DEVELOPMENT OF THE SKULL IN THE BATRACHIA. 
The ant orbital pedicle (“ ethmo-palatine ”) (e.pa.) is now a flat tape, narrowest in 
the middle; the “post-palatine” (pt.pa.) is a similar tape passing insensibly into the 
still narrower “pterygoid” (pg-), which latter passes into the suspensorium where it 
subdivides into its three forks. 
The lowest part ends in the reniform quadrate condyle (q.) ; and the position of the 
hinge is opposite the prooticand the foramen ovale ( pr.o ., V.), instead of being in its old 
place opposite the front of the nasal capsules. 
This is, truly, only part of the way back of the condyle (see in the adult Rana pipiens , 
Plate 8, where it gets some distance behind the occipital condyle), but this is a good 
distance to be travelled whilst the legs have been growing and emerging, and the 
lungs gradually rendering the gills unnecessary. 
The spiracular cartilage ( sp.c.) has begun to take on its crescentic form, and is now 
an evident annulus tympanicus. The epi-hyal has not yet appeared, ready to become 
the columella; the cerato-hyals (fig. 10, c.hy.) are dislocated from the suspensorium, 
the hinge having become absorbed; they lie behind the first pair of clefts, which, of 
course, are between them (on each side) and the corresponding suspensorium. 
This latter part, the mandibular “ pier,” has lost all its dorsal end, the narrow 
upper tract of the “ pedicle ” having been completely absorbed. The stunted, ampu¬ 
tated part has now a flat condyle on its end, which glides on the facet formed for 
it over the front of the ear-capsule below. 
Above, the “ otic process ” (or third part) of the suspensorium ( ot.p .) has crept close 
to the fore edge of the tegmen tympani, ready for fusion ; it is already invested with 
the squamosal (sq.), which lies in front of a gentle ridge—all that remains (now) of the 
“ orbitar process.” The arches, pouches, sub-basal and basal plates of the branchial 
cartilages are reduced to a lozenge-shaped plate, ending in a pair of diverging rods, 
and ready to unite, in front, with the attenuating cerato-hyals (fig. 10, c.hy.. 
h.h.br., t.hy.). 
I shall nest describe the condition of the skull in young Frogs, when that which 
was left unfinished in the cranium, on their assumption of terrestrial life, will be seen 
to have gone on unto perfection ; and the “headstone” brought on to this graceful 
piece of vegetative architecture. 
Skulls of Young and Adult “Rankle.” 
Seventh Stage.'' —4. Skull of Rana palustris ( Cambridge , Mass., U.S .). Young 
recently metamorphosed; 11 lines long. 
The figures of this (Plate 5, figs. 6-10) and the next (figs. 1-5) stages show the endo- 
cranium with the outer bony laminae removed from one side, and retained on the other ; 
and these, whether they are bones that are permanently, or only for a time, distinct. 
* If the three early stages of the larval skull (in Bufo vulgaris) were added to these, this would be the 
Tenth Stage. 
