32 DR. J. MURIE ON THE MANATEE. 
a 
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 spoken 
of, I have already shown that an extension of the great panniculus, the levator labii 
superioris aleque 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, Pl. 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” (/. ¢. p. 139, pl. 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 
Pl. VIII. 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 (/.¢. 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 pollicis 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 
