4/8 Anatomy of Ailurus, Porcula, and Stylocerus. [Nov. 



pal 5, digital 3, for each digit, fore and aft, save the innermost, which 

 has but 2. Tarsal 7, exclusive of the os calcis. Metatarsal 5. Digits 

 5, before and behind, with very free action on each other, and the so 

 called thumb not much removed from the front, and of course not at 

 all opposeable, being articulated in the same plane with the rest of the 

 digits. 



The alae of the atlas and falciform process of the axis are small, 

 and so also are the spinous and transverse processes of the vertebrae 

 generally. The pelvis is short, broad and obliquely deflected from the 

 plane of the spinal column. It is feeble too, owing chiefly however to 

 the very imperfect anchylosis or osseous blending of the vertebrae of the 

 sacrum. The bones of the pelvis in front (ossa pubis) are united mere- 

 ly by cartilage and form a short bridge of which the keystone is want- 

 ing. The ribs, of which 8 only, I think, are true and 7 false, are much 

 curved or bulged ; and this, with the large flat muscles laid over them, 

 gives an ursine breadth to the chest, despite the narrowness of the ster- 

 num. The sternum is long, and consists of 7 bony cylindric pieces very 

 distinctly articulated and having a very small ensiform cartilage. Ad- 

 mirable a climber as is the Ailurus, it has no clavicle, nor even pseudo- 

 clavicle or os-claviculare ; and as I have noticed the same thing in other 

 eminently scansorial subplantigrades, I am rather surprised at the un- 

 qualified terms in which recent and eminent anatomists* express them- 

 selves on the subject. 



The scapula is a stout broad triangular bone, but somewhat rounded 

 along the superior elongate margin. Its glenoid cavity is rounded but 

 inclines to an ovoid rather than a strictly special form. It is deep 

 enough to afford secure lodgment to the condyle of the humerus, but 

 not so deep as to interfere with free motion of the fore limb. The keel 



me in regard to the joints constituting the sacrum are, distinct enclosure between 

 the pelvic bones (ilia) and the openings for the passage of the nerves. In regard 

 to the coccygeal vertebra? an envious rat, which ate off 3 or 4 of the vertebrae be- 

 fore I had completed my examination, but not before I had roughly counted all the 

 joints of the spinal column, is the cause of my doubt. 



* Lawrence and Coulson apud Blumenbach. Manual, Eng. Edit, of 1827, p. 49. 

 Carpenter is more guarded. An. Physiol, p. 469. And Bell, The Hand, p. 46". It 

 is possible I may have overlooked a very small os claviculare. And it is difficult to 

 decide whether what I have assumed to be the metacarpal bone of the thumb be not 

 rather the first phalanx. 





