198 MAMMALIAN DESCENT. [Lect. VIII. 



the digits across his partly opened mouth ; thus he 

 woukl appear to live by licking his fingers. 



Carnivora, 



The t}q3es now to be mentioned are the nobler 

 Eutheria; these have gone on improving, through secu- 

 lar periods, not easily measurable, but certainly very 

 great. The Carnivora have been well worked at by Pro- 

 fessor Flower ; to his various and valuable papers and 

 works, I must refer you. But that which is most curious 

 in the skull of the Carnivore, the special " bulla tympani," 

 comes into my particular dejDartment, and I may now 

 explain its meaning. I have mentioned that the meatus 

 externus, or outer passage of the ear, the "porch 

 of the ear," in Shakespeare's language, is formed of a 

 superficial cartilage, which reaches through the 

 Eustachian tube to the throat. This is segmented into 

 imperfect rings, especially in its inner part ; the inner- 

 most ring but one is tranformed into bone very early, 

 before the cartilag;e o-ets solid. This becomes the annulus 

 tympanicus, or tympanic bone. The innermost annulus 

 becomes a truly cartilaginous tract in the Carnivora ; it 

 then ossifies, independently, and after that coalesces 

 with the already ossified bony ring, next outside it. 



These Carnivores are very tempting to the biologist, 

 but they do not lead towards the human race. Yet they 

 are cater-cousins to savage Man, to the natural Man, 

 pure and simple, in reality neither pure nor simj^le. 



