808 



MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE 



[Nov. 12, 



connected with the colon by a fold of peritoneum continued from 

 it." This is obviously the same that I have described above in 

 Galidictis. I may also observe that I am able to confirm from 

 my own dissections Owen's account of Cercoleptes so far as 

 concerns the course of the intestine, and in some other facts to 

 which I may have occasion to refer hereafter. It is important 

 to notice that in this, as in other anatomical features, there is no 

 strict line of demarcation between the Arctoid and ^luroid 

 Carnivora. 



The CcBGum of Galidictis seems to resemble very closely that 

 of its near ally Gcdidia — to judge from the figure of the caecum 

 of the latter given by Dr. St. Geoi'ge Mivart in his memoir 

 already referred to. It is long (for an Herpestid) and pointed 

 and thinner at the free end. There is a matter concerning the 

 caecum in these animals that has not been, I believe, referred to. 

 This concerns the mesentery attaching the caecum to the small 

 intestine. In Galidictis an anangious fold of membrane binds 

 the proximal half of the caecum to the small intestine. In 

 Herpestes fulvescens (see text-fig. 211) this membrane is more 



Text-fig. 211. 



Cseca of Galidictis striata (left-hand figure) and Herpestes 

 fulvescens (right-hand figure). 



A. Median freniim. B. One of the lateral mesenteries. C. Caecum. 



extensive and nearly reaches the tip. A more careful examination 

 reveals also the presence of a much less developed fold on either 

 side of the median frenum which bears the blood-vessels supplying 

 that region of the gut. These lateral membranes are of im- 

 portance in that they are better developed in some other animals. 

 I have myself referred to them in Lemurs *. Even in the more 

 rudimentary caecum of Genetta vulgaris the same three membranes 



* "Additional Notes upon Sapalemwr griseus," P. Z. S. 1891, p. 451. 



