Mamm, 1 
MAMMALIA. 
BY 
W. L. Sclater, B.A., F.Z.S. 
I.— INTRODUCTION. 
The history of Mammals during the year 1886 has not been signalized 
by the appearance of any work containing very remarkable or novel 
discoveries, but a large number of papers have been written, many of 
which contain facts and deductions of much value. Perhaps those of 
most interest, as bearing on the phylogeny of Mammals, are three 
embryological monographs : Parker (286), on the development of the 
skull in the Insectivora and Edentata, which throws considerable light on 
the relations and descent of these ancient and decaying forms ; Selenka 
(342), which has solved many of the disputed points in the development 
of Marsupials, more especially with regard to the yolk-sac and allantois ; 
and Deniker (94), which treats of the development of the anthropoid 
Apes, and gives a careful comparison of the foetus of a Gorilla with a 
human foetus of the same age. Cunningham (88) has also contributed 
to our knowledge of the anthropoid Apes , and in the same paper has dis- 
pelled the hitherto prevalent idea that the lumbar curve of the spinal 
column is peculiar to man, and due to his upright position. 
In Mammalian palaeontology much work has been done. Schlosser 
(330) has written an account of the fossil Ungulata , and of his views 
with regard to their origiu and descent from early Eocene times. 
Lydekker (216-223) in England, Filhoe (115) in France, Cope (75-83) 
in North America, and Ameghino (17-19) in the Argentine Republic, have 
described a large number of new fossil types. 
Another feature of the year’s work is the very large number of papers, 
and some of considerable importance, that have been written on the 
subject of the Cetacea, both recent and extinct. Albrecht (4) con- 
siders the Whales to be the most primitive of all Mammals, and the most 
nearly allied to the ancestors of Mammalian life (“Promammalia”). 
Weber (390) writes on the anatomy of Whales, but agrees with the 
more sober and more generally accepted view of the nearer relations of 
1886. [VOL. XXIII.] B 1 
