Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/383

 Hay I, 1S8A.]

��not jet been discovered, the phylogcuy of the orders of placental maminals was novj luidoiibt- edly completed iu its main Teatures. The [ihylogeny of Ibe clawed groups baa been tiacecl back to a common ordinal form, the Biiiiolheria, and that of the hoofed gi'oups to llie contemporaneous order, C'ondjlarthra : while at the same time the characters of the feet of the C'ondyhirlhra agree with those of clawetl placental mummalia, and bind the series together ; the anthropoid line may also he traced directly through the lemnrs to the Condylarthra. These views were fortilietl by nnmerouB examples. Mr. .S. ]I. Scudder gave a sketch of the geological development of the ordcra of winged insecLs, in which he claimetl that no ordinal differentiation conid he detected in pideozoic insects, although all the existing otders were fully develo|>ed by Ibe middle of Lho mesozoic {wriod : he therefore held that we were to look to the ti'iassic periwi for the most interesting future discoveries in this field. Or. T. Gill exposed his latest views regaiding the orders of fislics, and introduced a specula- tive paper, hy Dr. Ryder, on the flukes of whales, which he looken as the posteri- orly transferred, hy[>crtropbied, legumentary elements of tite mammalian hind-legs, basing his ai^umeut od embryological evidence, and on the anterior transference of the front limbs and girdle in certain mammalia. T>r. J. S. Killings exhibited a series of com[>osile photo- graphs of skulls, and explained the method pursued in taking them directly from the skull : as also a method of measuriug the cuin ca- pacity of crania, devised by Dr. Matthews. This consisted briefly in the rapid use of water instead of shot or seed, aflcr rendering the skull water-tight by closing all the small open- ings with putty, spraying the interior with thin varnish, and embedding the whole skull in putty. Finally, Major I'owcU read a paper on the organization of the tribe, and the differ- entiation of kinship, distinguishing between agnatic kinship, founded upon brother groups, and eualic kinship, founded upon siator groups. The next meeting of the academy will be held iu Albany, beginniug Nov. 10.

��LETTERS TO THE Efi/TOH.

��•,' Oarrmpinidtnli a

Mr, Hampdet

��(In p. a83 of .Sdenwi? (April 3) it is staipil that *• u> call Sir Uaac Newton '*. fanatical pantUeist* ia a liappy tbouglit which would certainly iioi baie oc- curred to Everyboily.'' I trust I siiall not incnr the of IdentiH'catiiJii with the diici|>les or Mr. John

��applies to him a term at once amtroprlato and just. Surely, if sncb were tuy opinion, Tshould b« jutUfied in asserting that the KchnUum generalr. at the end of Ibe third book of the 'Frintipia' reitJa like the drivel [>f a cretin rather llian a scientinc coticluaion. While scleni'G itself tornis a grand aud lublliuc whole, — Ita only rival and sutierior being pure reason and sense, — it fs neverthelei* tnie that nothing can be more dls-

��litilH great nu^n. tn Locke's curreBponileiice with his nepliirw Sir Peter King, we perceive wlint a ileiicate matter it was Ii> have any thing to <1» with Newton in connection with th«lr precious muiual tvmUdeiices with respect to the mystical and prophetical parts of the New Testamejit. Hitherto Sir liaai-'s devotion — I may add. fanatical devotion — to theology baa never been called in quextlon. His laborious ctitlcliim of Dr. Btimetl's 'Sacred thenry of the earth' deserve* ii place among other kindred examples of human folly and irrational liuperstltion, its object being to prove that the snrfsce of the earth aflorded indubi- table evidences of the truth of the Bll<le accoual of creation. M. C, H'lJyijNK.

lllRblaDd*. Uncun conniy. N C, .\prlt IT.

A second phalanx in the thlid digit of a carin ate -bird's wing.

There ia not n 'inula adult carl iiute- bird known lifarliig two phalaJig<-s at the third illclt. JeSries {frtu: Bos(, a;e, n"l. hist., xxi. aOl-SOO) gives the following four families of birds having two phalanges in the lir»t, three phalanges In the necnnc), and one plialnnx in the third digit: the PaUmedc^te, Antei'ee, Aleotorldes, and Pygopodes. Tbe only living bird

��(ArefciB. nti'il. phyx.. 1830, 23.'!) and NlUch {OatMffr. l,HlT. nnturij.vi'iget, Leipzig, 1811,90), the o«irlcb pos- sesses only one phalanx in the third digit. The only known bird having four phalanKCB in the third digit is Arcbaeopteryx (Dames) from the litbc^apliic lime- It is evident that all birds at a former time 1 four phalai^ges in the tbinl digit; and It seemed very probable to me that rudiments of at least one phalanx more than In the adulloiisht to be found in embryos of the above four families. This probability ba'* bi'cn verified by the examlnalion of an embryo of Anas domesticaL. (length of ulna i.'! mm.), where I Hud a rudiment of a second cartilaginoui phalanx In the third digit.

I think it not improttable that the rudiment of n Ibird phalanx (if there is really a second one in the third digit) will be found In eubryos of theoslrldi, which 1 hope soon lo examine.

Du. G. Bauu.

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