1869.] ANATOMY OF PROTELES,. 495 
anal follicle. Each of these bodies is a very thin-walled sac, with a 
large cavity within, and covered externally by a number of flattened 
glandular bodies of a brilliant orange-colour, and of various size and 
outline. These bodies are larger and more close together at the 
upper part of the sac; towards the sides they become smaller, and 
not so closely packed together; and on the under or rectal surface 
they are more sparse, especially near the pedicle, where the smooth 
sac-wall is bare for a considerable space. Each of these glands con- 
sists of a number of acini clustered round a central cavity, which 
communicates by a minute aperture with the cavity of the large sac. 
When a section was made through the large sac, its wall was seen 
to be very thin and quite smooth within; the cavity has no parti- 
tions or septa, and but a single excretory orifice, which passes 
through the pedicle into the side of the transverse supraanal follicle, 
being the aperture before spoken of. The cavity was entirely filled 
with a bright reddish-orange substance of the consistence of cream- 
cheese, and with a very peculiar, powerful and penetrating, and 
decidedly disagreeable odour*. 
A supraanal follicle, similar to that of Proteles, is found in both 
species of Hyenat, also in the Suricate among the Viverride. In 
Herpestes, the mucous membrane along the upper border of the 
anus is beset with minute apertures, the duets of numerous small, 
rounded, seed-like glands situated just beneath the skin, of a pale 
yellowish colour, placed a little distance apart from each other. 
The skin, however, is not inverted to form a distinct sac. In 
Hyena these glands do not form such a dense compact mass as in 
Proteles, nor have they the same peculiar dark olive-colour. 
The lateral glandular sacs { are common to Profeles and both forms 
of Hyena, and, indeed, although modified in form and structure, 
to almost all the Carnivora. Hyena striata has, in addition, another 
lateral group of glands of similar structure situated posteriorly to 
the sac, around a depression or pouch of the great supraanal fol- 
licle, but not constricted off so as to form a distinct cavity with a 
narrow orifice as in the anterior glands. These I do not find repre- 
sented in Pro¢eles, and they appear to be absent also in Hyena 
crocuta; but of the anatomy of the last-named animal we have as 
yet very little reliable information. 
SKELETON. 
As the osteology of Proteles has been described both by Isidore 
* This odour was confined to the secretion of these glands, and did not per- 
vade the whole animal. Smuts says, ‘‘hoc animal spargit odorem ingratissimum 
ac fatidum, qui in ipsis pellibus siccis remanet” (Enumeratio Mammalium Ca- 
pensium, p. 23: 1832). The same circumstance has been noticed by other travel- 
lers, and is probably due to the creature’s habit of feeding on putrid animal 
substances, as it was entirely wanting in the present specimen, which had been 
kept for several months on finely chopped fresh meat and milk. 
t Fully described in H. striata by Daubenton. See also a preparation in 
Mus. Roy. Coll. Surgeons of the same parts in H. crocuta. 
{ “Les glandes en grappes,” Daubenton. 
