THE TURBINATED BONES IN QUADRUPEDS. 279 
may have come into contact.” Then we expect to find some pecu- 
liarity of conformation, and we are not long in discovering it. The 
nasal sinuses are small in all of them, and totally wanting in many ; 
confirming the conjecture which I just now ventured to offer, that 
they have little or nothing to do with the sense of smell, but are 
connected with other purposes. The frontal sinuses, however, re- 
main, but much curtailed of their proportions, in animals of the 
canine and feline tribes. 
The Turbinated Bones in the Dog . — I have already stated that 
“ this bone is most of all developed in the dog, and that it needs to 
be so with him on account of the acuteness of scent which he pos- 
sesses. It occupies nearly the whole of the superior portion of the 
nasal cavity, and materiall^trenches on the situation of the turbi- 
nated bones in other animals.” Both the ethmoid and the turbi- 
nated bones assume a very different form. There is not so much 
room lost in a cell-like structure — they are more laminated and 
bent into a spiral form — far more complicated, and, compared with 
the space which they occupy, offering a more extensive surface for 
the distribution of the olfactory nerve. The comparative area of 
the nasal cavity is developed in every direction in its upper por- 
tion, and in the neighbourhood of the cribriform plate ; but it is 
rapidly diminished in the lower part of the nares, leaving us to 
conclude, that the upper or ethmoidal portions of the nose are more 
concerned with the sense of smell than are the lower ones. They 
are supplied by larger and more numerous branches of the olfactory 
nerve. 
The, Length of the Head in the horse, the ox, the deer, and other 
herbivorous animals is given chiefly for the more easy prehension 
of food, and branches from the olfactory nerve ramify over the 
whole of the nasal passages, in order that they shall be brought 
as near as possible to the destined food of the animal : but the 
principal seat of smell is nearer to the cribriform plate. There is 
sufficient olfactory power for general purposes, but neither the 
horse nor the ox always discriminates accurately. There are many 
noxious plants that they will eat when offered to them in the form of 
hay, but which when fresh they would have immediately rejected. 
The acuter sense of smelling in carnivorous animals, and especially 
in the dog, is mostly regulated by the form and situation of the 
olfactory bones. It may be improved to a very considerable ex- 
tent by education, and by breeding, — hence the varieties of dogs 
used in the pursuit of different animals — hence the peculiar scent 
of the terrier, the fox-hound, the deer-hound, the pointer, and the 
spaniel. Hence the hereditary excellence of certain breeds, and the 
entailed degeneracy of others. Much, however, is still dependent 
on conformation. No education could give the greyhound the scent 
