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XXI. Contributions to the Anatomy of the Central Nervous System in Vertebrate 
Animals. 
By Alfred Sanders, M.R.C.S., F.L.S., formerly Lecturer on Comparative 
Anatomy at the London Hospital Medical College . 
Communicated by Professor Huxley, LIj.D., F.R.S. 
Received February 16,—Read March 9, 1882. 
[Plates 59-63.] 
Part I. — Ichthyopsida. Section I.— Pisces. Subsection I.— Teleostei. 
Appendix. 
On the Brain oe the Mormyrid^e. 
Marcusen" has given a very good resume of the zoological history of this family 
from the time of their first discovery by Hasselquist, a pupil of Linneus, up to the 
date of the publication of his paper by the St. Petersburg Academy, and as his treatise 
is easily accessible there is no occasion for my going into that part of the subject here. 
The external appearance of these Fishes gives no indication at all of anything extra¬ 
ordinary in the structure of the brain, and as the zoologist above referred to, did not 
pay much attention to anatomy, more than half a century elapsed before any steps 
were taken in that direction. 
One of the species at least was very well known to the ancient Egyptians, to whom 
it was a sacred animal, and its portrait is even now quite easily distinguishable on some 
of the monuments. 
A figure of one species is to be found in vol. 19, p. 250, of Cuvier and Valenciennes’ 
£ Histoires Naturelles des Poissons Buppel,! also, has given plates of three species. 
The position in nature of this family is defined in Dr. Gunther’s catalogue of fishes. 
ErdlJ was the first anatomical writer who mentioned any peculiarity about the 
* Die Familie der Mormyren. Mem. de l’Acad. Imperiale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, vii e serie, 
tome vii., 1864. 
t Bescbreibung u. Abbildungen mekrerer neuer Fische im Nil entdeckt, 1829 to 1835. 
t Reber d. G'ehirn der Fiscbgattung Mormyrus. delekrte Anzeigen herausgegeben von Mitgliedern 
der K. Bayer. Akad. der Wiss., Bel. 23, 1846, 
MDCCCLXXXII. 6 c 
