ganglion-cells. The cells send 

 out processes, most of which extend radially: hence 

 the majority of the cells, but not all, are bipolar. 

 Perhaps the irregular outrunners are amoeboid pro- 

 cesses. There is at this stage nothing which can 

 properly be called nerve-fibres. In an embryo of five 

 millimetres length, tlie number of cells in the spinal 

 cord is greatly increased. They lie closer together, 

 thickest centrally; and their nuclei, except in the 

 peripheral portion, have for the most part tlieir long 

 axes running radially. Throughout the cord tliere 

 is a system of radial fibres, many of wliich may be 

 seen to be prolongations of tlie cells. The fibres 

 form a more or less well-marked external layer 

 around th.e cord; their external ends generally pre- 

 sent a trumpet-like enlargement. The roots of the 

 nerves are formed by tlie outgrowth of these fibres. 

 The motor roots are first developed. They appear 

 first as processes of the ventral cells of the cord, 

 penetrate the limiting membranes, and so enter tlie 

 body-wall. The posterior roots arise later. His be- 

 lieves that tlie cells wliich Balfour, Sedgwick, and 

 others have described as forming the beginning of 

 the roots are merely those which grow out to become 

 tlie ganglion-cells distributed in the course of the 

 nerves. — {Arch. anat. physiol., cmat. abth., 1883, 

 163.) c. s. M. [956 



Characters of the Hadrosauridae. — Professor 

 Edward D. Cope, after giving a sketch of the classifi- 

 cation of the Dinosauria, described in detail the char- 

 acters of Hadrosaurus and the allied genus Diclonius. 

 The species of the latter, upon which his observa- 

 tions were made, is the Diclonins mirabilis of Leidy, 

 which is represented in Prof. Cope's collection by a 

 nearly complete skeleton, including the skull from 

 the Laramie beds of Dakota. In life, this species 

 presented the kangai-oo-like proportions ascribed by 

 Leidy to Hadrosaurus Foulkii. The anterior limbs 

 are small, and were doubtless occasionally used for 

 support, and rarely for prehension. This is to be 

 supposed from the fact that the vmgual phalanges 

 are hgre hoof-like, and not claw-like, though far less 

 ungulate in their character than those of the posterior 

 foot. The inferior presentation of the occipital con- 

 dyle shows that the head was borne on the summit 

 of a vertical neck, and at right angles to it, in the 

 manner of a bird. The head would be poised at 

 right angles to the neck when the animal rested 

 on the anterior feet by the aid of a V-like flexure of 

 the cervical vertebrae. The general appearance of 

 the head must have been much like that of a bird. 



The nature of the beak, and the dentition, indicate 

 for this strange animal a diet of soft vegetable matter. 

 It could not have eaten the branches of trees, since 

 any pressure sufficient for their comminution would 

 have thrown the slightly attached teeth of the lower 

 jaw out of place, and have scattered them on the floor 

 of the mouth. It is difficult to understand, also, how 

 such a weak spatulate beak as these animals pos- 

 sessed could have collected or have broken off boughs 

 of trees. By the aid of its dentate, horny edge, it 

 may have scraped leaves from the ends of branches; 

 but the appearances indicate softer and less tenacious 

 food. Could we suppose that the waters of the great 

 Laramie lakes had supplied abundant aquatic plants 

 without woody tissue, we should have the conditions 

 appropriate to this curious structure. Nymjjhaea, 

 Nuphar, Potamogeton, Anacharis, Myriophyllum, 

 and similar growths, could have been easily gathered 

 by the double spoon-like bill, and have been tossed by 

 bird-like jerks of the head and neck back to the mill 



of small and delicate teeth. In order to submit the 

 food to the action of these vertical shears, the jaws 

 must have been opened widely enough to permit 

 their edges to clear each other, and a good deal of 

 wide gaping must therefore have accompanied the 

 act of mastication. This would be easy, as the 

 mouth opens, as in reptiles and birds generally, to 

 a point behind the line of the position of the eye, 

 which was evidently of large size. On the other 

 hand, the indications are, that the external ear was of 

 very small size. There is a large tract which might 

 have been devoted to the sense of smell ; but whether 

 it was so or not is not easily ascertained. 



We can suppose that the huge hind-legs of Di- 

 clonius and Hadrosaurus were especially useful in 

 wading through the water that produced their food. 

 When the bottom was not too soft, they could wade 

 in to a depth of ten or more feet, and. if necessary, 

 drag afjuatic plants from their hold below. Fishes 

 might have been available as food, when not too large, 

 and not covered with bony scales. Most of the fishes 

 of the Laramie period are, however, of this kind. 

 The occurrence of several beds of lignite in the 

 formation shows that vegetation was abundant. — 

 (Acad. nat. sc. Philad. ; meeting April 24.) [957 



Nevr character for the Arctoidea. — As further 

 defining the Arctoidea, Flower's third group of the 

 land carnivora, Mr. Jacob Wortman described a pe- 

 culiarity of the tarsus of these animals, in which the 

 astragalus articulates with the cuboid and the navic- 

 ular. The character was constant throughout the 

 group, and, he believed, had not before been indicated. 

 — [Acad. nat. sc. Philad. ; meeting April 24.) [958 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 The Foulbes, Peuls, or Fellata, — The nomen- 

 clature of ethnology will have to be reduced to some 

 system in a not very distant future. The Bureau 

 of ethnology has endeavored to obtain a complete 

 synonymy of the North American Indian tribes. 

 The work has involved the time and talents of several 

 specialists, and includes several thousands of titles. 

 The names applied to tribes of men, to begin with, 

 have in the hands of authors not always the same 

 inclusion. These names are spelled variously by 

 writers in the same tongue, and with greater variety 

 by those of different tongue. Further, names are 

 "often given by the tribe themselves, meaning simply 

 men, location, gens, oi- parentage ; or by their 

 neighbors, meaning all these in each language of 

 tribes in contact ; or also including terms of contempt. 

 The reader, therefore, is not astonished to find Ful, 

 Pul, Fulbe, Fouls, Peuls, Foulis, Folos, Foulbes, Fel- 

 lata, Fellani, Fulan, Futa, etc., applied to those people 

 in western and middle Soudan sprung from negro 

 stock, on which have been ingrafted Arabic blood and 

 religion. Herr Gottlob A. Krause has added some- 

 what to our knowledge of this people, and especially 

 to their synonymy. They are called Fulan, Felata, 

 by the Arabs; Jfullan, by the Tuaregs ; Fillani, 

 Fullani, by the Haussas; Maplatakai, by the Mus- 

 gus; Felata, by the Kanuri of Bornu; Fulas, by the 

 Mandinkas; Agoi, by the Dschumus of Joruba; 

 Tschilmigo, by the Mossi ; Kambumaua, by the Gure- 

 shas; Folani, Fulga, by the Gurmas; Bale, by the 

 Mfutas and Basutos; Fato, by the Harass Abate, by 

 the Sliukus ; and Goi, by the Rupes or Tapas. — ( Das 

 Au.^laiid, March 3, 1883.) .j. w. r. [959 



Dialects of Bolivian Indians. — lu the north- 

 western part of Bolivia, along the rivers Beni, Ma- 

 more, and Yacuma, live the Cayuaba, Mobima, Cani- 

 chiina, and Ti-inilaria Indians, who have come under 



