1902.] ON CARPAL VIBRISSiE IN MAMMALS. 127 



6. Observations upon the Carpal YibrisssB in Mammals. By 

 Feank E. Beddard, M.A., F.R.S., Vice-Secretary and 

 Prosector of the Society. 



[Received December 24, 1901.] 



(Text-figures 17-21.) 



In a brief note in ' Nature ' \ and incidentally in a paper 

 devoted to the anatomy of Bassaricyon ^, I directed the attention 

 of zoologists to a tuft of long and strong hairs which exist in 

 many mammals on the wiist close to the root of the thumb and 

 generally on that (the radial) side of the forearm. These long 

 hairs are quite similar in character to those which are found in 

 various parts of the head and face of many mammals, such as, for 

 example, the " whiskers " of the domestic cat. They are readily 

 seen on account of their size ; and, as a rule, they are also 

 conspicuous by reason of the fact that they are frequently, though 

 not always, of a different colour from the hairs of the surrounding 

 pelage. But if they escape the eye, as is sometimes the case in the 

 skins of spirit-preserved specimens, they can be felt through the skm 

 on account of the large hair-bulbs which receive the proximal ends 

 of the hairs. That these structures must be of some use to their 

 possessors seems to be obvious, and yet is not easy to prove. I 

 have watched various animals, and cannot see that they make any 

 use of the tuft of hairs upon the wrist for touching objects, 

 except in the possible case of the Raccoon [Procyon lotor), which 

 did appear to me to hold its food rather neai'cr to the wrist than 

 is usual with animals. I believe that my two brief notes referred 

 to are the first published statement of the general presence of this 

 carpal tuft of hairs in mammals. Some years since, as I have 

 already acknowledged, Mr. Bland Sutton described these hairs in 

 various Lemurs^, and showed plainly that they are a general 

 character of that group, though they were wanting (and I can 

 here confirm Mr. Sutton) in the Potto. I find, however, that in 

 every group of animals, with the exception of the Apes, which 

 use their front limbs as grasping- organs as well as for locomotive 

 purposes, these structures are present with some few, though rather 

 striking, exceptions. 



Since the publication of the facts contained in those two papers, 

 I have had the opportunity of examining a large number of 

 mammals belonging to various Orders. I am therefore now in a 

 position to extend the statements which I originally made, and 

 to give more in detail the distribution of these cui'ious structures 

 in the group of mammals, I do not think that we have here a 

 secondary sexual character, though it is possible that in some 



1 Vol. Ixii. p. 523. 



- " On the Anatomy of Bassaricyon," P. Z. S. 1899, p. 661. 



3 "On the Arm-Gland of the Lemurs," P. Z. S. 1887, p. 369; where they are 

 figured in the genera Sapalemur, Lemur, and Cheirogaleus, 



