Lect. VII.] A PEOBOSOIDEAN INSECTIVOEE. 183 



worked out the skull of tins valued specimen, 1jut it has 

 rewarded and delighted me more than any kind I have 

 received for a long time past. If nature had triturated 

 together the germs of four or five types of Mammals, 

 and had then made this mixture grow, she could 

 scarcely have developed a more curious and composite 

 creature than this long-nosed Insectivore. When Prof. 

 Huxley propounded his oft-quoted theory of the evolu- 

 tion of the Mammalia, he might have known the struc- 

 ture and development of this type by inward light. 

 Nothing of the kind, however, is ever revealed to biolo- 

 gists in that manner, we only get our facts by opening 

 out the fine folds of organic forms with needle and 

 scissors ; we do unroll a good number of these small 

 scrolls, but it is painful and patient work. I am satis- 

 fied that no searcher after the evidences of evolution 

 ever saw anything more instructive than what I have 

 found in this small beast. 



I will make a catalogue of its characters, and then 

 close this Lecture. 



1. It is a proboscidean; the double, elongated nose-tube 

 is jointed ; there are thirty segments in the ali-nasal 

 cartilage, on each side, and these jointed tubes are both 

 united and divided by the long " inter-trabecula," or 

 continuation of the septum nasi or partition wall of the 

 nasal labj^rinth. 



2. The tympanic cavity is formed after the manner of 

 that of a Cat — a large os bullae (swollen bone) lying inside 



