482 



CAROTID ARTERY. 



Fig. 202. 



muscle; the other has had the muscle re- 

 moved. 



Besides these follicles there is in several 

 species a pouch, somewhat resembling those 

 above described, but differently situated. It is 

 always single, and in the badger and hyena is 

 placed between the anus and the tail ; in the 

 ichneumon it surrounds the anus, and in the 

 civet it is found between the anus and the 

 opening of the prepuce in the male, and be- 

 tween the anus and the vulva in the female. 

 The secretion of this sac in the latter animal is 

 well known as a scent of a most powerful 

 musk-like odour. The sac opens by a longi- 

 tudinal slit, and in the interior are seen two 

 cavities in which the substance is secreted, and 

 which are furnished with a muscular coat for 

 its expression. 



Generative system. Male organs. The 

 structure of the testes is similar to those of the 

 other mammiferous animals, but they vary con- 

 siderably in situation. In most of the genera, 

 as in the bears, the cats, the martens, the hy- 

 enas, the ichneumons, &c. they are perma- 

 nently suspended in a pendulous scrotum. In 

 the civets they are enclosed under the skin of 

 the perineum, and in the otter under that of the 

 groin. In the seals, in which a pendulous 

 scrotum would be exposed to continual danger 

 of injury or destruction, they remain con- 

 stantly within the abdomen, being retained in 

 their situation by a production of the peri- 

 toneum, resembling the broad ligaments of the 

 uterus. 



The vesicula seminales do not exist in most 

 of the Carnivora. They are found in the 

 coatis, but not in their congeners. The pros- 

 tate, gland, or at least a glandular body ap- 

 parently analogous to it, is found throughout 

 the order. It varies in form and exceedingly 

 in size ; in the otter and the other mustelida it 

 consists of a thin layer only, whilst in the dogs 

 and cats it forms a large and conspicuous bulb 

 around the urethra. 



Cowper's glands also are found in many of 

 these animals, but are wanting in the planti- 

 grades, in the mustelida, the dogs, and the 

 seals. In the Felidtz (the cats and the civets) 



and still more in the hyena, they are on the 

 other hand of great size, and the muscle which 

 envelopes them is of considerable thickness. 



The penis is found to vary but little in its 

 form and direction in this order. It is, in al- 

 most all, directed forwards, and contained 

 within a sheath formed of an extension of the 

 integuments of the abdomen. In the cats 

 the extremity, during its relaxed state, is turned 

 backwards, and the urine is consequently 

 voided in that direction, but during its erect 

 condition it assumes the same position as in 

 the other Carnivora. Almost the whole of the 

 carnivorous order possess a bone of the penis, 

 of various size and length. The hyena is a 

 remarkable exception, as in its congeners, the 

 dogs, &c., it is of considerable size. This is 

 the case also with the ursidee and the mustelida ; 

 but in the cats and the ichneumon it is small. 

 The anterior extremity of this bone is fixed in 

 the glans, and the posterior is attached to the 

 corpus cavernosum. In some genera, particu- 

 larly the dogs, the corpus spongiosum under- 

 goes a remarkable degree of tumefaction, which 

 retains the two sexes in coitu for a considerable 

 time. 



The female organs. The clitoris is found in 

 all the Carnivora. It is contained in a sort of 

 pouch within the vulva in the wolf, and at 

 some distance in front of this part in the civet. 

 In some of those species in which the penis 

 of the male is furnished with a bone, the clitoris 

 of the female has also a rudimentary one. 

 This, however, is not constant. It is not found 

 in the dogs or civets, but exists in the cats, the 

 bears, and the otter. 



The uterus is two-horned, and resembles that 

 of most other mammifera. 



The mammary glands are situated along the 

 sides of the belly, and the number of teats 

 varies greatly, without any general law as 

 regards the affinities of the species. Most of 

 the plantigrades have six; but the lion has 

 four, the cat eight, and the panther six ; the 

 bitch, again, has from eight to ten. 



The placenta consists, in the cat, the dog, 

 the marten, and others, of a perfect zone sur- 

 rounding the foetus, and attached by its whole 

 external surface to the uterus; in the polecat 

 it is formed of two rounded masses connected 

 together. 



For the BIBLIOGRAPHY, see that of MAMMALIA. 

 (T. Bell.) 



CAROTID ARTERY, (human anatomy,) 

 (arteria carotis ; Gr. nct^ur^ ; Fr. carotide ; 

 Germ, die Carotis, Kopjpulsader ; ) the great 

 artery which on each side distributes blood to 

 the different parts of the head. The term 

 carotid, derived from xapoj, sopor , appears to 

 have been first applied to the arteries of the 

 head by the ancients from a supposition that a 

 state of drowsiness or deep sleep depended on 

 compression or some other affection of these 

 vessels exercising an influence over the circula- 

 tion of the blood in its passage through them 

 to the brain : in accordance with the same 



