527 



ftp HQwin , powers .should not have been used in 

 i> probably not so ea iiy answered; but in 

 1 MI- must -U-s of the body art ly tlie same 



length as the \crtebne. 



The depressor muscles of tbe tail, which are 



similar in .situation to the psoa\ make two very 



ridges on the lower part of the cavity of the 



belly, rising much higher than the spine, and the 



lower part of the aorta passes between them. 



Tliese two large muscles, instead of being in- 

 serted into two extremities as in the quadruped, 

 go to the tail, which may be considered in this 

 order of animals as the two posterior extremities 

 united into one. 



Their muscles, a very .short time after death, 

 lose their fibrous texture, and become as uniform 

 in texture as clay or dough, and even softer. 

 This eli not from putrefaction, as they 



continue to be free from any offensive smell, and 

 is most remarkable in the psoaj muscles, and those 

 of the buck. 



The mode in which the tail is constructed is 

 perhaps a.s beautiful, as to the mechanism, as any 

 animal. It is wholly composed of 

 tlm . of tendinous fibres, covered by the 



common cutis and cuticle : two of these layers are 

 extern : I ; the other internal. The direction of 

 the fibres of the external layers is the same as in 

 the tail, forming a stratum about one third of an 

 inch tluck ; but varying in this respect as the tail 

 is thicker or thinner. The middle layer is com- 

 posed entirely of tendinous fibres, passing directly 



