102 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
than his predecessors in demonstrating that the effusion in question is the 
result of an extremely anaemic condition, which is the first unusual symptom 
that presents itself. In some instances he has seen this dropsy affect both 
true and false amnion. — Vide Lancet , u Record of Sciences.” 
Homological Relations of the Scapula and Ilium. — Mr. St. George Mivart 
has j ust written an important paper upon the Echidna Hystrix, in which we 
find some novel suggestions as to the relations of the scapula and ilium. 
Mr. Mivart says that when we place the anterior and posterior limbs in a 
position for fair comparison, the two extensor borders being outwards, the 
elbow being drawn outwards and forwards, and the knee outwards and 
backwards, the suggestion naturally occurs that the bones from which they 
are suspended are rotated, as in fact they are naturally in Galeopithecus. 
This being done, the coracoid seems to answer to what Mr. Mivart believes 
to be its true liomotype, the ischium ; also the suprascapular notch seems to 
repeat the sacro -sciatic one, while the spine of the ischium with the lesser 
sacro-sciatic ligament attached to it “ recalls to mind the prominence from 
the base of the coracoid with its coracoid ligament.” Mr. Mivart thinks 
that the spine and acromium of the scapula are unrepresented in the ilium. 
In the echidna the part of the scapula which gives origin to the sub- 
scapularis looks backwards and outwards ; hence Mr. Mivart enquires, Are 
we to regard this as the natural position, and consider the position of the 
bone in the higher animals as exceptional? Mr. Mivart concludes his 
memoir with the suggestion that they should be regarded as columnar bones, 
a character which they exhibit in a high degree in chelonians. 
Duality of the Heart. — According to M. Dareste, the primitive duality 
of the heart is the immediate consequence of the primitive duality of the 
anterior lam hue of the vascular area. In reality, the blastemae, which 
farther on will form the heart, at first make their appearance as two small 
oblong masses, observable at the lower internal portion of each of these 
laminae, quite close to the point where they become united to form the 
apex of the retreating angle. These two blastemae are completely sepa- 
rated, like the laminae from which they spring. At a later stage, when the 
two laminae become united on the median line, the two cardiac blastemae 
whose development has kept pace with that of the laminae, also approximate 
on the median line, and speedily unite into a single mass, which forms 
what embryogenists have thought to be the primitive condition of the 
heart. Nevertheless, an indication of the primitive duality is still for some 
time to be met with ; it is a groove which is situated at the anterior por- 
tion of the organ, and which arises from the fact that the junction of the 
two cardiac blastemae has gone on from behind forwards, like those of the 
laminae of the vascular area, which serves to support them. — Yide I! Institute 
November. 
Origin of the Lymph Vessels. — M. Chrzonszcewsky asserts that the finer 
lymph -vessels take their rise from the anastomosing processes of the cor- 
puscles of the connective tissues. He made observations on the peritoneal 
coat of fowls whose ureters had been tied some hours before death, and 
found that when the delicate serous membrane was examined in glycerine, 
the connective tissue corpuscles were filled with a finely granular mass of 
urates, and that the lymph-vessels were also filled with the same material 
