DfXKMBER 20, l'J03.] 



SCIENCE. 



H29 



J)r. David W. Day, Mr. William Glenn, of 

 Baltimore, and others. 



In response to the formal motion made and 

 carried, the president appointed a committee 

 consisting of Professor ilunroe. Dr. Clarke 

 and Dr. Wiley to draft resolutions expressing 

 the loss felt by the Washington Chemical 

 Society in the death of Dr. Bolton. 



A. Seidell, Secretary. 



SHORTER ARTICLES. 



SOME OSTEOLOUICAL TER.MS. 



Ix the usual osteological nomenclature, there 

 are certain terms, among others, which have 

 been and yet are so loosely and indefinitely 

 used that one is often in doubt as to their 

 meaning. I refer more especially to ' haemapo- 

 physis,' ' hsemal spine ' and ' hypapophysis.' 

 The first two of these were proposed by Owen 

 in the Geological Transactions, Vol. V., p. 118 

 (1838). * Hismapophyses ' was there defined 

 and iised as a synonym of ' chevron-bones ' — 

 " These are the chevron-bones of Mir. Cony- 

 beare, the paravertebral elements of GeofFroy 

 St. Ililaire." In later years, especially in his 

 ' Archetyiie and Homologies of the Vertebrate 

 Skeleton,' Owen extended the meaning of the 

 word to include the ischium, pubis, costal 

 cartilages, etc., and he correctly suggested it 

 for the intercentrum of the atlas in 1851. 

 Cope in his posthumous work upon the 

 lizards and snakes of North America uses 

 ha?mapophysis as a synonym of rib. As ap- 

 plied to the chevron-bones, the word is un- 

 necessary, and, as extended to the other struc- 

 tures in Owens transcendental theory, the 

 term is inapplicable and mischievous. As is 

 well known, the ' haimapophyses ' of fishes are 

 formed chieflj' by the deflection of the para- 

 pophyses, while the chevrons of reptiles are 

 supposed to be of intercentral origin alone. 

 Unfortunatel.v, the phrase ' haemal arch ' has 

 also had a very indefinite ai)plieation, but its 

 use is preferable to that of ' ha^napophyses.' 

 In any event, I ijuite agree with Boulenger 

 that the latter word should be banished utterl.v 

 from anatomical nomenclature. The word 

 chevron has become well fixed, and has, m9re- 

 ovcr, the advantage of being niorphologically 

 meaningless. 



■ lla'iiiiil spine ' was first proposed by Owen 

 to indicate the spine of the united chevron. 

 In this application among fishes it has a 

 definite morphological meaning, fliough not 

 often now so used. The term helped Owen 

 to round out his symmetrical archetype of the 

 vertebra, but, when he later applied it to so 

 incongruous an assemblage of morphological 

 elements as the sternum, epistemum and li.void, 

 as well as the intercentra of the Squamata, 

 it loses every particle of meaning it may have 

 onca had and should be discarded. Boulenger, 

 however (I'roc. Zool. Sue. Lond., 1891), has 

 proposed to use the phrase in a totally differ- 

 ent sense from any suggested by Owen for the 

 infrapentral keel or spine of such vertebne as 

 those of the turtles, rabbits, etc. 



Concerning ' hypapophyses ' there is ground 

 for diilerences of usage, yet I think it may be 

 shown that the word should be restricted to 

 those processes only which Boulenger would 

 call hannal spines. The term was not pro- 

 posed by Owen until some time after he had 

 formulated his arehetjiJal theory, appearing, I 

 think, for the first time in his ' Skeleton and 

 the Teeth,' published in 1853 or 1854, where 

 it was defined. It seems clear from this defi- 

 nition, as also from his discussion of the 

 vertebra in his ' Archetype and Homologies,' 

 that he intended the word primarily for in- 

 fracentral exogenous processes. He calls the 

 hypapophj-sis exogenous, but says it may some- 

 times be autogenous, like ' the diapophysis and 

 the parapophysis.' As we now restrict the 

 latter two terms solely to exogenous processes, 

 the former should be also. Boulenger, how- 

 ever, i)refers to apply the term to the autogen- 

 ous elements alone, that is to the intercentra 

 and chevrons, and so uses the word as a 

 synonym of ' intercentrum.' Baur, ai)parently 

 following Boulenger, in 1894 (Proc. Nat. 

 Mas.) invented the term ' catapophysis ' for 

 what was evidcntl.v originall.v meant by 

 hypapoph.vsis, and what is called hwmal spine 

 by Boulenger, and accepted hypapophysis in 

 place of intercentrum. 



Cope was the first to use the term inter- 

 centrum in the sense now employed for 

 the h.^^)axial element in the ami)hibia and 

 ri'i^tiles. The element in question, however. 



