32 BB. J. MTTRIE ON THE MANATEE. 



of lateral instead of vertical action in prehension. The rete mirabile is the rule, and 

 not the exception, in the vascular system of this creature, and, with the minute nerves, 

 supply to the bristle-clad area of the lips that concentration of touch needful to discri- 

 minate in the mechanical act of seizure. But, beside the levator muscle above si^oken 

 of, I have already shown that an extension of the great panniculus, the levator labii 

 superioris aleeque nasi, and others all commingle by fibres around the upper lip and 

 muzzle, and doubtless tend to consentaneous action of the region in question. More- 

 over, in the dead animal, when I pressed my finger against the upper front part of the 

 flaccid muzzle, directing it backwards, the otherwise truncate organ became horse- 

 shoe-shaped, medianly depressed, and the two bristle-clad spots of themselves naturally 

 approached each other (see sketch, PI. VI. fig. 6), though partially, as would be the 

 case in the act of grasping during life. 



Lastly, I may refer to Prof. Garrod's expression of the nostrils possessing a " flap- 

 valve" (/. c. p. 139, pi. xxviii.), by which is to be understood merely floor-pad, which 

 by the muscular circular contraction of the nasal orifice is partly raised and completes 

 occlusion at will : but there is no free valve such as the above term would signify. 



Memoranda on the Muscular System. — It is not my intention critically to examine 

 and compare throughout my former researches on the myology of this Sirenian ; but as 

 in my present dissection I observed several varieties of parts structurally, I deem it fair 

 to myself to call attention to a few of these, chiefly of the fore limb, for which consult 

 PI. Vni. figs. 3 & 4. 



I searched for but found no representative of the coracobrachialis, thus agreeing with 

 previous dissections. The vessels of the brachial rete near the elbow, I remarked, par- 

 tially overlie the distal portion of the second tendon of insertion of the double-bellied 

 biceps humeri. 



As regards brachialis anticus and supinator brevis, my previous statement {I.e. p. 158) 

 is here applicable. In the right arm of this animal the pronator radii teres and flexor 

 carpi radialis were indivisibly united, but their combined origins and insertions agreed 

 with my former descriptions. 



What I have previously stated with regard to the flexor sublimis, profundus, and 

 longus poUicis does not apply in this case ; nor is the relation of the palmar fascia and 

 the palmaris longus identical. Here the strong broad aponeurosis of the forearm 

 covers superficially and entirely the whole of the flexores, the breadth of the bones, 

 excepting over the outer, ulnar, disputed muscles {infra). Just above the wrist the fascia 

 forms a well-defined arch, and embraces the common flexores ; and higher up between 

 combined pronator radii teres and flexor carpi radialis ; and on the opposite side, but 

 inner border, of the flexor carpi ulnaris «&c. it is firmly fixed to the radius and ulnar 

 lower shaft, and, partially, the deep wrist-fascia. 



Above the wrist-joint on the ulnar border a long fusiform muscle springs, which lower 



