21 
Often the tail is thin and nearly naked, as in Rats and Mice. 
These tails are always of use to balance the body; but in some 
cases there is a further development; the end of the tail has a 
grasping power, and becomes prehensile. Many of the South 
American animals have these grasping tails, by which they can 
hang from the branches of trees. Some of the Oposums have an 
odd habit of carrying their young ones on their backs; and the 
little ones twine their tails round their mother’s tail to keep them- 
selves steady. 
In many kinds of Bats the bones of the tail help to support the 
flying membrane, which extends between the legs. In some other 
kinds of Bats the tail actually passes through a hole in the mem- 
brane to the upper side. 
Lastly, some mammals have the tail qaite short and rudimen- 
tary, so as even to be invisible externally, This happens in many 
different orders of mammals. Among the Australian marsupials, 
there is the Wombat; among rodents, the Guinea-pig ; among 
hoofed animals, the Peccary. A few of the highest apes, such as 
the Gorilla and Chimpanzee, are as tailless as Man himself. But 
even in the human skeleton a tail is clearly to be seen, composed of 
several vertebre soldered together to form the bone called the 
coccyx. In Man, as in all other short-tailed Vertebrates, the tail 
is much longer, in proportion to the body, at an early stage of 
development. 
The tail of Vertebrates may therefore be traced through all the 
different classes, changing wonderfully from the original shape, as 
a backward prolongation of the body, bordered by a fin, used for 
swimming in water. But yet all the forms, whatever uses they are 
put to, whether highly developed or quite rudimentary, may be 
viewed as directly descended from a swimming organ, like that of 
the common tadpole 
The paper was illustrated by diagrams showing the development 
of the tail throughout the various classes of the animal kingdom. 
A vote of thanks was passed to the writer. 
Mr. Walton exhibited some lichens, and also a specimen of the 
fruit of Sagas amicarum. 
Marca 107a. 
The snowfall was so heavy and persistent that the meeting was 
necessarily postponed. 
