322 
SCIENCE. 
SOME RECENT AMERICAN PAPERS IN COM- 
PARATIVE ANATOMY. 
Marsh, O. C. — The limbs of Sauranodon , with notice of a new species. 
American Journal o '/ Science , Feb. 1880, pp, 169-171 ; 1 figure. 
Morse, E. S. — On the Identity of the Ascending Process of the Astrag- 
alus in Birds with the Intermedium. Anniversary Memoirs of the Boston 
Society of Natural History, 1880 ; pp. 10, 1 plate, 12 figures. 
Chapman, H. C. — The Placenta and Generative Apparatus of the Ele- 
phant. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences cf Philadelphia, 
VIII, 1880. 4 plates, 1 figure, n pages. 
Chapman, H. C.— On the structure of the Orang Outang. Proceed- 
ings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 1880. 16 pages, 7 plates. 
Among the many surprises which science owes to the 
paleontological discoveries of Professor Marsh, few are 
more notable than the condition of the limbs in Saura- 
nodon. In the present paper Professor Marsh describes 
the limbs with some detail, and gives a figure of the left 
hind paddle of Y. discus. In each limb the proximal seg- 
ment consists of a single bone which undoubtedly repre- 
sents the humerus or femur. The following four seg- 
ment consist respectively of three, four, five and six ap- 
proximately discoid pieces, which are interpreted as repre- 
senting the bones of the antebrachium or crus, the two 
rows of the carpalia or tarsalia, and the metacarpalia or 
metatarsalia of the ordinary vertebrate limb. 
Regarding the carpalia or tarsalia as constituting a 
single segment, Professor Marsh suggests the following 
general names for the corresponding segments in the two 
limbs : propodia], epipodial, mesopodial, metapodial, and 
phalangial ; since the latter two terms have already been 
employed there seems to be no reason why the other 
three should not be accepted. 
The figure seems to demonstrate the normal presence 
in this fossil reptile of six distinct digits or dactyls. 
“ This is a character not before observed in any air- 
breathing vertebrate. Some of the Amphibians retain 
remnants of a sixth digit, and Ichthyosaurus often has, 
outside of the phalanges, one or more rows of marginal 
ossicles that probably represent lost digits. With these 
exceptions, the normal number of five is not exceeded.” 
This condition of things in Sauranodon is worthy of 
consideration in view of the not infrequent occurrence of 
se xdigitism with man and others of the higher vertebrates. 
Darwin had suggested that this anomaly might be due to 
reversion, but (The Descent of Man, i, 120, note) after- 
ward reluctantly abandoned the hypothesis in consequence 
of Gegenbaur’s denial of the existence of more than the 
regular number of digits in the Ichthyopteriga. His 
original view is now strengthened by Professor Marsh’s 
account of the limbs of Sauranodon, but does not yet 
serve to explain the occurrence of more than six digits 
with man, the cat, and perhaps other mammals. 
The other striking peculiarity of the sauranodont limb 
is the presence of three epipodial elements. All of them 
articulate with the humerus or femur, and Prof. Marsh 
suggests that the intermediate one represents the os in- 
termedium which, in most air-breathing vertebrates, is 
more closely associated with the mesopodial bones. He 
thinks its proper place is indicated in Sauranodon, but 
that, “in the process of differentiation this bone has been 
gradually crowded out of its original position.” 
In the paper cited Prof. Morse offers a different inter- 
pretation ; “That the bone which he (Marsh) indicates 
as the intermedium is really the fibula, and the bone 
which he represents as the fibula is an outer tarsal bone 
which, with its metatarsal and phalangeal bone in series 
becomes obliterated in time ; that, in the process of dif- 
ferentiation, the intermedium is as likely to be partially 
compassed by the distal extremities of the tibia and fibula, 
as that a third bone of this (epipodial) segment had been 
crowded down into the tarsal series.” Pending the dis- 
covery of new facts in paleontology, embryology, or com- 
parative anatomy, it is probable that most anatomists will 
be predisposed toward the view of Professor Morse. 
1 hose who are interested in the general morphology 
of the vertebrate limb should not fail to read the sugges- 
tive facts and considerations presented by Prof. Huxley 
in his paper on Ceratodus, Proc. Zool. Soc. of London, 
Jan. 4, 1876. 
Most of Professor Morse’s paper consists in the presen- 
tation of facts in corroboration of the opinion advanced 
by him in 1872, that the intermedium is represented in 
most birds by the so-called “ ascending process of the 
astragalus” which, in an embryo heron, had been found 
by the late Professor Jeffries Wyman to have a separate 
centre of ossification. Figures are given of the parts as 
they exist in several aquatic species, and there seems to 
be no reason for doubting the correctness of Professor 
Morse’s conclusions. Our author also reproduces 
Cuvier’s figure of the tarsal region of the “ Honfleur Rep- 
tile,” afterward named by Cope Lalaps GallicUs, and 
Cope’s figures of the same parts of Lalaps and Ornitho- 
tarsus. He considers that the intermedium is distinctly 
represented as an ascending process with Lalaps, but is in 
doubt as to Ornithotarsus, whether it is “represented by 
the enlargement of the tibiale in front, or was a separate 
bone which occupied the tossa on the anterior face of the 
tibia.” The manus of the sea-pigeon (Uria grylle) is 
figured to show the interesting presence of “rudimentary 
nails on the second and third fingers, (index and 
medius).” 
Dr. Chapman has profited by the unusual opportunities 
afforded to a zealous anatomist by the extensive zoologi- 
cal garden of Philadelphia, and by the large menageries 
which sometimes have their winter-quarters in the same 
city, and the papers here cited contain important contri- 
butions to our knowledge concerning two forms whose 
structures and functions are far from thoroughly known. 
A young Indian Elephant was born on the 9th of March, 
1880, the gestation having lasted either twenty months 
and twenty days, or twenty-one months and fifteen days, 
according as it is dated from the last or the first of the 
seven observed opportunities for its commencement. 
“ Immediately after birth the mother rolled the young 
one in the straw. The young elephant, a female, stood 
30 inches (about 75 cm.) in height, measured from base 
of trunk to root of tail 35 inches (about 88 cm.), and 
weighed 213^ pounds (about 97 kilograms). It was per- 
fectly formed and well-developed ; it was noticed imme- 
diately that it sucked with the mouth, and not with the 
trunk, as Buffon reasoned it must do — an error so often 
repeated in works on Natural History. 
Dr. Chapman was fortunate enough to obtain the fresh 
membranes, and to have them well injected. The figures 
and descriptions indicate that, as Turner had concluded 
from less perfect materials, the placenta of the elephant 
is deciduous as in the Primates and Carnivora, and zonu- 
lar as in the latter group. 
The generative apparatus of the female elephant pre- 
sents some peculiar features, and although our author 
begins his concluding paragraph by saying, “ it appears 
to me that there can be little doubt now that the gener- 
ative organs in both species of elephant are understood,” 
yet his admission, in a foot note, that what he had called 
vagina may be really an elongated cervix uteri, will lead 
other anatomists to avail themselves of any opportunity 
that may present in itself for further study of this portion 
of the proboscidean structure. 
The anatomical account of the Orang is full of interest- 
ing facts and ideas, but most of them have been outlined 
already in No. 25 of this Journal. Like nearly all of 
the Orangs, whose brains have been examined, this ex- 
ample was young, estimated to be about three years old. 
The immaturity of the brain, together with the probability 
of considerable individual variation in the details of the 
cerebral fissures, should be taken into account in estimat- 
ing the resemblances and differences with respect to man 
and the other anthropoids. Possibly these considerations 
may apply also to the somewhat mooted question as to 
the extent to which the occipital lobes of the cerebrum 
project over the cerebellum. Here, however, there enters 
