REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 
ZOOLOGY. 
Reptilian Affinities of Primitive Mammals. — Sixta’ has inves- 
tigated the osteology of the foot in monotremes with the view of 
ascertaining the affinities of this primitive group of mammals. The 
monotremes possess a humerus with an epicondyloid foramen like 
that in reptiles, especially in the fossil Dimetrodon. Their radius, 
ulna, and carpal elements are arranged on the primitive reptilian 
plan, and yet their front feet are not unlike those of some mar- 
supials (Dasyurus). In the hind foot the astragalus and calcaneum 
resemble those of reptiles, and the foot, on the whole, is oriented 
as in that group. The tarsals are as numerous as in the marsupials, 
but their forms and positions are typically monotrematic. The 
structure of the hind foot indicates an intermediate position for the 
monotremes between reptiles and marsupials. This opinion is 
further supported by a large body of evidence drawn from other 
organs, such as the heart and chief blood vessels (Hochstetter), the 
brain (Ziehen, Smith), the copulatory organs (Gadow), the embryonic 
membranes (Semon), the teeth (Poulton, Cope, Osborn), and skull. 
P. 
Anatomical Miscellanies. — The three numbers of the Hopkins 
Hospital Bulletin? for April, May, and June are combined into a 
single part and devoted to a collection of some twenty-three essays, 
mostly anatomical The series opens with Barker’s address on 
the Study of Anatomy, delivered at the Rush Medical College in 
October, 1900; Bardeen describes a new carbon-dioxide freezing 
microtome, Born's wax-plate reconstruction method as used in the 
Anatomical Laboratory at Hopkins, and calls attention to the 
Importance of ordinary dissection-room material in scientific study. 
The cold-storage method of preserving bodies for dissection is dwelt 
* Sixta, V. Vergleichend-osteologische Untersuchung über den Bau der Füsse 
der Reptilien, Monotremen, und Marsupialier, Zool. Anzeiger, Bd. xxiv (1901), 
- 321-332. 
? Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, vol. xii, Nos. 121-122, 125, April- 
May-June, rgor. 
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