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VIII. The Myology of the Cheiroptera. By Alexander Macalister, /LB., M.B. Buhl, 
Professor of Zoology in the University of Dublin. Communicated by Br. Sharpey, 
Sec. R.S. 
Received October 19, 1871, — Read January 11, 1872. 
The aberrant forms and remarkable habits of the animals composing this order, so 
divergent from the general mammalian type, render the study of their myology a sub- 
ject of the deepest anatomical interest ; and yet it is singular how little attention has 
hitherto been directed to its investigation. Thus in the article “ Cheiroptera” in the 
‘ Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology,’ the muscular system is passed over unnoticed; 
and in another standard work, Professor Owen’s ‘ Comparative Anatomy of Vertebrates,’ 
the only fact noticed regarding the muscles of the Bats is their deep red colour (vol. iii. 
p. 1). No extensive series of observations has hitherto been made on this subject; a 
few species only have been dissected with care, and these dissections have not even been 
compared with each other. Cuvjer, Meckel, Kolenati, Humphry, and Aeby are among 
the only authors who have published records of their researches, and not more than four 
or five species have been made the subjects of description. 
On examining some of the store jars in the Museum of the Dublin University, I found 
some specimens of Bats which proved on examination to be in very good dissectable 
condition. During the past summer I made a very careful series of dissections of these, 
and have from them compiled the present Monograph. The number of perfectly new 
and remarkable facts which have, in the course of my examinations, been observed and 
recorded, will, I think, fully justify me in publishing a detailed account of my dissec- 
tions. 
The small size of some of these animals rendered the dissection a matter of difficulty, 
as in many cases I was obliged to use a simple dissecting-microscope. For the same 
reason I was not able to use the balance with any degree of comfort, as a means of com- 
paring the relative development of muscles in different species ; I was, indeed, compelled 
to give up the use of this aid to investigation, as, from the small sizes and the necessary 
difficulty in raising entire muscles with the degree of absolute perfection requisite in the 
comparison of such small weights as grains or fractions of grains, the work became 
almost hopelessly tedious ; and thus I have very little additional light to throw upon this 
interesting subject, whose study has been begun by Professor Aeby in Basel and Pro- 
fessor Haughton in Dublin. 
The species referred to in this paper are the following : — of the Pteropidse, Pteropus 
edulis, medius, and Edwardsii , Macroglossus minimus , Eleutlierura marginata , Cephalotes 
Pallasii , Cynonycteris amplexicaudatus ; of the Rhinolophidse, Bliinolophus ferrmn- 
MDCCCLXXII. S t S 
