548 Editors’ Table. (July, 
down-looking bone ; ¢. g., the lateral grooves of the distal end of 
the tibia. (4) When the inferior bones are the denser, the 
superior articular face yields; ¢. g., the distal end of the radius to 
the first row of carpals (Fig. 11). 
(5) The metapodial keels commence in the lower types on the 
posterior side of the distal extremity of the bone. This is partly 
due to the presence there of a pair of sesamoid bones, which with 
the tendons in which they are developed, sustain and press on 
the lateral parts of the extremities, and leave the middle line 
without support. 
x 6 
EDITORS’ TABLE. 
EDITORS: A. S, PACKARD, JR., AND E. D. COPE. 
Morphological biology treats of the relations of solid 
bodies of organic origin. These solid bodies are often in the 
highest degree irregular in form, as for instance, the squamosal 
bone, or the liver, of vertebrated animals. The mental handling 
of such material requires faculties which belong to the artist and 
the mechanic, together with a capacity for generalization not 
essential to either of those classes of specialists, The mastery of 
any considerable number of organic forms requires the exercise 
of a thorough analysis of them, which of course presuppose? 
good perceptive faculties. The latter form the important class 
which furnishes material to the reflective department of the mind, 
and without which the grandest powers of thought wander 
aimlessly in the search of truth, for want of fundamental 
facts. 
While a definite idea of the forms of organic bodies is neces- 
sary to the biological thinker, the power of describing them 1S 
necessary to the biological writer. It is absolutely essential that 
the describer of structure and form shall use language which 1s 
not susceptible of several meanings, and that he shall know how vid 
express contrasts when describing different objects. It is not un- 
common to find divisions or groups of various grades defined 19 
somewhat the following manner: Div.1. Legs long ; bill curved ; 
Div. u. Tail truncate; legs scaly. On reading this, the inexpe- 
rienced student is impressed with the occult wisdom of the oracle, 
while the scientist, on the other hand, feels his fulminate if 
degree denser than before. Our experience leads us cs 
