196 Archiv fur Anatomie Physiologie 



" We hope to return in April of next year, by which time the principal object 

 of the tour will be, I think, satisfactorily attained. This object is to make every 

 possible research relative to tbe locality of the true Thea (wild and indigenous) 

 in Upper Assam. I need not say that I reckon on making with Mr Griffith 

 enormous collections of plants, — -nor need I add that I desire especially to send 

 you a good part. I shall address the whole to the Indian Company, but I wall 

 expressly demand that the duplicates be delivered to you, and I know too well 

 the munificence of the Directors to doubt that my request will not be complied 

 with. Government has been very liberal in the dispositions whichj it has made for 

 our mission to Assam, both to myself and to my assistants. I shall take with 

 me several artists and gardeners, and if I can display the same ardour and ener- 

 gy that I had in my first expeditions, I believe I shall obtain good results. I 

 confess, however, that twenty-eight years sojourn in India has enfeebled me both 

 in body and mind ; — so that the best guarantee for my success rests on the inap- 

 preciable advantage of having such excellent fellow-travellers." 



The other papers in this number of the Annales are copied from the " Flora," 

 with the exception of the last, entitled Animadversiones botanicce nonnulla nova- 

 rumque aut non rite cognitarum plantaram diagnoses, audi. F. E. L. Fisher et 

 C. A. Meyer. 



Archiv filr Anatomie Physiologie und Wissenschaftliche Medicin, 



fyc. Von Dr Johannes Muller. G. Eichler, Berlin, Heft i. 



1836. 8vo. 



The first article is by Dr Bischoff of Heidelberg, on the structure of the heart 

 and circulation of the blood in Crocodiles The opinion and observations of se- 

 veral authors who have written on this subject, as Cuvier, Panizza, Goldfuss, 

 Meckel, &c. are compared and commented on. Dr Bischoff seems to think 

 that the opinions of Cuvier have not been fully borne out by more recent obser- 

 vations, and that the arterial system of these animals is more nearly allied to that 

 of the Mammalia and Aves than was supposed the case by that great authority. 

 We cannot be much surprised at the existence of discrepancies, when we recol- 

 lect the obscurity in which the whole subject was involved, when the great pro- 

 fessor commenced his labours, and when we consider the difficulty even now, 

 of procuring the dissection of living adults of the greater part of the genus. 



It appears that some differences in the internal structure of the species have 

 already been observed, and we have no doubt that, as investigation is carried far- 

 ther, that others will be found. In habits some of these creatures differ con- 

 siderably from others. Crocodilus lucius, which is found in the Floridas and 

 other southern provinces of the United States, passes the winter buried in the 

 mud in a state of entire torpor, so that it may be cut in pieces without showing any 

 signs of life. This habit is, we believe, unknown to the intertropical species, 

 from the very obvious cause, that the equality of the high temperature they live 

 in, does not require it — Another species, the C. sclerops, which lives in the 

 Maranon and Guiana, is subject, from the exisccation of marshy districts, in certain 

 seasons to be left dry for considerable periods. The great gavial of the Ganges, 

 C. longirostris, is entirely piscivorous and harmless to man, although it attains 

 very large dimensions, whilst the common crocodile, which abounds in the same 

 river, is extremely ferocious, and lives in a great measure on the bodies which 



