170 niOF. T. J. PAllKEIl OJS' THE CIIAIS'IAL [Feb. 14, 



recurrence of the parts gave the iuipresdioa tliat tlie conditions 

 met with might have been due to increased tension on the right 

 side during growth. This was favoured by tlie fact that the right 

 tibia and fibuhi, which were abnormal and angulated, bore traces 

 of earlv fracture with subsequent synostosis, and by that of the 

 non-distortion of the left anterior lialf of the pi-esternum. It v.as, 

 however, rendered the less likely by the fact that the xiphislernum, 

 together with the posterior (fifth) mesosternal rudiment', was but 

 feebly ossitied ; and by the fact that the fox-mer (lig. 1 , st'"), iustead 

 of being posteriorly expanded as is most frequently the case ^ith 

 normal adults, was displaced to the left side, keeled aloiig its 

 left-hand border, and do\^n\\ ardly rotated. Although the depar- 

 tures froni the normal met with in the sternum under consideration 

 may conceivably have been due to purely mechanical causes, con- 

 sequent upon the non-union of parts, they suggest the well- 

 kuow'n characteristics ~ of that of the Authropomorpha, among 

 Pi'imates ; and, whatever their determining causes, the regularly 

 recurring alternation of the mesosternal elements of oj)posite sides 

 is especially interesting in this conjunction, as that has been in- 

 dependently recorded by Parker^ and Flower^ for the (apparently 

 normal) de\elopiug sternum of the Orang. 



Prof. T. Jeffery Parker, D.Sc, P.li.S., read a Memoir on the 

 Cranial Osteo]ogy,Classification, and Phylogeny of the Dliioniithida', 

 of which the follow ing is an abstract : — - 



The author begins by giving a brief account of his material, 

 amounting altogether to about 120 skulls, most of them in the 

 Otago University Museum, Dunedin, Canterbury College, Christ- 

 churcli, New Zealand, and the British Museum (Natural History). 

 Two specimens, one of Emeus, sp. a, in the Dunedin Museum, 

 and one of MesopUrijx, species /3, in the Wellington Museum, are 

 quite perfect. 



Many of the skulls examined could not be assigned w ith certainty 

 to any known species, ha\ ing been found quite apart from the rest 

 of the skeletons ; they are distinguished in the papei- by Greek 

 letters in order to avoid confusion with certain species designated 

 bv English letters by Mr. Lydekker. Several species are known 

 oidy by the crania, and in these cases the determination of the 

 genus is to some extent conjectural, since the premaxilla and man- 

 dible afford the most striking and reliable generic characters. 



A detailed description of the cranial osteology is given, the 

 various genera and species being compared point by point. By the 



' The iuvestigations of Huge and Burne forbid our regarding the rpdnction 

 of this as necessarily indicative of a persistently embryonic state {cf. Eiinie, 

 P.Z. S. 1891, p. 159). 



^ Viz., increase in breadth, with diminution of length and reduction of the 

 en.siform process. 



^ Ray Soc. Monograph on the Development of the Shoulder-girdle and 

 Sierniun, pi. xxx. fig. 1(5. 



' Osteology of the Mammalia, ed. o. p. 93, fig. '62. 



