On the anatomy of Hyaena crocuta (H. maculata) / by Morrison Watson and Alfred H. Young.

  • Watson, Morrison.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the anatomy of Hyaena crocuta (H. maculata) / by Morrison Watson and Alfred H. Young. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    possible, supplementing these where it has been deemed expedient by illustrations sketched from recent dissections. Necessarily this course of procedure, especially as applied to the muscles, entails somewhat lengthy accounts. This doubtless, from some points of view, is objectionable; we have preferred to adopt it, however, rather than refer to groups of structures as being “ arranged in the usual manner,” a system of recording observations which, however satisfactory to the author, frequently renders a paper utterly useless to subsequent workers. So far as the records of the older writers (notably Herodotus1, Aristotle2, Pliny3, and Julian4) attest, their observations on the genus Hycena are practically limited to a consideration ot’ the external features and sexual peculiarities—a misconception having existed on this latter point, which has extended to the present time. Beyond this their writings are almost entirely confined to lengthy accounts of the various superstitions respecting the Ilysena and certain of its individual parts. Of all these a fair summary is to be found in Topsel’s collection from the writings of Gesner and others5 *. Here also the hermaphroditic uature of the species is referred to and denied. Subsequently to this time, as might naturally be expected in the case of so common and familiar a Carnivore, the detailed anatomy of the genus has received more or less attention at the hands of various observers. Except in so far as the osseous system is concerned, how- ever, it is somewhat astonishing to find that the record of their work which constitutes the modern literature concerning Hycena, refers only (i. e. when the species is definitely stated) to H. striata or to H. brunnea, the Spotted Hyaena having apparently thus far enjoyed almost a total immunity from the scalpel. We would specially indicate here, as embodying the greater part of what is known regarding the soft parts of the former species, that descriptive accounts of the visceral organs have been given by Reimann8, Rudolphi, Daubenton7, and Hunter8, whilst Meckel9 and Cuvier10, who also seem in the main to have limited their obser- vations to this species, refer not only to the viscera, but also to the muscular arrangements, Meckel further making isolated references to the viscera of H. crocuta. The muscles of H striata are fully illustrated, in plates 129-142 of Cuvier and Laurillard’s ‘ Myology’ u. Respecting H. brunnea, Dr. Murie12 has contributed a paper on the viscera and female generative organs, and indicated some of the characteristic myological features of the species. 1 Rawlinson’s Herodotus, vol. iii. 2 Historia Animalium, vi. 3 Pliny, viii. 4 Historia Animalium, i. 5 The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents, oollected out of the writings of Conradus Gesner and other writers, by Ed. Topsel, 1658, p. 339. 6 He Hyaena, Berol. 1811. 7 Buffon, Histoire Naturelle, tome ix. 8 Essays and Observations, edit, by Owen, 1861, vol. ii. 9 Anatomie Com parte. 10 Lemons d’Anat. Comp. 11 Recueil de Planches de Myologie. 12 Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond., vol. vii. p. 503. [2]