VIII BRAIN OF EDENTATES 1 65 



A subsequent study of the brain and of the muscles of these 

 animals has led to results not entirely in harmony with these 

 views. 



Dr. Elliot Smith is of opinion,^ after an exhaustive study of 

 the Edentate brain, that in this region of the body the present 

 group shows very decided points of likeness to the Carnivora ; 

 that is, so far as concerns the Anteaters. On the other hand, 

 Orycterofus is as distinctly comparable with a primitive Ungulate 

 type, such as is exemplified by Moschus. " If the brain of 

 Orycteropus," he remarks, " were given to an anatomist 

 acquainted with all the other variations of the mammalian 

 type of brain, there is probably only one feature which would 

 lead him to hesitate in describing it as an exceedingly simple 

 Ungulate brain. That one feature is the high degree of 

 macrosmatisin."^ Manis, on the other hand, does not come especially 

 near to Orycteropus. The brain of Ma-iiis conforms to a simple 

 type of architecture, which agrees in many points with both those 

 of Orycteropus and the American Edentates ; there is not sufficient 

 evidence to show" which type it really favours." Elliot Smitli 

 would, in fact, agree with Max Weber that it is better, if a 

 division is to be made, to divide tlie group into three orders : — 

 the Xenarthra (Sloths, Anteaters, and Armadillos), Tubulidentata 

 (Orycteropus), and S(|uamata (Manis), instead of into Xenarthra 

 and I^omarthra. 



Messrs. Windle and Parsons^ are disposed to see in muscular 

 similarities reasons for uniting Manis with the American Edentates, 

 though they confess to being unable to place Orycteropus; in 

 this animal, they say, " we are more struck l)y the generalised 

 mammalian arrangement of its muscles than by any special 

 Edentate characters. There are, however, two muscles in Oryctero- 

 pus which show peculiarities not foimd elsewhere than in the 

 Edentates " ; — the triceps, which has more than one scapular head, 

 and the tibialis posticus, which is double. They conclude that 

 Orycteropus " presents some feeble claims to be taken into the 

 order." 



We shall here adopt the following divisions. 



^ Trails. Linn. Soc. (2) vii. 1898, p. 277. 



- i.e. large olfactory lobes. 



^ rroc. Zool. Soc. 1899, p. 1014. 



