Archive image from page 486 of The cyclopædia of anatomy and. The cyclopædia of anatomy and physiology cyclopdiaofana01todd Year: 1836 CARNIVORA. 471 propensity and structure in a higher degree than any of the others. Skeleton.—The structure of the skeleton in the cat tribe exhibits, in the greatest imaginable degree, all the requisites of fleetness, activity, and power, for the purpose of pursuing, sur- prising, overpowering, and tearing the living prey on which, in a state of nature, they wholly subsist. In the less typical forms we find these attributes possessed to a modified extent, but
Archive image from page 486 of The cyclopædia of anatomy and. The cyclopædia of anatomy and physiology cyclopdiaofana01todd Year: 1836 CARNIVORA. 471 propensity and structure in a higher degree than any of the others. Skeleton.—The structure of the skeleton in the cat tribe exhibits, in the greatest imaginable degree, all the requisites of fleetness, activity, and power, for the purpose of pursuing, sur- prising, overpowering, and tearing the living prey on which, in a state of nature, they wholly subsist. In the less typical forms we find these attributes possessed to a modified extent, but still admirably adapted to their respective habits. As an example of the typical structure, the skeleton of the lion (jig. 189) shews, in the Fig. 189. configuration of the bones, in their articulation, and in the developement of the different points of muscular attachment, such a combination of lightness of form with vast power, as must strike every one as being exactly equivalent to the natural requirements of the animal. The spine is flexile, yet of great strength, and the extent and robustness of the lumbar portion of the vertebral column seem at once adapted for the exercise of that flexibility, and for the location of powerful muscles. The ribs are narrow and far asunder; the limbs long, powerful, and so constructed as to afford the greatest facility and extent of motion, an object which is greatly promoted by placing the point of rest Fig. at the extremity of the toes; the whole of the feet, excepting that part, being thus made sub- servient to the object in question. The cra- nium is broad and short, and fitted for the exercise of almost incalculable force in holding and tearing their food. In the weasel tribe the legs are shorter, the vertebral column elongated and in the highest degree slender and flexible, the lumbar region being as long even as the dorsal, a structure by which they are enabled to creep with almost a serpentine motion in quest of the small and
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