Karl Pearson and Adelaide G. Davin 
353 
viverrid), cheetah (2 cases), Herpestes ichneumon (the Egyptian ichneumon) with 
both lateral fabella and cyamella, Canis dingo*. 
We have not been able to confirm Gruber's result hv the lion or Meckel's for 
bears. In Felis leo we have found a deep cavity on the articular surface of the 
external condyle which might well be for an external fabella. On a skeleton of 
Ursns horribilis (grizzly bear) we found nothing, but on the fossil Ursits spelaeus 
(great cave bear) there wei^e depressions on the femur which might well have 
served ior fahellae. The same remark applies to the fossil Arctotheviuin bonariensi, 
which we also examined. 
We have purposely discussed the carniv(j]'es in the first place as a group marked 
by sesamoidal characters intermediate between the Primates and Ungulates. The 
higher primates have lost wholly or in part both fabellae and cijaniella ; the higher 
carnivores are in the same stage. Either they have never developed them, or they 
have lost them and comparison with the primates suggests that the latter is the 
better account. But one great feature comes out of any examination of the carni- 
vores: There is no single species in which the mesial fabella is present without the 
external. If one fabella alone occurs, it is the external. The mesial fabella seems 
to be a pale refiex of the external fabella. It is often absent, often much smaller, 
oftener remains a hemisesamoid, and when it does ossify, ossifies later. Its develop- 
ment in the individual suggests a different evolutionary origin, and one of less 
importance than that of the external fabella. 
(10) Ungulates. 
Let us now pass to the Ungulates and note first what others have observed. 
Among the true ungulates, the Perissodactyla, tapirs, horses, etc., no fabellae have 
been seen. Among the Artiodactyla the swinei* are without them and nearly all 
the ruminants. The only exception that we have seen noted is that of the stag, 
which is said by Meckel to have an external fabella. This is supported by Gruber, 
who says he found the external fabella in Cevvus tarandus but otherwise in none 
of the ruminants. It fails in other members of the Vngulata, horse, elephant, hip- 
popotamus, rhinoceros, giraffe, etc., etc. 
While we have found sesamoids preserved in mounted skeletons of nearly all 
the lower primates, the rodents and certainly fifty per cent, of the carnivores, we 
have drawn a complete blank with the exception of Hyrax in the case of all ungu- 
lates. There seems no reason why the articulator should have made a practice of 
removing the fabellae in the case of the ungulates. 
We have examined skeletons of: Ovis aries\. Bos indicus, Capra hirxus (common 
goat), Capra tartarica (Saiga antelope, 3 cases), Tetraceros chiliana (four horned 
antelope, 4 cases), Moschus moschiferus (musk deer), Cervus dama (fallow deer), 
* Only one case, which had solely the external fabella. But the dogs are very difficult unless directly 
dissected. We have noted both fabellae in articulated skeletons of Saint Bernard, French Bloodhound 
and Chow; external only in Bulldog, Newfoundland and Deeihound, but this proves nothing. 
•f Gruber found a pad (Wulst) in Sus scrofa in the external head of gastrocnemius but no hemi- 
sesamoid, much less an orthosesamoid. 
X Several knee-joints of sheep on dissection showed no traces oi fabellae or cyainclla. 
