502 The American Naturalist. [June, 



seen by him to run thirty or forty feet at a stretch, in an erect position 

 on their hind legs, and when after resting momentarily on their 

 haunches, to resume a running course. The conformation of the hind 

 foot is such that when running only the three central digits rest upon the 

 ground. Consequently the track made by this lizard in passing erect 

 over wet sand would correspond with such as are left in mesozoic strata 

 by various Dinosauria (Nature, Feb., 1896). Mr. Kent suggests 

 affinities with the latter order; but these do not exist, as Chlamydo- 

 saurus is a typical Lacertilian. It is not the only lizard that progresses 

 on its hind legs, as Mr. Francis Sumichrast pointed out several years 

 ago that a species of the Iguanid genus Corythophanes found in Mexico 

 has the same habit.— (Ed.) 



The Palatine Process of the Mammalian Premaxillary.— 

 While engaged in the study of the comparative anatomy of Jacobson's 

 Organ, Mr. R. Broom came across some interesting facts in connection 

 with the palatine process of the mammalian premaxillary, which he 

 puts on record in the Proceeds, of the Linnean Soc, N. S. W., Vol. X, 

 1895. From his observations he concludes that the os paradoxum in 

 Ornithorhyncus, the anterior vomer (Wilson) in Ornithorhynchus, the 

 anterior paired vomer in foetal Insectivora, etc. (Parker), the prepala- 

 tine lobe of vomer in Caiman (Howes), and the vomer in Lacertilia 

 and Ophidia (Owen, Parker, etc.), are homologues or synonyms of the 

 process under discussion. He therefore suggests the name prevomer, 

 to cover all the designations which the different forms of this ossification 

 has received. (Proceedings of the Linnaan Soc. of N. S. Wales). 



New formation of nervous cells in the Brain of the 

 Monkey, after the complete cutting away of the occipital 

 lobes.— It is known that the noviformation in the nervous cells in the 

 nervous centres and above all in the brain has not yet received a 

 definite solution. There has been made, however, a number of researches 

 on this important question, but the contradictory results arrived at, 

 have not as yet advanced our knowledge on this subject. On the con- 

 trary, the conclusions arrived at by M. G. Marinesen, presented to the 

 Society of Biology in 1894, are that the cells and nervous fibres of the 

 nervous centres do not grow again after their destruction. 



In pursuing his studies on the physiology of the occipital lobes, M. 

 Alex. N. Vitzou has discovered the presence of cells and of nervous 

 fibres in the substance of noviformation, in the Monkey, two years and 

 two months after the complete cutting away of the occipital lobes. The 

 entire extirpation of these lobes results, as is known, in a total loss of 



