38 



Miss Helen L. M. Pixell, B.Sc, F.Z.S., x-ead a memoir entitled 

 " Polychseta from the Pacific Coast of North America. Part I." 

 This paper contained a description of Serpulidse from the Straits 

 of Georgia, chiefly the Departure Bay region of Vancouver Island, 

 together with some specimens from Victoria and Puget Sound, 

 eighteen species in all, of which five were new. Serpula splendens 

 (Bush, 1905) was shown to be identical with Serpula columbiana 

 (Johnson, 1901); and Caullery and Mesnil's classification of the 

 genus Spirorhis was revised and enlarged to contain three new 

 species and such other Pacific species as had been adequately 

 described. Further evidence was given in support of the sug- 

 gestion made by Caullery & Mesnil in 1897 that Spirorhis [Circeis) 

 armoricana (St. Joseph, 1894) was only a variety of Spirorhis 

 spirilhmi (Linue, 1760). 



Mr. R. I. PococK, F.R.S., F.Z.S. , Curator of Mammals, read a 

 paper, illustrated by lantern-slides, on antler growth in the 

 Cervidse with special reference to Elaphurus and Dorcelaphus, 

 and pointed out that the growth of the individual antler in 

 Elaphurii,s, as shown by a series of sketches kindly supplied by 

 Lord Tavistock, proved that the anterior and posterior branches 

 of the antler of Elaphurihs were homologous with the brow-tine 

 and beam of the Sambar's antler, and that in Dorcelaphus the sub- 

 basal snag was the homologue of the brow-tine in the Old World 

 deer as Sir Victor Brooke claimed. 



Dr. Hans Gadow, F.R.S., F.Z.S., read a paper on "The One- 

 sided Reduction of Ovaries and Oviducts in the Amniota, with 

 remarks on Mammalian Evolution." He stated that the 

 reduction began with the ovidiict, and a fii-st cause of the 

 invariably right-sided bias had to be looked for in the turning of 

 the embryo upon its left side, a position which influenced the 

 growth and relative position of the stomach and primary 

 intestinal loops, these being stowed in the abdomen in such a 

 Avay that they were less disturbed by an egg passing through the 

 left than through the right oviduct. In the Monotremes also 

 only the left ovary and duct were functional, although those of 

 the right side were structurally not affected. This was not a case 

 of reptilian inheritance. Proto- Meta- and Eutheria represented 

 a continuous, monophyletic line of evolution, with the Monotremes 

 and Marsupials as ofishoots. The Metatherian stage was diphy- 

 odont, marsupiate and placental. It was the parting of the ways. 

 Those which developed a corpus callosum, correlated with higher 

 mental faculties by further improving the placentation, and losing 

 the marsupium (not the bursse), became Placentalia; whilst the 

 remaining stock, being driven to arboreal life, intensified the 

 marsupial and thereby diminished the uterine gestation. Their 

 arborealism implied the necessity of taking their young with them. 



