F1SCHEK ON THE PELVIS OF THE MAMMALU. 21 



ist, hingegen die Geburtstheile olerhalb tier Schambeiue sich offnen miissen. 

 The genital organs of tlie European mole by 110 means open above the sym- 

 physis of the pubis, but beneath it, as in all other mammals. There is this 

 important difference, however, that not only the vagina and urethra, but like- 

 wise the whole urinary bladder and the rectum, are placed beyond (extra) this 

 symphysis of the pubis ; almost as in those human monstrosities wherein the 

 ossa pubis not meeting mesially, the urinary bladder hangs beyond the sym- 

 physis. The ossa ilium of the mole, as has been already mentioned, are united 

 throughout their whole length to the os sacrum : but where the acetabula are 

 placed there commences a very narrow and scarcely perforated excavation of 

 the pelvis. The symphysis of the bones of the pubis, united, however, by no 

 intermediate cartilage, is there found behind the intestinum rectum. From 

 this incomplete symphysis, which is either very short or very long, the rami of 

 the bones of the pubis descend, gradually widening and becoming more distant 

 from the coccyx. There arises an oblong cavity anteriorly very narrow, ample 

 posteriorly, open inferiorly, in the exit of the pelvis, between the bones which 

 on each side form the foramina ovalia. Into this excavation there descends 

 the intestinum rectum after it has passed over and beyond the symphysis of 

 the pubis, and in the same excavation there lie a long vagina and double 

 horned uterus, with lenticular-shaped ovaria, all of which organs in the unim- 

 pregnated state are very small ; the urinary bladder with the urethra lies over 

 them. The recti muscles of the abdomen, divided as it were towards their 

 pelvic extremity, surround the neck of the bladder, and at their insertion into 

 the pelvis provide, as it were, a place for it. The angle which the descending 

 rami of the os pubis form with the ischium, differs from that of other mam- 

 mals, being acute, and descends much lower than the position of the tuberosi- 

 ties of the os ischium. (The pelvis of the sorex is very similar to that of the 

 mole, but its symphysis is still more open, and the pelvic excavation is larger, 

 as if to afford a space for containing the internal genital organs as in other 

 mammals. Autenreith.) The following description of the ossa iunominata of 

 the hyena, has been taken from Daubenton. " The haunchbone of the wolf 

 is proportionally shorter and larger anteriorly than that of the leopard, but 

 the same bone in the hyena, is still shorter and larger than that of the wolf ; 

 the inferior part of this anterior extremity is greatly extended and spread out- 

 wards. The foramina ovalia differ from those of the leopard in this respect, 

 that they are as wide as long. The groove formed by the reunion of the bones 

 of the pubis, and of the ischium on each, side, is proportionally shorter than 

 in the leopard, and even than in the wolf." The structure of the pelvis might 

 safely be taken as a means for dividing the class ferae into two more natural 

 classes. The larger ferse, and which are truly carnivorous, as the felis, cards, 

 viverra, and mustela, have the ossa ilia smooth, excavated on their external 

 surface, and joined to the os sacrum by a very small portion on their inner 

 surface ; the symphysis of the bones of the pubis is in them elongated. But 

 in the smaller ferae living on a variety of food, vegetable as well as animal, as 

 in the opossum, hedgehog, sorex, mole, and bat, which are all distinguished 

 by their anterior teeth from the former, in these the ossa ilium are three- 

 sided, stick-shaped, and joined to tlie sacrum by almost their whole length. 

 1 Daubenton, Histoire uat. T. ix., p. 294. 



