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XII. The Myology of the Upper and Lower Extremities of Orycteropus Capensi 



By John Charles Galton, Esq., M.A., Exeter College, Oxford. 



(Plates XLV. & XLVI.) 



Read June 4th, 1868. 



A REMARKABLY fine adult male specimen of Orycteropus Capensis 1 (the " Aard 



vark" of Dutch colonists) having been presented to the University Museum, Oxford, by 



W. A. Sandford, Esq., E.G.S., of Nynehead Court, Somerset, I have been enabled, by 



the kind permission of Prof. Rolleston, E.R.S., to examine the muscular system of this 

 animal. 



The rarity of the beast, the great size of the specimen, and the fair condition, in most 

 respects, of its muscles, and, finally, the hope of being able to throw even yet some light 

 here and there upon its anatomy, since they were the reasons which encouraged me in 

 the undertaking, are the excuses which I offer to this Society for bringing forward the 

 results of what may appear to some a work of supererogation, seeing that a paper on the 

 myology of the Orycteropus, by Prof. Humphry, of Cambridge, was published but lately 

 in the journal which he conducts as joint editor 2 . 



Cuvier has the priority of Prof. Humphry in investigation of the myology of Oryc- 

 teropus-, but no complete record of his observations, if ever written, appears to be 

 extant. He has, however, left nine figures, which are comprised in three plates, illus- 

 trating the anatomy of this animal, as a testimony of his labours 3 . 



The specimen which I am about to describe weighed 95 lbs. The viscera and external 



■ 



genitals had been removed ; and it had been conveyed to England in spirit. 



The principal measurements were as follows : — From tip of snout to extremity of tail, 

 68^ inches ; from tip of tail to lower border of pubic symphysis, 25 inches (the neigh- 

 bourhood of the anus had been so involved in the incisions which had been made for 

 the removal of the genitals, that I had no better fixed point from which to take a 

 measurement); from labial commissure to anterior angle of eyelids, 3 J inches; from 



1 For figures of the animal, see : — Rapp's * Anatomische Untersuchungen iiber die Edentaten,' Tubingen, 1852, Taf . i. ; 

 DanielPs ( Sketches representing the native Tribes, Animals, and Scenery of Southern Africa/ London, 1S20, plate ii. 

 (the drawings, though somewhat rude, are no doubt very trustworthy, since they were taken in the country itself) ; 

 Cuvier 's 'Keime Animal' (Mammiferes), pi. 73 (the i 



srure 



Cyclopaedia/ (Nat. Hist.) vol. i. fig. 1, art. Aard-vark. 



There is a description of this animal at p. 342, vol. i. of BurchelFs ' Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa ' 

 (2 vols. Lond. 1822). The vignette at the head of chap. 18, p. 446 of the same volume, represents ant-hills, one of 

 which has been broken into at the side by the Aard-vark. The Hottentot name for this animal (op. cit. vol. ii. 

 p. 424) is Tnkkaru. 



2 Journ. of Anat. and Fhys. (2nd ser.) vol. i. p. 290. Cambridge, 1868. 



3 Cuvier, Laurillard et Mercier, ' Anatomic Compared, recueil de planches' (fol), pis. 254-256. Paris, 1835v 



VOL. XXVI, 



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