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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
of minute experiments to illustrate the action of this organ, and of exhihitino* 
to what applications the physometer may he employed. 
Hybridism between Macacas nemestrinus, and M. cynomolqus. At 
a late meeting of one of the American Academies Mr. Gentry called 
attention to what he regarded as a rare and remarkable case of 
hybridism, which occurred between Macaciis nenwstrinusj male, and 
Macaeus cynomolgus, female. After exhibiting an alcoholic specimen 
of the young, and a stuffed specimen of the mother ; which was 
clearly identified as Macacus cynomolgus, he detailed the leading 
characters of the two parents. He stated that the male differed from the 
female in being more i-obust and of greater dimensions, in the almost 
perfect smoothness of the face, which is of a pale flesh colour, while in the 
female it is black and invested with a close growth of short black hairs; in 
the absence of a crest upon the head of the male, which is a prevailing cha- 
racteristic of the species {M. nemestrinus), and its presence in the female, 
which is a prominent feature of the species to which she belongs ; in colour ; 
and, lastly, in the unequal development of the caudal appendage, which in 
the male is about seven inches in length, and densely clothed with long 
hairs, while in the female it is twice the length, and nearly naked for more 
than two-thirds of its extent. 
Zoological Dejmition. — Dr. Hudson, in reading a paper on the question, 
whether Pedalion was a Rotifer, made the following interesting observations 
on the above subject : — “ It is easy enough to define the typical form of a 
natural group of animals, or even to include in the definition forms that 
must be placed pretty near the central one ; but in the ambitious search for 
definition which shall include many families, as we get further away from 
the typical form, we find that one by one all the positive statements are 
disappearing from our definition, till at last we have nothing left but the 
mere shuck of a proposition, shelled of everything worth the stating. Take 
the definition of one of the zoological manuals ; — ^ Rotifers are microscopic 
animals, contractile, with vibratile cilia at the anterior part of the body, 
which by their motion often resemble a wheel moving rapidly. Intestine 
distinct ; terminated at one extremity by a mouth, at another by an anus ; 
generation oviparous, sometimes viviparous.’ Now there are Rotifers that 
have no ^ vibratile cilia at the anterior part of their bodies,’ others that 
have no intestines or anus, so that including these the above definition must 
shrink down into ‘Rotifers are very small animals that lay eggs.’” — 
Monthly Microscopical Journal, Nov., 1872. 
Royal Institution. — The two Actonian Prizes of 105/. have been awarded 
by the Managers of the Royal Institution to the Rev. George Henslow and 
to B. Thomson Lowne, M.D., for Essays “ On the Theory of the Evolution of 
Living Things.” 
