Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/262

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THE ZOOLOGIST.

In connection with the 'Geological Magazine,' it is interesting to learn from Dr. Woodward of its considerable longevity. Writing in December, 1894, he was able to announce:—"It is now more than thirty years ago since, with my friend Prof. T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., we commenced to edit the 'Geological Magazine,' Messrs. Longmans & Co. being our publishers. Out of the long list of distinguished supporters and contributors to the 'Geological Magazine' published in 1864, I rejoice that twenty-four original names still remain after more than thirty years, namely:—The Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Ducie, Sir Archibald Geikie, the Right Hon. Thomas Huxley, Sir John Evans, Prof. Prestwich, Prof. T.G. Bonney, Prof. Wiltshire, Prof. Boyd-Dawkins, Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards, Prof. Dr. A. Fritsch, Prof. A. von Koenen, Prof. E. Hull, Prof. H.G. Seeley, Mr. R. Etheridge, Mr. William Carruthers, Mr. William Whitaker, Rev. O. Fisher, Mr. James Carter, Mr. James Powrie, Mr. R.H. Valpy, Mr. G.C. Churchill, Mr. R.F. Tomes, and Mr. E.C.H. Day." This list is unfortunately not quite so complete as when published, but the magazine has lost none of its vitality.


At a meeting of the Linnean Society, held on March 3rd, Mr. W.A. Herdman read a paper by Mr. F.J. Cole, entitled "Observations on the Structure and Morphology of the Cranial Nerves and Lateral Sense-Organs of Fishes, with especial reference to the Genus Gadus." It contained the first description of the lateral-line organs of Gadus, and pit-organs were shown to be present. The author concludes that the lateral-line system of fishes was not originally metameric, and that it has nothing to do with the branchial sense-organs. He regards it and the auditory organs as parts of a system, and their nerves (viz. the superficial ophthalmic, buccal, external mandibular, lateralis, and lateral-line nerves), together with the auditory, as of a series sui generis, and shows that the so-called lateral-line nerve of Petromyzon really belongs to the lateralis accessorius system (ramus lateralis trigemini, auct), the morphology of which he fully describes. The paper dealt exhaustively both with the afore-mentioned and the subsidiary branches of the subject, which was treated in detail and historically, with an accompanying exhaustive bibliography. Prof. Howes, discussing the subject, drew attention to some observations of the cousins Sarasin, and to the experimental work of Sewall, Steiner, Lee, and others upon the auditory apparatus of fishes, which supported the author's conclusions. Referring to the investigations of Coggi, he threw out the suggestion that the secondary extension of the saccus endolymphaticus into the dorso-lateral region of the trunk—since it reaches its maximum in batrachians in which, although the tegumental canal-system is developed and lost, a partially aquatic habit is retained—might perhaps involve the auditory and lateral-