NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. ^Iv 



represented on the sculptured monuments as a cat-headed 

 fema e fig,xre and is believed to have been the same deity as 

 the I.on-headed goddess Bast. Mr. Boyd referred to the 

 various theories which have been held regarding the origin of 



and indicated that such veneration for particular animals wai 

 probably to be traced to totemism during prehistoric times. 

 The Chairman read a communication which had been for- 

 ded by Professor W. A. Herdman, D.Sc, F.R.S.E F L S 

 l^iverpool, Corresponding Member, who stated that when these 



2r'T^r7i ". "^'^^^^""^ '^^^ -^- -" - - fragmentary 

 state. The cat-heads were m various conditions, some being 

 shapeless masses thickly coated with bitumen, others having 

 fragments of the mummy-cloth still wrapped round them, an! 

 others again being simply dried, the fur (in all cases of 

 a yellowish colour) being present, and the ears, nose and 

 vibrissa, perfect. The integument and subjacent tisZ; had 

 been successfully stripped off several of the dried specimens 

 so as to produce fairiy good skulls which could be meaTuTed 

 and compared with those of their probable descendants, our 

 present domestic cat. The Egyptian skulls were about one-fif^h 

 arger than those of our present cat. Taking the latter a^ 



length of the mummy skulls would be neariy 120 mm • and 

 this greater size was almost entirely in the anterior regi;n n 

 front of the coronal suture. In the domestic cat f;om 

 occipital crest to coronal suture was about 48 mm., ank from 

 coronal suture to premaxillary symphysis 52 mm., while in Z 

 tTeTv"^ Th? --«^ measurements were 50 a'nd 70 respec- 



tively. The jaws, both upper and lower, were larger and 

 stronger in the mummies than in the domestic cat? !nd the 

 zygomatic arch was fully one-fifth wider, the numbers be ng 

 30 mm^ and 24 mm. respectively. The ancient Egyptian cat! 

 were thus notably larger in the facial region, the ^aws and 

 the zygomatic arch. In regard to the fpecles of 'the cat 

 remains, it is said that four out of the fifty so-called species of 

 Felis have been found mummied in Egypt viz F rhnTlnu 



account could be obtained of ... ..fafS '^hl^;. r. tS 

 of Ruppell was apparently synonymous with F. caTiZa t 

 wh.h^ species the specimens from Beni-Hasan probXy be! 



Mr. R Broom, M.B., CM., B.Sc, stated that Felis maniculata 

 sUll exists in a wild state in the valley of the S He 

 • See Trails. Biol. Soc Liverpool, vol. iv., p. 95. 



