CARNIVORA. 



477 



Fig. 196. 



Fig. 197. 



The metatarsal bones (Jig. 196, 107, 198, d) 

 are generally five. In the cats and the dogs, 

 indeed, the inner one is merely rudimentary, 

 a defect which is perfectly consonant with the 

 absence of a posterior thumb in these two 

 genera. Those of the seal tribe are remark- 

 ably long and slender. The first is the longest, 

 the fifth the next, then the second, the fourth, 

 and the middle one which is the shortest. 



The toes consist of three phalanges (Jig. 196, 

 197, 198, a, b, c,) and in most genera there are 

 five toes; the bears and other plantigrades 

 having the inner toe or thumb in the same 

 range as the others ; in the mustelida it is a 

 little smaller, and in the cats and dogs it is 

 wholly wanting. The toes in the seal tribe are 

 developed to considerable length, and being 

 much extended, and covered with an entire 

 skin which extends from one to the other, a 

 very perfect finlike paddle is thus furnished. 



The types, then, of the three different varie- 

 ties of progression are here distinctly shewn. 

 In the foot of the bear (Jig. 197) we find that 

 every thing in its formation is made subser- 

 vient to the action of walking; the heel, the 

 tarsal and the metatarsal bones, and the pha- 

 langes all rest upon the ground, and these 

 bones are elongated for that purpose. In the 

 Lion (Jig. 196) the last phalanges only rest on 

 the ground, the heel being drawn upwards, and 

 the whole of the foot, excepting that small 

 portion which is applied to the ground, is thus 

 made an additional lever for the increase of the 

 animal's powers of leaping and bounding in 

 its course. In this form the limb consists of 

 three joints (the pelvis being the fixed point) 

 moveable in alternately different directions, 

 capable of being all approximated to each 

 other, and then suddenly and simultaneously 



extended with prodigious force. In the third 

 type, that of the Seal (fg. 198), the bones are 

 all much flattened, and, excepting the foot, 

 greatly shortened; the foot itself being de- 

 veloped both longitudinally and laterally into a 

 finlike expansion. 



The Muscular System. The general cha- 

 racter of the muscles in the Carnivora is that 

 of combined power and irritability. The ele 

 vators of the lower jaw, the masseters and the 

 temporals, are enormously large, for the pur- 

 pose of cutting and tearing the flesh and the 

 harder portions of their food. The muscles 

 of the face also, those of the lips, of the nose, 

 of the eyelids, and of the ears, are all of them 

 greatly developed and capable of the most 

 extensive and powerful motion. A moment's 

 reflexion upon the habits of these animals, and 

 particularly on those of the cats, will shew the 

 necessity of enormous power in the muscles 

 which raise the head upon the spine. A Lion, 

 it is said, can kill a moderate-sized bullock, throw 

 it on his back by a toss of the head, and trot 

 off with it to his hiding-place. All the muscles, 

 therefore, which arise from the vertebrae of the 

 neck and are inserted into the projecting ridge 

 of the occipital bone, are of prodigious strength. 

 The same remark holds good of all the muscles 

 of the limbs, particularly those of the anterior 

 extremity, but which do not require a par- 

 ticular description or demonstration. The mus- 

 cles of the tail, which are for the most part 

 similar in this order to those in the tailed Qua- 

 drumana and Ruminantia, will be described 

 in the articles devoted to the anatomy of those 

 animals. 



The digestive organs. The structure which 

 has been already detailed in the skeleton of the 

 Carnivora, and alluded to in their muscular 



