Lectures on Zoology : — Felis Catus, Src 569 



view of its nature and objects, and of the important benefits to 

 society expected to accrue from its establishment. 



At the London Institution also, Dr. Roget, F.R.S., &c., is 

 engaged in delivering an elaborate and very interesting course on 

 the Physiology of the External Senses, as well in man, as in every 

 class of the lower animals : he considers the subjects under the 

 following heads successively : Sensitive functions — Touch — Taste 

 and Smell — Hearing — Vision — and Laws of Perception. The 

 pha3nomena of Vision are minutely examined and explained ; and 

 the lectures are illustrated by a series of drawings and prepara- 

 tions, the latter of which have been principally furnished by Mr. 

 LangstafF. Dr. Roget's course is likewise numerously attended. 



At the Royal College of Surgeons Mr. Green, F.R.S. &c., 

 the Professor of Comparative Anatomy, is giving a course of 

 lectures on that subject, which is attended by the members, as 

 well as by many members of the College of Physicians and men 

 of science. 



At St. Thomas's Hospital, Mr. J. F. South, F.L.S., has com, 

 menced a course on Comparative Anatomy, which is attended by 

 a numerous class of pupils. 



THE WILD and THE DOMESTIC CAT : — THE LYNX. 



As M. Temminck's opinion that the Wild Cat is not the stock 

 of the domestic animal has been noticed in a former page (531) 

 of the present number, it may be as well to give Dr. Fleming's 

 remarks on the same subject, published in 1822, which nearly 

 agree with those of the continental naturalist. 



" The Felis Catus, or Wild Cat, which still frequents the 

 remote woods of Britain, is probably a different species from the 

 Domestic Cat, of which it has usually been regarded as the stock. 

 The tail of the Domestic Cat is tapering, of the Wild Cat nejirly 

 cylindrical. The weight and size of the latter are much larger 

 than the former. The high value which was set upon domestic 

 cats in the ninth century, as appears from the Welsh Laws 

 of Howel the Good; the price of a kitten, before it could see, 

 being a penny; until it caught a mouse, twopence; and when it 

 commenced niouser, fourpencfi ; militates against the commonly* 



