296 ON THE ANATOMY OF 



P.z.s.1882, 51. ON SOME POINTS IN THE ANATOMY OF THE 

 P- 287 - GREAT ANTEATER (MYRMECOPHAGA JUBATA)* 



(Plate VIII.) 



THE literature relating to the anatomical structure of the Edentata, 

 though very considerable, is unfortunately much scattered, and with 

 many blanks as regards special points. The genus MyrmecopJiaga may 

 be considered thanks chiefly to the labours of Owent and PouchetJ, 

 who have elaborately described many parts of its organization to be the 

 best known, as regards anatomical structure, of all the existing Anteaters. 

 Two adult female specimens of this animal having lately passed through 

 my hands in my prosectorial capacity, I have had the opportunity of 

 confirming a large part of the already published accounts of its anatomy, 

 as well as of correcting, or adding, certain details, which I now lay before 

 the Society. 



1. Alimentary Canal and Appendages. The palate (fig. 1, p. 297) is 

 not absolutely smooth, but presents anteriorly a series of irregular 

 transverse ridges notched along their margin, best developed and nearly 

 meeting mesially anteriorly, posteriorly becoming much more oblique 

 backwards and less regular, the ridges not being opposite each other but 

 more or less alternating. In all there are about seven of these ridges. 



* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1882, pp. 287-302. Bead March 7, 1882. 



t "On the Anatomy of the Great Anteater," Part I., Trans. Zool. Soc. iv. pp. 117- 

 140, pis. xxxvii.-xl. ; Part II., 1. c, pp. 179-181, pis. li.-liii. 



J Memoires sur le Grand Fourmilier : Paris, 1874. 



In addition to these, there are brief references to Myrmecophaga jubata in Rapp's 

 'Edentaten' (2e Aufl., Tubingen, 1852), and Prof. Flower's Hunterian Lectures 

 (Med. Times and Gazette, Nov. 30, 1872, p. 591 ). The submaxillary glands have been 

 described by Gervais (C. E. Ixix. pp. 1110, 1111 [1869]); and the brain by the same 

 author (" M6moire sur les formes cer6brales propres aux Edentes vivants et fossiles," 

 Nouv. Arch. Mus. v. pp. 1-56, pis. i.-v.), and by G. Pouchet (" Memoire sur 1'encephale 

 des Edentes," Kobin's Journal de TAnatoniie, 1868, pp. 658-675, and 1869, pp. 1- 

 18, &c.). 



The first of these, from Buenos Ayres (spec, d of the List of Vertebrates), was 

 presented to the Society by the Hon. L. S. Sackville West (now H. B. M.'s Minister 

 at Washington) on Sept. 7, 1877. It died Nov. 29, 1881, from severe inflammation of 

 the connective tissues lying in and around the submaxillary glands. 



The second (specimen a) was presented so long ago as October 4, 1867, by Dr. J. A. 

 Palin, C.M.Z.S., and, after living for more than fourteen years in the Society's Gardens, 

 died on the 5th of February of the present year. The only disease detected in it, on 

 post-mortem examination, was a considerable enlargement of the thymus gland, and 

 acute inflammation of the laryngeal mucous membrane. This second specimen, though 

 an aged animal, was by no means so large as the first, having a total length of 6 ft. 1^ in. 

 (from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail, which was 2 ft. 4 in. long), as against 

 7 ft. 54 in. in the other. 



