Bi 
XIV. On some points in the Anatomy of Echidna hystrix. By Sr. GEORGE Mrvanr, 
Esq., F.L.S., Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy at St. Mary's Hospital. 
(Plates LII. & LIII.) 
Read February 1st, 1866. 
Havine had, through the kindness of my friend Mr. W. H. Flower, the opportunity 
of dissecting a specimen of that very interesting animal the Echidna, I now beg to lay 
before the Society the results of my observations. 
Those observations have been almost exclusively directed to the myology of the animal, 
that part of its anatomy being, so far as I have been able to ascertain, as yet undescribed. 
My specimen having, I believe, been caught in a trap, and having had its head com- 
pletely crushed, I am unable to give any account of the muscles of that part of the 
creature, 
Muscles of the Trunk. 
Panniculus carnosus.—This muscle, as in the Ornithorhynchus', is remarkable for its 
thiekness. It invests the whole body and limbs, and is strongly adherent to the skin, 
its fibres being inserted into the bases of the spines, which are erected by their contrac- 
tion. Tt consists mainly of a large superfieial muscular layer with certain deeper por- 
tions, and is firmly attached to the neck and tail and distal portions of the ulna (Plate 
LII. fig. 1, P.c) and tibia. 
Trapezius (Plate LII. fig. 1, z).— This muscle, as in the Ornithorhynchus’, consists of 
two parts. The posterior part is triangular, and arises from the last eleven dorsal and 
the first Jumbar vertebræ. The origin from the most anterior vertebra is muscular ; but 
posterior to this the trapezius arises by strong tendinous fibres, which are successively 
longer from before backwards. It is inserted into the anterior two-thirds of the verte- 
bral margin of the scapula. The anterior part arises from the oceiput and the tendinous 
raphe connecting it with its fellow on the opposite side, and is inserted into the whole 
length of the spine and acromion, and also into the more anterior part of the vertebral 
marein of the scapula and into the outermost end of the clavicle. 
Rhomboideus.— There appears to be but one rhomboid ; and this arises from the occi- 
Put and midline of the back of the neck, and is inserted into the anterior two-thirds 
of the vertebral margin of the scapula opposite the insertion of the posterior part of 
the trapeziu 8. j 
1 Meckel, « Ornithorhynchi paradoxi Descriptio Anatomica’ (Leipsic, folio, 1826), p. 22 ; and Owen, article ** Mo- 
hotremata,” in Todd’s « Cyclopædia, vol. iii. p. 379. 
* Meckel, loc. cit. p. 23; Owen, loc. cit. p. 379. 
