98 PROF. OWEN OX A CARNIVOROUS REPTILE. 



Cuvier thus defines the supracondyloid canal in the Lion : — "Au- 

 dessns dn condyle interne, la ligne apre est aussiperce'e d'nn trou pour 

 le passage de l'artere cubitale " *. But this is not the homologue of 

 the commonly called " supracondyloid canal " in the humerus of 

 certain Reptilia. The " internal condyle " of Cuvier and anthropo- 

 tomy is the " ulnar condyle ; " the " external condyle " is that which 

 is termed " radial" in vertebrate anatomy. Thus the zootomist has 

 to take into account, in the application of his science to Palaeonto- 

 logy, of an " ulnar supracondyloid foramen," and a " radial supra- 

 condyloid foramen." There is, also, a third perforation of the distal 

 end of the humerus distinct from both, which may be termed an 

 " inter-condyloid foramen." It is that which is present in the 

 humerus of the wolf t and some other mammals, but of which I 

 have not found any example in recent or extinct Reptilia. While 

 upon this comparison I am tempted further to remark that, in com- 

 parative anatomy, zootomy, or anatomy properly so called, the term 

 " condyle " is restricted to portions of bone more or less convex, 

 modified for the articulation of two bones, and usually covered with 

 synovial cartilage. Anthropotomy, however, in reference to such 

 portions of the distal articular surface of the human humerus, calls 

 the radial condyle the " radial head," and the ulnar condyle the 

 " ulnar trochlea," and restricts the term " condyle " to the tuberosi- 

 ties which project beyond and somewhat above the articular 

 prominences, which, in the humerus, answer to the corresponding 

 prominences rightly termed "condyles" in the femur $. I have 

 found it useful, in comparisons of the humerus akin to those in the 

 present paper, to call the anthropotomical condyles " epicond)ies," 

 as being parts projecting somewhat above, or proximad of, the true 

 condyles, and to distinguish them as " entepicondyle " and " ectepi- 

 condyle " respectively. Thus the canal which gives passage to an 

 artery and commonly a nerve at the distal end of the humerus in 

 Felines, and most Marsupials, is an entepicondylar canal or foramen ; 

 and this it is which characterizes the humerus of Cynodraco. The 

 canal which gives passage to a blood-vessel in the humerus of certain 

 Chelonia and Lacertilia is an ectepicondylar canal ; and its presence 

 in no way affects the resemblance (I will not say affinity) to the 

 feline Mammalia which the extinct Cynodraco presents in its 

 humerus as in its dentition. 



I am of opinion, though it is difficult to judge from the wood- 

 cuts of small and fragmentary humeri ascribed to Dicynodon by 

 Prof. Huxley in the l Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India,' 

 that the " supracondyloid foramen " there indicated at a, figs A 

 and B, p. 10, is not the homologue of the "supracondyloid foramen " 

 which i; occurs not unfrequently among Lacertian Reptiles," but 

 that it differs not only in " form and proportions," but likewise in 

 relative position, and that in Dicynodon it concurs with the pair of 



* ' Legons d'Anatornie comparee,' ed. 1835, vol. i. p. 384. 

 t ' British Fossil Maruinals,' 8vo, 1846, p. 129, fig. 47, a. 

 \ See for example, the instructive plate " 77, left human humerus," p. 92, of 

 the 'Anatomy Descriptive and Surgical,' 8vo, 1858, by Henry Gray, F.R.S. 



