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The Muscles of Mastication and the Movements of the 
Skull in Lacertilia. 
By 
0. Charnock Bradley, M. B., 
Professor of Anatomy, Royal Veterinary College, Edinburgh. 
(Aus dem anatomischen Institut in Freiburg i. B.) 
With Plate 44. 
It will be readily admitted by any one who has had occasion to 
enquire into the matter, that the muscles of mastication and the 
movements of the skull associated with the act of mastication in 
lizards have not received that attention which the zoological position 
of Lacertilia would warrant. True it is that the literature contains 
several notable papers on the myology of various individual members 
of the group. For instance, MıvArrT has described the muscles of 
Iguana tuberculata (1) and Chamaeleon parsoniı (2); SANDERS has 
examined Platydactylus japonicus (3), Liolepis belli (4), and Phryno- 
soma coronatum (5) with regard to their musculature; and HumpHry 
has done the same for Pseudopus pallasii (6). But none of these 
writers have paid particular attention to the jaw muscles and their 
function as movers of the parts of the skull. Humpury, indeed, did 
not describe the muscles of the jaw in Pseudopus. 
Apart from the important, and as yet unsolved problem of how 
far it is possible to homologise the reptilian head-muscles with those 
of ‘mammals, there is the need of a proper understanding of the 
mechanism of mastication in a group of animals which stands so close- 
ly related to the Ophidians in which the movements of the jaws, and 
the capacity for swallowing almost incredibly large prey, are notorious. 
The present paper is not intended as a study of homologies, but 
as an endeavour to throw some light on the peculiarities in the jaw- 
movements of lizards. This field of investigation is no more a virgin 
one than most others in biological science. As long ago as 1822 
Zool. Jahrb. XVIII. Abth, f. Morph. 31 
