VOL. XII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 439 



many others, all folded almost into a spiral line; and that the os cribrosum is 

 made up of the extremities of these laminae, which terminate in the root of the 

 nose, the holes with which it is pierced, being the intervals between the laminae. 

 That they are designed to support the inner tunic of the nose, which being a 

 principal organ of smelling, has received from nature a very great expansion; 

 for the commodious placing of which nature has folded it round about together 

 with these laminae, that by this economical mechanism she may employ all its 

 length in a very Httle room. This tunic is filled with innumerable branches of 

 arteries, veins, and ner\^es; by which it has a most exquisite sense. Yet be- 

 cause the particles of odorous bodies are so subtile, that they can but very 

 gently glance on the organ, nature has therefore provided by this great expan- 

 sion, that the greater number of these particles may strike it at the same time, 

 and so render their impression the stronger. And that these odorous particles 

 which rush with the air into the nose in smelling, might not all forthwith pass 

 ofF from thence into the breast ; nature, by this labyrinth, made by the wind- 

 ings of the lamellae, has given them an arrest and longer stay. And for the 

 same reason, she has furnished the said tunic of the nose with a great many 

 small glands, which open into it, and so moisten it with a thick and slimy exu- 

 dation, the better to entangle the dry odorous particles. This tunic examined 

 and compared in several animals, shows also much of the reason of the delicacy 

 of smelling in some, above what it is in others. For by how much a finer 

 nose it is that animals have, by so much likewise is there a greater number of 

 these lamellae, wherewith the said tunic is rolled up in so many more folds. So 

 the nose of a hound is better furnished with them than that of any other ani- 

 mal. The hare, fox, cat, wild boar, have a considerable number of them. 

 Those animals that chew the cud have fewer. And man is less provided for 

 than any of the rest. And not only the number, but also the length of the 

 lamellae is of great use for the strength of smelling. For which purpose most 

 quadrupeds which either hunt, as the carnivorous, or at least want reason other- 

 wise to distinguish their food than by the smell, as the graminivorous, have 

 their nose not placed in the middle of the face, as in man, but prolonged to the 

 very end. 



veral memoirs, chiefly on anatomical subjects, of which mention is made in the History of the 

 Academy of Sciences, and in the Journal des S^avansj from which it will be seen that he bestowed 

 no inconsiderable pains on comparative anatomy. He left by his will his large and valuable collection 

 of anatomical preparations to the Academy of Sciences. His nephew, James Francis du Vemey, 

 was likewise a celebrated demonstrator of anatomy. He undertook a splendid work on the muscles, 

 the plates of which exhibit those parts as large as in the real subject. 



VOL. II. 3 K 



