166 MAMMALIA. 



In the part of the ass corresponding with the hand and foot there are not any 

 muscles, but only tendons, ligaments, and integuments ; all the same nerves are 

 nevertheless continued into the foot, as in other animals, but terminate in a single toe, 

 instead of the four or five of other creatures, the difference consisting in their not 

 being so much subdivided. This disposition obviates the compression to which fewer 

 and larger nerves would be exposed, and in accidents secures the integrity of some ; 

 it also produces a sufficient consent between the different textures of the foot and the 

 various muscles belonging to the limb, and thus the whole contribute to the free and 

 forcible direction of the foot, and particularly its firm position on the ground. Where 

 there are several toes, still this association with all the muscles of the limb, with some 

 modification, is required ; and when there are several fingers, as in the human hand, 

 it is necessary for perfecting the sense of touch, and all nice operations connected with 

 this faculty. 



In some animals, as in man, a ganglion is attached to the termination of the 

 spiral nerve at the back of the wrist for supplying the carpal joints, and an enlarge- 

 ment or expansion of the outer branch of the anterior tibial below the annular ligament 

 for the tarsal. In the baboon, there is a ganglion for the carpal, but only a flat brush 

 of filaments, without any appearance of the ganglion for the tarsal. In the jaguar, 

 there is a very slight enlargement of the nerve for the carpal and tarsal, but not a 

 ganglion. In the fox, there are only filaments for both the carpal and tarsal joints 

 proceeding from the nerve, and not from a ganglion. In the ass, the one for the 

 carpal joint is broader than the nerve, but has not a ganglionic appearance, nor has 

 the branch of the anterior tibial for the tarsal. As the joints are generally supplied by 

 ordinary nerves, the ganglion may only form a close union with the ligaments for 

 sending off its branches more safely, when these joints are subjected to complicated 

 movements. 



SYMPATHETIC NERVE. In the sympathetic nerve of different genera and 

 even species of mammalia there are peculiarities. The superior cervical ganglion 

 varies somewhat in its shape, but is generally pyriform, or oval, and in many instances 

 corresponds in bearing a proportionate size to that of the second trunk of the fifth ; 



