SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
487 
during a long-continued period tlie temperature of the earth at different 
depths below its surface, several responders maybe permanently buried at the 
required depths. It will not be requisite to have separate questioners for 
each, as the same may be applied successively to all the different wires. 
The responder, made perfectly watertight, in which there would be no 
difficulty, might be lowered to the bottom of the sea, and its indications 
read at any intervals during its descent. In the present mode of making 
marine thermometric observations, it is necessary that the thermometer 
should be raised whenever a fresh observation is required to be made. 
ZOOLOGY AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 
Where to place Cryptoprocta ferox. — Since the singular carnivorous animal 
Cryptoprocta ferox was described by Bennet, there has been a difficulty 
as to referring the creature to its proper place in the order Carnivora. 
Bennet’s specimens were all those of young animals, and the dentition being 
incomplete, of course they offered no reliable characters for the zoologist. 
The problem is now solved. MM. Milne-Edwards and Grandidier have 
laid before the French Academy a tine memoir on this species ; in this they 
describe minutely the anatomical character of Cryptoprocta , which they place 
not in the family Viverridce , but in that of the Felidce. The Cryptoprocta is 
a plantigrade animal, and therefore it is determined to divide the Felidce , 
like the Carnivora, into two groups, Plantigrada and Digitigrada, as is the 
case with the order. The Cryptoprocta will then be placed in the first 
division, being the only representative ; while the other genera will come 
under the second section. — Vide Comptes Rendus, August 5. 
The Muscular Systems of Birds and Mammals have been contrasted in a 
paper laid before the Society Bhilomathique by M. Alix. The author arrives 
at the not very novel conclusion, that the muscular system of birds presents 
elements absent from that of mammals, and that the muscular system of 
mammals presents elements absent from that of birds. — L'lnstitut, June 29. 
Rearrangement of Asiatic Salamanders. — Mr. St. George Mivart professes 
to place one of the Asiatic salamanders, the Plethodon persimilis of Gray, in 
an entirely new genus, for which he proposes the name of Pectoglossa. 
The Fore-limb of the Great Anteater has been submitted to a careful dis- 
section by M. Pouchet, who enters into many important details. M. Pouchet 
states that in regard to the shoulder, wrist, and elbow-joints the Myrmeco- 
phaga presents many analogies with the Primates. — See the Comptes Rendus , 
July 1. 
Mammalian Blood Disks. — We have received proofs from Professor Gulli- 
ver, F.R.S., of a paper on this subject, which will appear in the Journal 
of Anatomy for November. In this the author reiterates his belief that the 
classification of Vertebrates, founded on the character of the blood-corpuscles, 
still holds good. He divides Vertebrata into two groups: — (1) Pyrencemata, 
those whose blood-disks are nucleated ; and (2) Apyrencemata, those whose 
corpuscles contain no nuclei. The former division includes the birds, reptiles, 
batrachians, and fish. The latter includes the mammalia only. Professor 
Gulliver concludes by stating that the corpuscles are as valuable indications 
