586 The American Naturalist. [June, 
Reptiles.—Mr. Boulenger figures in the proceedings of the Zoolog- 
ical Society of London the Python curtus of Hubrecht, a species long 
overlooked, but which is widely distributed in Malaysia, continental 
and insular, 
M. F. Bocourt describes and figures in the last number of Mision 
Scientifique de Mexique the Colubrine snakes of that country, including 
Pityophis, Spilotes, Coluber, etc. The plates are admirable. 
Prof. E. D. Cope describes, in the late Proceedings of the U.S. 
National Museum, the reptil d Batrachia obtained during the voyage 
of the U. S. Fish Commission steamer Albatross around S. America to 
the west coast of N. America. He rehabilitates the genera Batrachyla 
Bell, and Nannophryne Gthr., which were founded upon species from 
Patagonia, describes a new Zachznus from that country, and a new 
Phyllodactylus and Tropidurus, each from the Galapagos Islands. He 
shows that in Tropidurus it is the females that are more brilliantly 
colored than the males, contrary to the rule in the allied genera Scel- 
oporus and Liocephalus. The colors are red, while in Sceloporus 
they are blue. 

Mammalia.—In the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural 
History of New York, Dr. E. A. Mearns, U. S. A., describes a number 
of new Mammalia from Arizona. They are as follows: „Sciurus hud- 
sontus mogallonensis, Fiber zibethicus pallidus, Flesperomys leucopus 
arenicolus; Sigmodon hispidus arizone; Lepus allenii; L. melanotis, 
podomys merianii; D. chapmanii ; and Cynomys arizonensis. 

EMBRYOLOGY. 
Prof. Weismann on the Transmission of Acquired Epi- 
lepsy.—The chief instance favoring the transmission of acquired char- 
acters which Prof. Weismann finds difficulty in explaining is evidently 
the series of experiments with reference to artificial epilepsy in guinea- 
pigs performed independently by Brown-Sequard and Obersteiner. 
I judge that Prof. Weismann himself regards this as the case presenting 
the greatest difficulties for his theory, since he has treated it in particu- 
lar twice in the Essays upon Heredity, summarily in pages 81-82, and 
at length in pages 310-319, written in 1887, and also since he refers to 
it as . the only definite instance which has hitherto been brought for- 
ward in Support of the transmission of acquired characters.” (P. 319-) 
Prof. Weismann acknowledges the results of the experiments to be 


