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Show 406 DR. J. MURIE ON THE EMU. [Apr. 1 1 , land," accompanying these by figures, comparing the trachea of the Galeated Cassowary, the Emu, and Golden-eyed Duck. A notice of Knox's papers followed in ' Froriep's Notizen,' no. 127, March 1824. In the last-mentioned Journal, no. 177, in November of the same year, a short account was given of a dissection performed by Dr. Wedemeyer* in 1822, wherein the claim of the priority of having discovered the tracheal sac in the E m u was asserted, evidently unaware of Fremery's earlier observation. A full translation of Dr. Knox's two papers appeared afterwards in Meckel's 'Archiv fiir Anatomie und Physiologie,' 1832, p. 263, &c, with footnotes apparently by Meckel himself; for there succeeds the concluding part of a long Essayf upon the Anatomy of the Indian Cassowary by him, and in which he alludes to the authors I have above referred to. In his ' Systematic Treatise on Comparative Anatomy,' MeckelJ again recalls the opinions of the previously cited observers. At the Meeting of the British Association in Bristol in 1836 (Report, p. 97), Dr. Macartney laid before the Section of Zoology and Botany " A n Account of the Organ of Voice in the N e w Holland Ostrich ;" and as nothing is said respecting what had already been published, I presume from his statement that he considered the fact new to science. Professor Owen, in his ' Memoir on the Anatomy of the Southern Apteryx (Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. ii. p. 279, communicated in 1838)§, takes notice of Fremery's discovery; but he did not find such a structure existing in the Apteryx. Wagner mentions it in his ' Lehrbuch der Zootomie.' And, finally, Carus figures it in his and D'Alton's 'Tabulae Anat. compar. illust.' 1848, pars vii. tab. 6. fig. 2. I have been induced thus historically to call attention to accounts of the tracheal pouch of the Emu, because I find that later writers upon the Struthious Birds have not given sufficient importance to these observations upon this singular organization. Such a structure along with other anatomical differences, well pointed out both by Meckel and Knox in the papers cited, should fairly be taken into account and balanced with other characters, whether dermal or osteological, in order to arrive at not only a natural classification of the family, but its relation to allied groups. Although the aforesaid sac has so often been made the subject of remark, no one seems to have figured the most important feature in connexion with it-namely, the open anterior slit in the tracheal rings. Dr. Knox's illustration is defective, inasmuch as it is small, * " Der mit der Luftrohre des E m u Casoars in Verbindung stebende musku-lose Beutel," Froriep's Notizen, 1824-25, p. 7. t Tbe first part of which appeared in the ' Archiv.' for 1830, p. 200. % Traite General D'A*matomie Comparee par J. F. Meckel, traduit de l'alle-mand par Dr. Th. Schuster. Paris, 1838, x. p. 402. § Tbe disposition of the sac to the trachea is therein correctly stated ; but in Prof. Owen's more recent 'Anatomy of Vertebrates,' 1866, ii. p. 220, a slip evidently has occurred, in tbe statement that the cartilaginous rings are wanting posteriorly (whereas anteriorly undoubtedly must have been meant). |