184 8. J Miscellaneous. 575 



remarkable that the former process infringes considerably on the field 

 of rotation of the humerus. There is not the least trace of a clavicle 

 or pseudo clavicle. This I have very carefully ascertained. Lastly, it 

 should be noted that the ribs are not much bulged, contrary to what 

 was remarked in the juniors ; and that the ossa pubis and the sacral 

 vertibrse are, each of them, osseously united, as usual, the opposite 

 characters of the precedent skeletons thus proving (as anticipated) the 

 effects of nonage merely. 



In comparing the above details with those priorly given one can- 

 not but note with surprise the remarkable disparities of the teeth 

 and of the spinal vertebrae. My former description of the teeth 

 was taken from two very fine skulls which showed no signs of decay, 

 though it would now appear that they must have belonged to aged 

 subjects, the crowns of whose molars had been worn down greatly 

 by use. That very use, however, must have been a grinding or tritur- 

 ant one ; and, singularly as the character of the molars is now altered, 

 the sheer fact of wearing in such mode and degree seems to de- 

 monstrate that extreme lateral action of the jaws for which I con- 

 tended, but with which it is not so easy to reconcile the style of the 

 dentition exhibited in the present subject.* What is the normal state 

 of the teeth ? and how can we be justified in regarding that state of 

 them as abnormal which is found in lusty and vigorous specimens of 

 the animal ? The intestinal canal of the present sample is 5 lengths, 

 as before, not so remarkable, however, for width, but more so for the 

 very singular and almost identical modification it undergoes at either 

 extremity. It would seem as if both these peculiarly structured parts 

 of the intestines should be regarded as quasi stomachs, and their effect 

 in harmonising the alimentary canal with the dentition (whatever its 

 normal character) must be material. The variation in the number of 

 the dorsal and lumbar vertebrae is another remarkable peculiarity of 

 Ailurus, as to which however I will only add that the fact is unques- 

 tionable, having been carefully and repeatedly seen to. As already 

 hinted, it may be a mark of species. 



* The salient processes of the crowns of the molars are more marked than in 

 Ursus : yet the relative narrowness of the lower jaw continues as noticeable as in 

 prior specimens, so that any efficient action of the teeth must be by movements of 

 the jaw, essentially lateral, notwithstanding the deep cylindric hinging ! 



