DR. J. MUEIE ON THE FORM AND STRUCTURE OF THE MANATEE. 135 



fish tribe. Steller's advice that the Ehytina was good food too was eagerly adopted by 

 the northern mariners, to the annihilation of that remarkable Sirenian race. The same 

 fate awaits the Dugong, since not only is its flesh appreciated in Australia, but the oil, 

 obtained by boiling the fat on the body, according to Dr. Hobbs of Queensland, rivals, 

 if not surpasses, in therapeutical excellence the better-known cod-liver oil. 



III. The Skeleton and its Ligamentous Connexions. 

 My annotation concerning the skeleton of the Manatee shall be circumscribed, foras- 

 much as its osteology has heretofore been subjected to careful research at the hands of 

 shrewd, scrupulous, and laborious investigators. The literature on the osteology of 

 the Sirenia, though the order contains but four genera, Halitherium, Ehytina, Halicore, 

 and Manatus, -with few species, stands forth prominently on account of the galaxy of 

 talent that has swept the field. Steller's' early observations still hold a worthy place. 

 On the Lamatins, living and fossil, the genius of Cuvier, in his ' Ossemens Fossiles ' 

 (vol. v.), and De Blainville, in his ' Osteographie,' are monuments of masterly gene- 

 ralization. Stannius and Vrolik and Krauss^, in their special monographs on the 

 American species, largely treat of the skeleton ; whilst the names of SchlegeP, Owen*, 

 Gervais' and Serres, Kaup", Brandf, Gray^ Nordmann^ Huxley'", and others not a 

 few, individually attest to the assiduous toil bestowed on the above group of Mammals 

 and the excellency of the workers thereon. 



1. The Spinal Axis. 



Notwithstanding what I have said, it is somewhat remarkable that no two authors 

 virtually agree as to the total number of vertebrae in Manatus. This, it would seem, 

 may arise from several reasons. 



1st. Computation in some instances possibly has been taken from set-up skeletons, 

 incomplete in the terminal caudal elements ; 2nd, the number may differ in the very 

 young and adult animals ; 3rd, the amount present may bear a relation to the sex ; 



' De Bestiis Marinis. 1749-51. 



° " Beitriige zur Osteologie des surinamischen Manatus," in Miill. Archiv f. Anat. & Phys. 1858 ; also 

 Archiv, 1862, p. 415, tab. xiii. ; on HaUtherhim, by the same author, N. Jarhb. f. Mineral. 1858 and 1862. 



» Abhandl. &c. Leyden, 1841. * Dugong, P. Z. S. 1838, p. 28. 



' " Sirenides, Mam. Foss. du Midi d. 1. France," Ann. d. Sci. Nat. 1841, 1846, 1847, 1849, 1850, &c., and 

 Zool. et Paleon. Gen. 1867-69, &c. 



•^ Ilalitherium, ' Beitrage,' Darmstadt, 1855-62; N. Jahrb. f. Mineral. 18,38, 1856, 1858, &c., with many 

 illustrations. 



' " Symbols; Sirenologicje," Mem. de I'Acad. Imp. d. Sci. de St. Petersb. 1849, 1861, 1868, 1869, and other 

 papers in the Bull. d. I'Aead. : altogether a series of magnificent monographs. 



« P. Z. S. ; Ann. & Mag. N. H., various ; and B. M. Catalogues. 



« Beitrage, Ehytina, Helsingfors, 1861, and Act. Soc. Sci. Fennicee, tom. vi. 



'" Hunterian Lectures, reported in ' Lancet,' Feb. 1868. Furthermore, see extended references to literature, 

 Brandt, ?. c. fasc. iii. pp. 237, 300. 



VOL. VIII. — PAKT III. September, 1872. y 



