121 



shall be able to make the safest inferences. The difficulty of effecting 

 their interpretations does not arise so much, according to his view, 

 from their remote antiquity, or our imperfect acquaintance with the 

 language in which they are expressed, as from the circumstances that 

 they were originally intended, like the Ogham character itself, to be 

 cryptic — legible only by the initiated. And this accounts for that 

 disinclination shown by Irish scholars to undertake the deciphering of 

 them. They are an exercise of something more than ordinary philolo- 

 gical skill. 



The Bishop concluded by expressing a hope that he would be able 

 before long to lay before the Academy a communication illustrating 

 these views. 



XXIY. — Further Notes on Muscular Anomalies in Human Ana- 

 tomy, AND THEIR BEARING UPON HoMOTYPICAL MYOLOGY. By ALEX- 

 ANDER Macaltster, L.K.Q.C.P., L.R.C.S. ; Surgeon to the Adelaide 

 Hospital ; Demonstrator of Anatomy, Royal College of Surgeons ; 

 and one of the Honorary Secretaries of the Royal Geological Society 

 of Ireland. 



[Read December 9, 1867.] 

 On a former occasion I laid before the Royal Irish Academy a cata- 

 logue of the principal variations which I had noticed in Human 

 Myology during the several preceding Sessions in the dissecting-room 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons. Through the past winter of 1866-7, 

 I have added to the list many irregularities of note, which appear to me 

 to be well worthy of record. I had not the opportunity of examining 

 each subject which came into the Anatomy Hall for dissection; but of 

 those whose examinations I have directly superintended I have pre- 

 served notes of sixty cases, not one of which failed to display some 

 deviation from the arrangement usually called normal, and in some 

 these departures from type were gregarious to a singular extent. 



The observation of anomalous muscles forms one of the most 

 interesting departments of Teratology, and is interesting in a compara- 

 tive point of view, as showing, firstly, the relation between the muscles 

 of man and those of other vertebrate animals ; and, secondly, as illus- 

 trating and indicating the correct homotypy of muscles in different 

 regions of the same body. To the second of these subjects I would wish 

 to call ^ attention in the present paper. The teachings of individual 

 anomalies must always be received with caution, for Teratology, if not 

 corrected by Embryology, is at the best but an uncertain guide. It has, 

 however, one great advantage, namely — that of indicating special lines 

 of study to be followed up in other branches. 



The general conditions which I have found to exist with regard to 

 the occurrence of anomalies seem to be the following: — First, with 

 regard to their frequency in different regions, I have found them to 

 be most numerous in the forearm ; secondly, in the face ; thirdly, in 

 the foot ; fourthly, in the back ; fifthly, in the neck ; sixthly, in the 



