i879-] 
( 5S5 ) 
N OTE S. 
Biology. 
It must be remembered that in addition to the animal and vege- 
table kingdoms certain biologists admit a third, the protistic 
kingdom, consisting of the lowest forms of life, holding a doubt- 
ful or intermediate position between animals and plants. As 
such Prof. E. Haeckel ranks the Thalamophora , Radiolaricz, 
Myxomycetes , &c. To such beings he considers it probable that 
a polyphyletic origin must be ascribed, the same forms having 
probably originated at different times and places. Vertebrate 
animals, including man, are clearly of monophyletic descent. 
From the Amphioxus to man they are the issue of one and the 
same ancestral group. As regards the Arthropods the case is 
less certain. Either the Tracheata are descendants of the 
Crustacea or the Arthropoda are in their origin diphyletic. 
Among the Echinoderma unity of origin appears certain, and 
among the Mollusca, again, it is the most probable. As regards 
the vegetable kingdom, the Phanerogams and the Prothallo- 
phytes are probably of monophyletic origin, whilst the Thallo- 
phytes are as probably polyphyletic. A similar distinction may 
be drawn as regards the organs of living beings. The author 
divides them into typical or semantic, — such as are peculiar to 
a single class, such as the dorsal cord and vertebral column of 
the Vertebrata, the tracheal system of the Tracheata, &c. These 
he considers as having been evolved only in one place and on 
one occasion. On the other hand, the asemic or atypical organs 
are found under analogous conditions in various groups, and may 
have originated independently in a number of cases. Instances 
are the locomotive, the sensient, and the sexual organs, the 
heart, &c. A similar distinction may be traced even in lan- 
guages, the higher being of monophyletic origin and the latter 
of polyphyletic. 
Dr. Bordier has communicated to the Anthropological Society 
of Paris the results of a comparative examination of the skulls 
of thirty-five murderers. All of them are of considerable size, 
resembling in this respeCt pre-historical crania, and having, like 
to them, a small frontal development with the parietal region 
predominating. These large cranial capacities are often associ- 
ated with cerebral anomalies. The author had recently in his 
employment a man, decidedly below the average in intelligence, 
whose skull, after his death, exceeded 1500 c.c. in capacity. The 
brain presented a conformation peculiar to certain pachyderms. 
The skulls of murderers present a number of defects and ano- 
