480 



Of possibly more interest is the comparison of the skeleton of the 

 lion with that of man age for age. When such a comparison is made, 

 it appears that a lion of two and a half years has the bones of its 

 limbs in approximately the same condition as has the human subject 

 at about the seventeenth or eighteenth year. In the lion of two years 

 and five months the distal epiphysis of the tibia is almost completely 

 fused to the shaft ; such fusion occurring in man about the eighteenth 

 year. Ossification of the distal end of the humerus is complete; thus 

 approximating the condition of the humerus in the human subject of 

 sixteen to eighteen years. Fusion of the proximal epiphysis of the 

 lion's radius takes place, apparently, when the animal is about two 

 and a half years old ; whereas in man it occurs between the eighteenth 

 and twentieth years. It is quite evident that this comparison 

 must not be pushed too far, because of the scanty nature of the data 

 upon which it is based, and because of certain differences in the order 

 in which the various epiphyses fuse with the bodies of the bones of 

 the lion as compared with those of man. At the same time it is not 

 without interest and value to discover, as far as possible at what 

 periods different mammals attain to like physical conditions. 



Since Parsons ^), within the last few weeks, has cast some doubt 

 upon the importance hitherto attached to the direction of the arterial 

 foramina of the long bones of the limbs as affecting their growth and 

 development, and has cited several mammals in which it is not the 

 same as in man, it may not be out of place to remark that in the 

 humerus, radius and ulna of the lion the foramen is directed towards 

 the elbow; in the femur it runs towards the hip, and in the tibia to- 

 wards the tarsus. In other words, the arterial foramina of the limb 

 bones of the lion are disposed, so far as direction is concerned, in a 

 manner similar to those of the human subject. Furthermore, in the 

 lion, as in man, the epiphysis at that extremity of the bone towards 

 which the foramen is directed joins the shaft at an earlier period than 

 does that at the extremity away from which the foramen inclines. 



1) F. G. Parsons, On Pressure Epiphyses. Journ. Auat. and Phys., 

 Vol. 39, July 1905, p. 402. 



Abgeschlossen am 23. September 1905. 



Frommannsohe Ituchdruckerei (Hermann Pohle') in Jena. 



