PROCEEDINGS 



OP 



THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 



MONDAY, APRIL 11, 1864. 



"William Heney Haedinge, Esq., in the Chair. 



Alexander M'Donnell, Esq. ; J. J. Lalor, Esq. ; the Hon. Thomas 

 D'Arcy M'Gee ; and Sir Victor A. Brooke, Bart. ; were elected mem- 

 bers of the Academy. 



The Secretary read the following paper, by Alexandee Macalistee, 

 L. E. C. S. I., Demonstrator of Anatomy, Eoyal College of Surgeons: — 



On the Anatomy oe the Osteich (Stetjthio cameltjs). 



The science of comparative anatomy requires for its basis the records 

 of the careful and minute dissections of at least the typical forms of 

 the animal kingdom, in order that we may arrive at correct ideas re- 

 garding the proper homologies and relations of the various parts of 

 which the animate frame is made up; and though the subject of this 

 memoir has been examined very frequently, there does not exist, to my 

 knowledge, a complete or accurate account of its structural peculiarities. 

 M. Perrault has left on record the dissection of eight of these birds ; but 

 in his description many interesting facts regarding the visceral anatomy 

 are not mentioned, and the muscular system is not at all described. 

 During the past year the splendid pair of ostriches belonging to the 

 Zoological Society of Dublin died — the female in June, 1863, from the 

 constitutional disturbance consequent on a compound fracture of the 

 metatarsal bone of the left leg; the male in January, 1864, from the 

 effects of the severe and unexpected frost : both these animals have been 

 dissected with great care, and many novel points of anatomical and 

 physiological importance have been ascertained in their structure.* 4 



* The female ostrich was dissected in the Museum of the Royal Dublin Society, and 

 the male ostrich in the dissecting rooms of Trinity College. I am indebted to Dr. Carte 

 and to the Rev. Professor Haughton for the opportunities I had of assisting in their ana- 

 tomical examination. 



E. I. A. PEOC. — VOL. IX. 



