


THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST 


Vor. XXXVI. July, 1902. No. 427. 





CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY OF 
THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY AT HARVARD 
COLLEGE. E. L. MARK, DIRECTOR. No. 134. 
A CASE OF ABNORMALITY IN CATS' PAWS. 
FREELAND HOWE, Jn. 
THIs paper contains an account of facts learned by the 
study of the walking pads, the muscular, vascular, nervous, 
and skeletal systems of the manus of a polydactyle and syn- 
dactyle cat. The cat furnishing the material for this study 
Was one of a strain of polydactyle cats living in Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, and descended from a polydactyle cat which 
lived at the astronomical observatory of Harvard University. 
All four legs of the cat dissected were preserved in alcohol 
and were kindly given me for study by Dr. C. B. Davenport, 
under whose direction the work was done. To him and to 
Prof. E. L. Mark I wish to extend my thanks for kind advice 
and criticism. 
Each fore paw had six toes; the toes of the hind paws were 
fused in pairs almost to the ends of the claws, as is shown in 
Figs. 1 and 2. 
SII 
