558 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 302. 



Seri : avat, av't — blood; hwat in Yava- 

 pai, 

 hamt, amt, ampte — earth, soil ; ani4t in 



Cuchan. 

 ehe — tree, bush ; e — i in Cuchan. 

 apis — tobacco; &pi in Cocopa. 

 kakolx — large ; kaok& — o in Cochimi. 

 az, ache, ahj — water ; aha in Yavapai, 

 and frequent in North American lan- 

 guages as ax, 4ha, etc. 

 A few more correspondences of this sort, 

 especially expressing parts of the human 

 and animal bodies, are found, but they are 

 too weak in numbers and quality to prove 

 anything against the overwhelming number 

 of terms that show absolute disparity in 

 Yuman dialects compared with Seri. The 

 terminals of Yuma are more typically vo- 

 calic than those of Seri. 



The possibility of Seri being of the same 

 kin as the Nahuatl dialects spoken around 

 it in the State of Sonora, viz, the Pima, 

 Papago, and Opata, has been carefully con- 

 sidered by the noted Americanist, Professor 

 J. E. Buschmann, member Eoyal Prussian 

 Academy of Sciences (1854). The result 

 was that no radical afiSnity existed between 

 the two groups. 



At present the chances stand entirely 

 against genealogical affinity of Seri with 

 Yuma ; but a final verdict can be rendered 

 only after expert linguists have examined 

 that language on the spot and obtained a 

 lexicon and ethnographic texts in a way 

 that will prove absolutely correct in their 

 phonetics. A. S. GtAtschet. 



ON TEE INFLECTION OF THE ANGLE OF 

 TSE JAW IN THE 3IAESUPIALIA.- 



The posterior part of the jaw in the Mar- 

 supialia has been long recognized as peculiar 

 in that the angle, instead of projecting ver- 

 tically downwards, as is usually the case in 



•■' Preliminary paper read before the American As- 

 sociation tor the Advancement of Science, New York, 

 June, 1900. 



the Mammalia, is bent abruptly inwards so 

 as to produce a horizontal shelf, thus giving 

 the jaw, when viewed from the outside, the 

 appearance of lacking an angle entirely, its 

 arcuate lower border passing directly into 

 the articular condyle. 



"With the object of ascertaining the cause 

 of this condition, the writer has examined 

 various mammalian jaws and also dissec- 

 tions and serial sections through the heads 

 of the common opossum QDidelphys mare- 

 siqnalis') and the pouch young of the wallaby 

 {Macropus sp.). 



The opossum shows the following ana- 

 tomical relations. The whole outer surface 

 of the inflected angle is occupied by the 

 outer fasciculus of the masseteric muscle, 

 the entire inner surface by the pterygoideus 

 internus. Both of these muscles are power- 

 fully developed, while the pterygoideus ex- 

 ternus is much reduced. The latter muscle 

 is attached above the inflected angle. The 

 inflection introduces three peculiar feat- 

 ures: It increases abundantly the insertion 

 area of the masseter and pterj^goideus in- 

 ternus ; It places the latter muscle in oppo- 

 sition to the lateral traction of the masseter 

 on a weak symphysis ; it renders the line 

 of traction of the pterygoideus internus 

 vertical, so that with a reduction of the 

 pterygoideus externus there is scarcely any 

 provision for transverse muscular motion 

 and so for a sectorial or a grinding action of 

 the teeth. Of these peculiarities the last is 

 probably the only one of primary signifi- 

 cance. It contrasts strongly with the usual 

 condition in placental types. 



Sections through the head of the develop- 

 ing wallaby show the cavity of inflection to 

 be occupied by Meckel's cartilage. This 

 seems to indicate that the inflection has 

 originated by the disappearance of bony 

 elements on the inside of the jaw and by 

 the reduction of Meckel's cartilage. The 

 inflected portion repiresents primarily not an 

 angle, hut a part of the lower border of the jaw. 



