PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS 
I. On the Structure and Development of the Skull in the Batrachia. —Part III. 
By William Kitchen Parker, F.R.S. 
Received April 29,—Read May 27, 1880. 
[Plates L-44.] 
INTRODUCTION. 
My first attempt at working out the morphology of the Batrachian skull (Phil. Trans., 
1871), instead of satisfying my mind, only served to increase tenfold the desire to 
know the meaning of the mysterious changes undergone by that part—the main part 
—of the organisation of the Frog. 
Since then no opportunity has been lost of laying up in store fresh and fresh 
materials for further work in this field of research. Moreover, an additional strip of 
ground has since then been cleared and cultivated (Phil. Trans., 1876); in that second 
essay I was greatly helped by Professor Huxley, who showed me what was wrong in 
the first attempt, and also cut through some of the thickest and thorniest parts of this 
tangled subject. 
I am also indebted to him for materials, and also to Professor A. Agassiz, and 
Mr. Garman (of Harvard University, U.S.) ; also to Professor Rupert Jones, Dr. 
Gunther, Professor W. H. Flower, Dr. Murie, Dr. Dobson, Mr. T. J. Moore (of 
Liverpool), W. Ferguson, Esq. (Ceylon), James Wood-Mason, Esq. (Calcutta), 
Alfred C. Haddon, Esq., and George Dines, Esq. 
Primarily, the aim of this extended research into the meaning of the skull in one 
“ Order/’ or main group, is to get light upon the great cranial problem. A second use 
will be to rectify the classification of the group itself. 
To make a systematic classification of these metamorphous animals upon such 
MDGCGLXXXI. 
V, 
