SCIENCE. 



3P3 



man found it to exist. Professor Bischoff, however, men- 

 tions finding the uvula in the Orang. 



The stomach of the Orang is not so human in its form 

 as that of either the Gorilla or the Chimpanzee. Nothing 

 peculiar was noticed about the spleen or pancreas. 



The quadrate lobe of the liver was absent. In the small 

 intestine five fine specimens of the Ascaris Iwnbricoidcs, 

 and one in the large, were found, and in the caecum a Tri- 

 chocephalus dispar, perhaps the first time these entozoa 

 have been found in the same anthropoid. Dr. Chapman 

 did not notice anything special about the heart different 

 from the human. 



The brain was examined and described, but as the re- 

 searches of Dr. Spitzka in this direction have been pub- 

 lished in " Science," we need not here state the peculiari- 

 ties which exist. 



Dr. Chapman draws the following general conclusions 

 respecting what can be inferred from the general organi- 

 zation of the Orang as to its relation to the primates. 



The Orang, like man, has twelve ribs, whereas the 

 Gorilla and Chimpanzee have thirteen ; on the other hand 

 the carpal and tarsal bones are nine in number in the 

 Orang, while the Chimpanzee and Gorilla agree with man 

 in having eight. The Chimpanzee and man are alike in 

 this respect, at least the slip from the flexor longus digi- 

 torum in the former is functionally a flexor longus. In 

 the absence of a flexor longus hallucis, and in the presence 

 of an opponens hallucis, the Orang differs from man, the 

 anthropoids and all monkeys. The great blood vessels 

 arise from the arch of the aorta in the Gorilla and man in 

 the same way ; the same disposition is usually seen in the 

 chimpanzee, rarely in the Orang. The lungs in the Orang 

 are not divided into lobes as in the Gorilla, Chimpanzee 

 and man. The stomach in the Gorilla and Chimpanzee is 

 human in its form ; in the Orang, however, it is quite dif- 

 ferent. The peritoneum in the Gorilla, Chimpanzee and 

 Orang is like that of man ; in the lower monkeys it is dif- 

 ferent. The brain of the Orang in its globular form, in 

 the cerebellum being usually covered by the cerebum, 

 and in the development of the first occipital gyrus, re- 

 sembles man more than that of the Gorilla and Chimpan- 

 zee. On the other hand, the frontal and temporal lobes 

 in the Orang are not as mnch convoluted as in the chim- 

 panzee, and still less than in man, and the Island of Reil 

 is not convoluted at all, at least in the Orang here de- 

 scribed. It will be seen that from the above illustrations, 

 of which many others might be given, that the gorilla and 

 man, in some respects, agree with and differ from the 

 Chimpanzee and Orang, while from other points of view 

 the Orang approaches man more closely than either the 

 Gorilla or Chimpanzee, and that as regards certain mus- 

 cles, man and the lower monkeys agree in having them, 

 while they are absent in the anthropoids. 



From these facts we may reasonably infer that the an- 

 cestral form of man was intermediate in character as 

 compared with the living anthropoids or lower monkeys, 

 agreeing with them in some respects, and differing from 

 them in others. The Orang is closely allied to the Gib- 

 bons, the Cnimpanzee to the Macaques, and the gap be- 

 tween these and the Scmnopithecus is bridged over by the 

 Mesopithecus of Gaudry. Until, however, the paleonto- 

 logist will have procured more material like that from 

 Pikermi, and interpreted it as ably, it seems to Dr Chap- 

 man premature to offer any detailed genealogical tree of 

 f he Primates. 



Mr A. D. Anderson, author of " The Silver Country 

 or The Great South-West, " has prepared a brief narra- 

 tive of all efforts since the time of Cortez to effect inter- 

 oceanic transit across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The 

 book will be published at once by Messrs. A. S, Barnes 

 & Co., of New York, 



ON THE ORIGIN OF ANTHRACITE.* 



By T. Sterry Hunt, LL.D., F.R.S. 

 From my comparative studies of carbonaceous minerals 

 I, as long ago as 1861, reached the conclusion that pe- 

 troleum and anthracite form the ex'remes of a series, all 

 of which may have been derived from organic matters, 

 by natural processes at ordinary temperatures.! 

 To this is opposed the ordinary view that anthracite, on 

 the one hand, and petroleum on the other, result from 

 the action of heat on matters of intermediate composi- 

 tion, the one being a distillate and the other a residuum. 

 Late geological studies, however, show that such an hy- 

 pothesis is untenable for petroleum, and the author, while 

 not denying that a local coking of bi'uminous coals must 

 naturally result from the proximity of igneous rocks, has 

 long taught that it is equally so for our anthracite 

 fields. The prevalent notion has hitherto been that the 

 difference between these and the bituminous coals farther 

 West is in some way connected with the mechanical dis- 

 turbance of the strata in the former region ; but to this is 

 opposed the fact that, while the undisturbed coals of 

 Arkansas are anthracite, the highly disturbed coals of 

 northeastern America, Belgium, and other regions are 

 bituminous. 



These considerations I have for many years presented 

 to my classes in Geology, and have maintained that the 

 change which results in the conversion of organic matters 

 into anthracite was effected before the disturbance of the 

 strata; that the hydrogen was removed, as ordinary veg- 

 etable decay, in the forms of water and marsh-gas ; and 

 that differences in aeration during the process of change 

 and consolidation of the carboniferous vegetation are 

 adequate to explain the chemical differences between 

 anthracite and bituminous coals. 



Prof. J. V. Lesley, to whom I have explained my views, 

 has pointed out that there is an apparent conneciion in 

 the great Appalachian coal-basin, between the more or 

 less arenaceous and permeable nature of the enclosing 

 sediments and the more or less complete anthracitic char- 

 acter of the coal, while Principal Dawson informs me 

 that he has observed similar facts in the coal-measures of 

 northeastern America. Inquiries which promise to throw 

 faither light on this question are in progress, and the 

 present note to the Academy is to be considered as only 

 preliminary to a farther discussion of the subject. 



NIMRAV1D.E AND MIOCENE CANIDAE.* 

 Prof. Edward D. Cope. 



The Nimravidce is a new group resembling the cats, but 

 differing fromthem in the presence of six pairs of foram- 

 ina which are characteristic of other families of Carnivora. 

 They are older than the Felidce occuring in Miocene for- 

 mations commencing with the lowest horizons. Some of 

 the species are supposed to occur in the upper Eocene. 

 The family includes the primitive cats, the false sabre- 

 tooths, and the primitive sabre-tooths, which correspond 

 respectively with the true cats, and the true sabre-tooths, 

 forming heterologous terms of two homologous divisions. 



The genera of Miocene Canidce in North America 

 are Amphicyon Tennocyon, and Galecynus, all distin- 

 guished by the presence of the epitrochlean foramen. 

 Other genera are Enhydrocyon and Ieticyon. 



* Read before the National Academy of Sciences, N. Y., 1880. 



fCanadian Naturalist, July, 1861, and Report Smithsonian Institution 

 for 1862 ; also Chem. and Geol. Essays. 



