1880.] Mammalogy in the United States in 1879. 163 
cies of Canide of this paper are Temnocyon corypheus and Icticyon 
crassivultus 
In the same part of these Proceedings (April—October) Mr. H. C. 
Chapman describes the placentation of Macacus cynomolgus, and 
an earlier one by the same author is on the anatomy of the Chim- 
panzee, illustrated with four plates. Mr. John A. Ryder continues 
from his paper of 1878 (pp. 45-80) his notes on the mechanical 
Genesis of tooth forms, seeking to show the modes in which the 
teeth of mammals are modified by movements of the jaws in mas- 
tication, through a long series of generations; reaching the con- 
clusion “that mechanical strains and impacts had probably been 
the secondary causes to which the origin of the various forms of 
teeth might, in a large measure, be attributed.” He here offers 
some new evidence based upon more accurate observations of the 
mode in which herbivorous ungulates masticate their food. In the 
same line of research, Mr. Cope has a paper on the origin of the 
specialized teeth of the Carnivora, in the Naruraist for March, 
1879, p. 171. 
Other articles on recent Mammalia by the same author in the 
Same journal, are on the California gray whale, p. 655; on the 
Japanese lap dog, p. 655, and a paper on the zodlogy of Mon- 
tana, p. 433. Various other brief articles or notes on mammals 
in the Naruratisr need not be more than alluded to here. 
The Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey contains 
two important papers, by Mr. Allen, on the genera Maswa and 
Bassaris, in which the specific characters and very complicated 
Synonymy of the two species of each genus which the author al- 
lows to stand, are carefully worked out. a 
For the rest, several of the newspapers of semi-scientific char- 
acter give a fair space to game mammals, as they do to birds; 
Forest and Stream and the Chicago Field are to be specially men- 
tioned in this connection. Among other subjects the question of 
hydrophobia from the bite of the skunk has occupied a prominent _ 
place; the contributions, however, being mostly the experiences of a 
Unscientific observers. It seems to be established: (1.) That skunk - 
bite may produce a fatal disease undistinguishable from rabies 
Canina, or ordinary hydrophobia; (2.) that skunk bite may be — 
skunk bite only results under a rabid condition of the animal. 
perfectly innocuous, and therefore, (3.) that hydrophobia seo : 
No peculiarities of the case, as distinguished from that of a mad 
