LOPHIIDA. — XCVI. 173 
Next come the Batrachians, animals bearing close relations to 
the “central stem” of the fishes, now represented by the Dipnoi. 
They are decidedly fish-like in their early conditions, but this stage 
is ultimately outgrown, “The undivided cartilaginous coracoid of 
Polyterus (a Dipnoan) has a tubercle articulating with diverging 
rods; in the one we have the rudiment of the humerus, in the 
other the representatives of the ulna and radius, while the undif- 
ferentiated cartilage between the diverging rods is material for the 
carpal bones, and in bones radiating from that cartilage are the 
homologues of the metacarpals. The attempts of a primitive ani- 
mal of such a type to travel on land might develop the fore-limb, 
and a hind one would follow in sympathy with the other. Then we 
would have the first of the quadruped vertebrates,” the Batrachians. 
(Gill.) 
