Dr Knox on the Wombat of Flinders. 107 



St Hilaire, or to the animal, the skeleton of which is now before 

 us, and which we shall call the Wombat of Flinders, is perhaps 

 a matter of little moment, since both species are undoubtedly 

 alluded to in the writings of Flinders. 



In June 1808, Sir E. Home published in the Philosophical 

 Transactions " an account of some peculiarities in the anatomi- 

 cal structure of the Wombat,"" which contains many very va- 

 luable and original observations, and, as we shall presently find, 

 is the only account of the internal anatomy of the Wombat that 

 has as yet been submitted to the public. To explain this as- 

 sertion, it will be necessary to premise the circumstances which 

 led to the discovery, that the Wombat of Flinders *, and the 

 Phascolome of Peron, however they might appertain to the same 

 genus, do yet constitute two distinct species. 



Sir Thomas Brisbane, Governor-General of Australasia, ha- 

 ving transmitted to this country a specimen of an animal much 

 resembling the Wombat, an opportunity was thus offered me of 

 dissecting this animal ; and here I may be permitted to state, 

 that, on this, as on all other occasions, my pursuits in compara- 

 tive anatomy have been forwarded to the utmost by Professor 

 Jameson, to whose kindness I owe the success I have experienced 

 in anatomical investigation. 



The first step I took before proceeding to the dissection of 

 the species of Wombat put at my disposal, was the comparing 

 of the external characters, in as far as they could be made out, 

 with the descriptions of Cuvier and of Desmarest. The result 

 of this comparison was, that the animal under examination dif- 

 fered essentially from the Phascolome of Peron, with which it 

 had been confounded by anatomists and naturalists of high re- 

 putation. Nor could it be made to agree with another genus, 

 the Koala (Cuv.) a marsupial animal described briefly in the 

 '' Regne Animale -j-."*"* 



Let us now proceed to examine the sources whence those er- 

 rors have arisen, by means of which the internal anatomy of the 



* Called so by me in honour of that truly great man. 

 •f The engraving of the Koala, as given in the 4th volume of the Regne 

 Anim^y has no resemblance in form to the animal dissected by me. 



