682 MR. youatt’s veterinary lectures. 
cavity enlarges considerably upwards, and is occupied chiefly by 
the sethmoid bone, through which the olfactory nerve first pass¬ 
ing, and on which the greater portion of nervous pulp being 
spread, seems to have most to do with the sense of smell. 
The nasal bones in the dog are in shape the reverse of any that 
we have yet considered. They commence, indeed, as high up in 
the face as those of the horse, their superior extremity being op¬ 
posite to the lachrymal tubercle ; but they commence in an apex or 
point varying in sharpness indifferent breeds, and in some almost 
as sharp as anv that we have seen at the lower extremity of the 
nose in other quadrupeds. These points forming, together, one 
sharp projection, are received between lengthened processes of the 
frontal bone on either side. In some breeds, these processes ex¬ 
tend nearly one-third of the length of the nasals. The superior 
maxillary takes the situation of the nasal; it pushes the lachrymal 
bone out of its place, and, indeed, almost annihilates it; and it 
reaches the frontal, and expands upon it, and forms with it the 
same squamous denticulated suture which we have seen in the 
nasal in all the rest. The action of the muscle, for the develop¬ 
ment of which all this sacrifice is made, is exceedingly powerful. 
The strength of the masseter in the dog, and in all beasts of prey, 
is almost incredible. A lion will run at a great pace with a tole¬ 
rable-sized steer in his mouth. Then the sutures between these 
bones must possess corresponding strength. They do so ; and so 
intimate is the union between the bones, that in many old dogs 
the sutures between the superior maxillary and frontal bones is 
nearly, and that between the nasal and frontal and superior 
maxillary, quite effaced. The whole is one solid mass of bone. 
The nasals, as they proceed down the face, curve their inner 
edges inward and downward, making a channel of greater or 
less depth along the median line of the face, and as the chan¬ 
nel on the inside is plainly to be traced, and is large, compared 
with the diminutive size of the bone, there is a considerable bony 
ridge dipping into the cavity, and forming a line of attachment 
for the septum. 
As the nasal bones proceed downward, they become a little 
wider; they unite with a long process of the anterior maxillary, 
as in the swine, for the purpose of strength, and then terminate 
in a very curious way. They have their apices or points on the 
outer and not the inner edge of the bone, and these apices or 
points are so contrived, that, lying upon and losing themselves, 
as it were, on the processes of the anterior maxillary, they com¬ 
plete, superiorly and posteriorly, that elliptical bony opening into 
the nose which was commenced by the anterior maxillary, ante¬ 
riorly and inferiorly. The nasal cavity of the dog, therefore, 
