TEANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 137 



is the case with those skulls which haA-e very long styloid processes, this does not 

 occur so frequently as is described in most works on anatomy. In the large 

 majority of skulls,"before middle age, the stylo-hyal is free, and is commonly lost 

 in maceration. The short process which is always present, and which is com- 

 monly considered as a riidimentaiy styloid process, is really a distinct portion of 

 the hyoid arch, corresponding with the tympano-hyal of the sheep. 

 The commimication was illustrated by specimens and diagxams. 



On the Correspondence between the Anterior and Posterior Kvtremit)/, and the 

 Modifications of the Position of the Limbs in the higher Vertebrata. By 

 Professor AY. H. Floater, F.R.S. 



This communication was chiefly devoted to an exposition, by means of speci- 

 mens and diagrams, of the views held by most English anatomists of the serial 

 homologies of the diflerent bones of the extremities, founded upon comparison 

 of the anterior, cephalic, or preaxial border of the one, in the primitive position, 

 with the same border of the other, which leads to results opposed to the Adews 

 of Wyman and other American anatomists, founded upon the principle of antero- 

 posterior symmetry. ' 



Com])arison of the Thoracic and Pelvic Limbs in Mammalia. 

 By K. Garner, F.L.S. 



In this paper the author defended the teleological method of studying anatomy, 

 as having led to many discoveries, and as the life-spring of much of its interest, 

 at the same time deprecating a nil-admirari mood in these researches. A teleo- 

 logical explanation is not " a pretty golden ball to divert the racer from his 

 course," but rather a golden thread to be traced throughout. He considers it 

 legitimate to compare limbs &c. with an ideal exemplar, whether we adopt the 

 apophysar origin for them or not. AVith respect to the latter theory he inquires. 

 If the' anterior limb is a dependence of the occipital vertebra, of which particular 

 one is the posterior ? He would rather refer a limb to several vertebra (to five, 

 perhaps), from their divisions and nerves of supply. He thinks the more multi- 

 plied rays of the fin of the skate but show a relationship to the Sepia ; and, indeed, 

 in the inollusks generally there is more of a gradation to the vertebrate skeleton 

 than is conmionly supposed. The abdominal fins of thoracic fishes are, however, 

 as much removed forwards as the fore limbs of mammalia are backwards on the 

 apophysis theory. 



FcAv animals retain the most normal disposition of their limbs, the extensors all 

 external, the flexors all internal, or in human anatomy anterior ; some climbing 

 animals, as the sloth or the seal, do so more than most ; also man when he clasps 

 or climbs, or more imperfectly, in his hind limbs, when he sits in the oriental 

 fashion. An eversion has commonly occun-ed in the upper or fore extremity, an 

 opposite inversion in the lower. In cursorial animals the former is compensated 

 for by a pronation in the lower part of the limb ; a still greater pronation in the 

 mole causes the olecranon to point upwards, and the palm to be turned outwards, 

 as it is in man in swimming. Few animals below the monkeys probably can 

 supinate the hand; the squiiTcl does it from the wrist- and finger-joints. The 

 author is disposed to agree with those who make the iliac fossa to coiTCspond 

 Avith the dorsum of the scapula, the external iliac surface with the subscapular 

 dorsum, the rectus of the thigh with the triceps of the arm, the former looking 

 more forwards .and the latter more backwards than it should be : the humerus also 

 to be rotated inwards to bring the two limbs at all to correspond. The patella and 

 olecranon are variable in position &c., but homologues of each other ; the thumb, 

 radius, and external condyle preaxial and corresponding with the great toe, tibia, 

 and inner condyle of the femur ; the vessels and nerves at the elbow and knee are 

 in the corresponding flexure surfaces ; the dorsum of the foot, the patella, and the 

 origin of the rectus in the lower extremity answer to the back of the hand, the ole- 

 cranon, and the origin of the tiiceps in the upper, but not the groin to the axilla. 



