542 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
are no organs of special sense, unless the labial segment should be so con- 
sidered. 
The Arrangement of the Invertebrate Collection in the British Museum. — A 
letter has been addressed to Government on this subject by a person who 
signs himself “ Philocosmos.” From a perusal of his statements we commend 
his letter to the notice of our readers. His recommendations are these : — 
(1.) Let us have the whole material of the collection arranged with some 
attempt at systematic order. 
(2.) Let the “ Civil Service ” rules as to vacant appointments in this part 
of the Museum be entirely abandoned. 
(3.) The permanent class of assistant keepers of the sub-class (!) insecta of the 
invertebrata should be very materially increased. Mr. Gregory’s remarks, 
apropos of this matter, are, unhappily, too true. In a debate which took 
place upon the subject of the Museum in the House of Commons on May 
5th, this gentleman said : — “ If you went into the insect-room you would be 
glad to get out of it, so dark, dingy, and stuffy was it ; and if you asked to 
see a specimen, ten to one but you would be told that it was shut up in a 
box for want of space to exhibit it.” — Fi'de pamphlet, Hardwicke, 1865. 
Classification of the Lemurs. — Mr. St. George Mivart, of St. Mary’s 
Hospital, has just issued a reprint of his important memoir upon the above 
subject. His essay, which extends over forty closely-printed pages, details 
with minuteness the various anatomical and morphological characters which 
it is essential for the zoologist to grasp in forming a true conception of the 
relations and affinities of these interesting quadrumana. We have already 
(Popular Science Keview, No. 14) given the arguments which ~Mi\ 
Mivart advances for the separation of Lemuroidea from Anthrojioidea. W e 
now confine ourselves to his arrangement of the former. These he considers 
to be naturally divisible into the three families, Lemuridce, Tarsidce, and 
Cheiromyidce — Galeopithecus, as he believes, forming no part of the order 
Primates. To the already well-known distinctions of these three groups, he 
adds, that in the Tarsidce the third digit of the hand is the longest, while the 
second and fourth digits are nearly equal, a combination which, according to 
Mr. Mivart, occurs in no other species of the sub-order. Again, in Tarsius 
alone, of all the Lemuroidea, is the orbit closed behind by a union of the 
malar with the alisphenoid bone. This reappearance of a marked and 
exceptional character among mammals (one otherwise quite peculiar to the 
Anthropoidea) is most interesting ; as, if Tarsius is thus demonstrated to 
have a near connection with the higher Primates, then, a fortiori, the higher 
Lemuroidea must have such also ; and thus we have a strong argument 
against the complete separation, as a distinct order, of the last-named group, 
and a reason for these merely sit6-ordinal distinctions. The following is an 
outline of Mr. Mivart’s scheme of classification : — 
sub-order. family. sub-family. 
Lemuroidea. . . ■{ 
i 1. Lemuridse .. 
2. Tarsidae 
,3. Cheiromyidae 
j not space. 
