UNNEAN SOCIETT OP LONDOHT. 



Ixxxi 



Agassiz's ' Journey to Brazil,' that he met, on the Amazons, with a 

 Spanish scientific expedition on their return home ; hut I have seen 

 no notice of it or of its results in any other place. 



France. 

 Professor Milne-Edwards's Report on the Recent Progress of 

 Zoology in France furnishes an interesting resume of the numerous 

 discoveries made of late years, and may be read with great profit, 

 notwithstanding a not unnatural tendency rather to underrate the 

 labours of zoologists belonging to other nations than the French. 

 No one can deny, however, the very prominent position which that 

 nation has always taken, and still continues to take, in the pursuit 

 of Biology ; and it is with very great satisfaction that we find that 

 the splendid series of Memoirs issued from the Museum d'Histoire 

 Naturelle has been resumed under the title of * Nouvelles Archives.' 

 In this ijublication, as in other periodical issues by French scientific 

 bodies, the very inconvenient habit of antedating (dating the several 

 parts from the time they ought to have been, instead of that when 

 they actually were published) renders it exceedingly difficult some- 

 times to ascertain the real year or month when particular observa- 

 tions or discoveries ought to take their place in the chronological 

 records of science. The Memoirs now mentioned are those which, as 

 we presume, have been really issued since the commencement of 

 1866. The most important zoological ones in the 'Nouvelles 

 Archives ' are MM. Gratiolet and Alix's " Recherches sur I'Anatomie 

 du Troglodytes Auhryi," M. P. Fischer's paper on the genus Zi- 

 phius, andM. Alphonse Milne-Edwards's description of a small 

 Rodent under the name of LopUomys Imhausii, which he regards as 

 the type of a new family in its order. It appears to be most nearly 

 allied to the Muridae, but shows relations to the Porcupines. M. 

 Milne-Edwards has described the anatomy of this animal at con- 

 siderable length, and illustrated it upon several plates. Unfortu- 

 nately the native country of the creature, which was purchased at 

 Aden, is unknown. M. Aug. Dumeril's Prodromus of a monograph 

 -^of Sturgeons is also in the ' Nouvelles Archives.' 



M. Pouchet has published two parts of an elaborate work on the 

 Great Ant-eater. M. Gratiolet has given us a Memoir on the ana- 

 tomy of the Hippopotamus, and M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards, in the 

 Annales des Sciences Naturelles, anatomical observations on some 

 Mammifera of Madagascar and of China. The same zoologist, as 

 LINN. PEOC. — Session 1867-68. 9 



