No. 380.] REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 591 
called odontoid processes. ‘These processes have been interpreted 
in the following way: the bodies of the atlas and axis, like those 
of most other vertebra, have each two centers of ossification, a 
cranial and a caudal one. Ordinarily all these four unite in the 
adult to form the body and odontoid process of the axis, the atlas 
having -no true body. In the exceptional cases above noted, it is 
supposed that only the caudal ossification of the atlas united with the 
body of the axis to form the odontoid process, and that the cranial 
ossification remained in place, thus producing an odontoid process 
on the atlas. G H P. 
Comparative Anatomy for Medical Students. — In the June 
number of the Columbia University Bulletin, Prof. G. S. Huntington 
has an able article on the importance of vertebrate comparative 
anatomy for medical students. The article outlines the policy which 
is shaping the teaching of anatomy in the medical department of 
Columbia, and will be encouraging to those teachers who, in prepar- 
ing students for medical studies, have insisted upon the importance 
of vertebrate comparative anatomy as a key to the interpretation of 
human structure. G H. P. 
The ‘‘claspers’’ or modified posterior edges of the pelvic fins 
of Elasmobranchs have been made the subjects of study by H. F. 
.E. Jungersen.! The skeleton, muscles, glands, and integumentary 
investments of these organs are described first in Chimzera and then 
in the sharks and rays. The probable function of these parts is 
alluded to, and while no new observations are recorded on this little- 
known subject, the inference is drawn from the structure of the parts 
that they cannot be used as “claspers” or external “ holders,” but 
they can be effective as hold-fasts only after they have been inserted 
in some opening such as the female cloaca. G H.P. 
Cope’s Lectures on Vertebrates.? — For the past half dozen years 
students of the vertebrates have found the first edition of the present 
work indispensable, as it brought into a small compass a clear and 
concise summary of all the labors of Professor Cope upon the classifi- 
cation of the vertebrates, living and extinct. As the previous edition 
1 Jungersen, H. F. E. Ueber die Bauchflossenanhange (Copulationsorgane) 
der Selachiermannchen. Anatomischer Anzeiger, Bd. xiv, pp. 499-513- 
* Syllabus of Lectures on the Vertebrata. By Edward D. Cope. With an intro- 
duction by Henry Fairfield Osborn. University of Pennsylvania, 1898. $1.25 
(paper covers $1.00). 
