ORDER CARNASSIER. 19 



The following is the arrangement of the muscles of the 

 abdomen, as reported by M. De Blainville, from dis- 

 section : — 



The grand oblique muscles, or external oblique ones, are 

 as usual. The small oblique, or oblique internal, presents 

 this remarkable point, that we may regard as belonging to 

 it a muscular bundle, which, from the whole internal edge 

 of the marsupial bone, is carried towards the white line. 

 Its fibres directed from behind to the front, and from 

 without to within, form with those of the muscle on the 

 opposite side a series of chevrons open behind. The 

 grand straight muscle of the abdomen, which is also very 

 thick, is attached but slightly to the symphysis of the pubis, 

 and in the remainder of its breadth, it also comes from the 

 whole internal and concave edge of the marsupial bone. 

 Finally, the muscle of the thigh, called pectineus, has also 

 its insertion at the external base of this bone, the move- 

 ments of which, M. De Blainville insists, are totally inde- 

 pendent of the pouch, and he therefore considers this bone 

 as altogether misnomered. 



The organs of digestion offer nothing to our notice 

 strictly peculiar to these animals. Almost all the modifi- 

 cations of the dentary system, witnessed among monodel- 

 phous Mammalia, are found in the Marsupiata. From the 

 Sarigues, which of all Mammalia have the greatest number 

 of teeth, to the Echidna?, which have hardly any traces of 

 them, the gradations are so nice and delicate, that great 

 difficulty must exist in classing them into genera upon this 

 principle, at least until they are much better known. 



The intestinal canal, and the organs of circulation and 

 respiration offer nothing very peculiar to our attention. 



The teats, in all the species where they are known, vary 

 little in number, but are always abdominal and placed very 

 far back ; the nipples, which terminate them, ranged 

 symmetrically on each side, are always enclosed in the 



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