1876.] 071 the Auditory Ossicles of the Mammalia. 101 



species only occur in shallow water, and apparently not in great abund- 

 ance. In deeper water, however, the Stylasteridse are most luxuriant. 

 Immense quantities of a large flabellate red Disticliopora, brought from 

 the Marquesas group, are sold to tourists at Honolulu. The corals are 

 said to come from deep water. The results of the ' Challenger's ' dredg- 

 ing off the Eio de la Plata in 600 fathoms showed that at that depth 

 very considerable deposits of calcareous matter must be formed by these 

 various genera of hydroid corals, growing associated as they do in masses 

 and attached to one another. Large dead masses of Folypora brought 

 up by the dredge were especially remarkable, weighing more than 1 lb., 

 and forming bases of attachment for sponges and all kinds of other 

 animals. 



I am at present engaged in preparing a series of drawings illustrative 

 of the anatomy of the Stylasteridae, which I hope shortly to lay before 

 the Royal Society, together with a more complete account of the struc- 

 ture of these corals. 



South Atlantic, 

 March 24, 1876. 



III. On the Comparative Anatomy of tlie Auditory Ossicles of the 

 Mammalia.^' By Alban H. Gr. Doran^ F.R.C.S. Communi- 

 cated by Professor rLOWER_, F.E.S. Eeceived May 5^ 1876. 



(Abstract.) 



The following observations have been made during the preparation of 

 a series of the small ear-bones of the higher Yertebrata for the Museum 

 of the Eoyal College of Surgeons of England, an undertaldng which was 

 commenced in the autumn of 1874, and is in the course of rapid enlarge- 

 ment up to the present date. 



The foundation of the entire series was a small collection of the 

 osseous auditory apparatus of the domestic and common indigenous 

 animals of G-ermany, purchased by the College of Dr. Max Hiibrich, of 

 Munich, a few years since. PoUoA^ing the suggestions of the Conserva- 

 tor, Professor W. H. Plower, P.E.S., the author succeeded in removing 

 from the crania of mammals in the College Museum a sufficient number 

 of auditory ossicula to illustrate the characters of those bones in most 

 o£ the important subdivisions of that class of vertebrated animals. 

 Numerous additions from rare specimens have been obtained through 

 the kindness of Sir Victor Brooke, Bart., Professor Parker, Professor 

 A. H. Grarrod, and other gentlemen. 



These observations are now brought forward with the object of 

 demonstrating how far the characteristics of the auditory ossicles of the 

 different orders of the Mammalia accord with those distinctions through- 

 out the whole organization which have assisted anatomists up to the 

 present day in giving a definite position to each member of the class. 

 Dr. Hyrtl has already published a well-known work on the Comparativ e 



