groove IS not invaginated, the resemblance is thus rendered 
very close. 
The Origin of the Vertebrate Pelvis.' — Professor 
Weidersheim presents the following hypothesis of the origin 
of the Vertebrate pelvis. The inscriptiones tendinece of the 
ventral myocommata which are immediately below the pos- 
terior limbs, develop cartilage, and unite on the middle line, 
forming the simple median pubis of the Lepidosirenids and of 
the Urodele Batrachia. In the Ceratodontidae this pubis has 
a short lateral process which is directed upwards and back- 
wards. In Lepidosirenidai this process is much more elongate, 
and is derived from a metamorphosis of the tissue of the my- 
ocomma. At its distal (superior) end it passes into fibrous 
connective tissue. This is the cartilaginous beginning of the 
ilium, which in most Batrachia and in higher Vertebrata 
reaches the vertebral column. 
A Bov WITH A Tail. — The NaUwaliste' gives a figure 
(from a photograph) and a description of a boy who lives near 
Saigon, who has a tail about eight inches long. It originates 
at the usual point, but contains no vertebra. The extremity 
is bent outwards, like the horizontal part of a crank. The 
boy has also a mammiform enlargement on each buttock. He 
ars of age. 
; about 1 
Zoological News.— Echinoderm.s.— L. Cuenot {Arch. 
Zool. Exp. ct Gen., 1888) details the anatomy of several 
brittle stars. While many of his statements do not w^ell 
admit of abstract, it may be noticed that he finds, not hae- 
moglobin as has been reported, but a colored ferment, which 
converts peptones into albuminoids. 
l^nd\y\g {Zeiisch. tviss. Zool., xlvii, 1888) describes Ophiop- 
teron elegaiis, a brittle star which apparently has the power 
of swimming ; while in the same number Brock has a revision, 
of the Ophiurids of the Indian Archipelago. 
Worms.— Voltzkow (Semper's Arbrcten viii.), investigates 
Aspidogaster conchicola, which is familiar as a type of the 
trematodes in Huxley's " Invertebrata." The ^^g undergoes 
total segmentation and is enclosed by a cellular membrane,, 
as in other Trematoda. The penis, vulva, receptaculum vitelLi, 
1 Bericht. d. Natu-forsch. Gess. Freiburg, i, e., Bd. IV., Heft. 3. 
