SCIENTIFIC SUMMAEY. 
271 
means of suckers which exliaust the an between the foot and the surface 
(pane of glass, &c.) to which it is applied. To prove the truth of this Auew, 
he employed the air-pump, and abstracted the air from a chamber in which 
some flies were confined, when he found that they maintained their positions 
as easily as before. He appears inclined to think that then power of adher- 
ing to vertical smooth surfaces is due to a gelatinous fluid which is secreted 
by the foot-pad. 
Relatioyi bekveen the Lemurs and Higher Quadrumana. — This subject, 
which is at the same time one of the most interesting and difficult problems 
to be solved by the philosophic naturalist, has lately received the considera- 
tion of Mr. St. George Mivart, F.Z.S., &c.. Professor of Comparative Anatomy 
in St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School. Mr. Mivart’s attention having been 
concentrated for some years upon the matter in question, his conclusions are 
necessarily d iwiori of value, but they are so in an especial degree, from the 
circumstance that in his study of the Lemuridpe he has not confined himself 
to mere questions relating to size and colour (features, we regret to think, 
solely considered in too many mstances), but has made a searchmg inquiry 
into the osteological characters (particidarly those relating to the skull 
and hand) of these animals. From these investigations he was induced to 
adopt a classification of Lemuridge very different from that hitherto employed. 
Omitting Mr. Mivart’s scheme of taxological arrangement, which our space 
does not permit us to introduce, we pass to his remarks upon the relation of 
Lemurs to the other quadrumana. He proposes to divide the whole of the 
order Primates (mcluding the genus homo) into two great groups, the first 
of which he terms Anthro 2 Joidea, or man-like ; and the second Lemuroidea^ 
or Lemur-like. The following, though by no means the only distmguishing 
characters of these two sections, are, we believe, pointed out now for the 
first time : — In Anthropoidea, the internal carotid artery always passes through 
the petrous hone ; the foramen rotundum and sphenoidal fissure are distinct ; 
and the posterior corner of the hyoid hone is invariably longer than the anterior 
one. In Lemuroidea, the anatomy of the structures referred to is of an 
opposite nature.- — Mr. Mivart’s paper wa-s read before the Zoological Society 
on Tuesday, Nov. 22nd. 
The Principles involved in the Glassification of Animals. — In No. 4 of the 
first volume of the new series of the Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, we find 
an article on this subject from the pen of Dr. Dawson, a gentleman of con- 
siderable reputation as a geologist. We call attention to the paper because 
of its absolute worthlessness, and m order to caution the student (for whom 
apparently the contribution was intended) against accepting, without cpies- 
tion, the Doctor’s views. Dr. Dawson seems disposed to think that develop- 
ment is not the basis upon which classification is to be founded — at least, so 
far as concerns the divisions of the animal world into types. Some of the 
writer’s statements are amusingly erroneous, and show very fully the truth 
of the old adage, “ the shoemaker should not go beyond his last.” The 
scientific world respects Dr. Dawson’s labours in the field of geology, but 
what can it think of a naturalist who states that the divisions Coelenterata, 
Annuloida, &c., are examples of a retrograde step in zoology ? — or of a 
physiologist who defines an animal as distmguished from a mineral to be 
“ a being possessing an organisation based on cell-structures and vital force I ” 
