ALLEGED SEA-APE. 283 



the Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of Sir B. 

 Harwood: "In carnivorous quadrupeds the struc- 

 ture of the bones in the nasal cavity is more intri- 

 cate than in the herbivorous, and is calculated to 

 afford a far more extensive surface for the distribu- 

 tion of the nerve. In the Seal this conformation is 

 most fully developed, and the bony plates are here 

 not turbinated, but ramified as shown in the wood- 

 cut. Eight or more principal branches arise from 

 the main trunk, and each of these is afterwards 

 divided and subdivided to an extreme degree of 

 minuteness, so as to form in all many hundred 

 plates. The olfactory membrane, with all its nerves, 

 is closely applied to every plate in this vast assem- 

 blage, as well as to the main trunk, and to the in- 

 ternal surface of the surrounding cavity, so that 

 its extent cannot be less than 1 20 square inches in 

 each nostril. An organ of such exquisite sensibi- 

 lity requires an extraordinary provision for securing 

 it against injury, and Nature has supplied a me- 

 chanism for the purpose, enabling the animal to 

 close at pleasure the orifice of the nostril."* 



Roget, Brid?ewater Treatise, vol. ii. p. 402. 



