PAPERS READ. 



NOTE ON THE BRAIN OF 

 H ALIO ORE AUSTRALIS. Owen. (I) 



By N. DE Miklouho-Maclay. 



(Plate XXIY.) 



During a visit to the Islands of Torres' Straits in April, 1880 

 I had the opportunity of obtaining on the Island Mabiak (2; a 

 head of a Dugong, for the purpose of studying its brain. 



I I'eceived the head a very few hours after the animal was 

 killed, and proceeded, without delay, to secure the brain. It took 

 me some time to free the skull from the very thick skin (.3) and 

 the muscles of the neck. Being anxious not to injure the brain, 

 and not having examined sections of the skull of H. Australis before, 

 I thought it safer to make, instead of the stereotyped circular cut 

 of the cranium, a median longitudinal section of the same, which 

 process, however, required time and patience on account of the 

 very dense texture of the bones of the skull. 



(1) Prof. Owen separated the H. Australia from the H. indicus on 

 account of specific distinctions as : the difference in dental formula and of 

 certain osteological characters. [Vide : Notes on the characters of the 

 skeleton of a Dugong {Halicore AuatraJis) by Professor Owen, E.R.S. ; 

 published as an Appendix (No. IV. ) of the Narrative of the Surveying 

 Voyage of H.M.S. Fly, by T. Beete Jukes, London, 1847, Vol. II., p. 3-26.] 



(2) The Dugong is still very plentiful in Torres' t^traits and on the south 

 coast of New Guinea, where the natives catch them with big nets and kill 

 them by keeping the Dugong under water until he is drowned. The flesh 

 of the Dugong is relatively good to eat (when you have nothing better), it 

 is like beef, but rather coarse and dark. 



(3) The thickness of the skin of the neck and the back, after it had been 

 tanned, (for which purpose the skin had to remain about 10 months in the 

 pit) was over 25 mm. (or over 1 in.) 



