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Show 1891.] BRAIN OF THE MALE THYLACINE. 141 The only descriptions of the Thylacine brain with which I am acquainted are contained in Professor Flower's memoir upon the Marsupial brain l, that by Gervais, and that by Sir Richard Owen in the ' Anatomy of Vertebrates.' Prof. Fiower figures the internal aspect of a longitudinal median section as well as transverse section through the corpus callosum. His description of the brain is limited to the following passage in his paper (p. 646) :- "The large carnivorous Marsupial, the Thylacine (Thylacinus Fig. 2. Praia of Thylacine, right and left halves, a little reduced from natural size. S, Sylvian fissure. T, Rhinal fissure. cynocephalus), so widely separated in external characters from both the Kangaroo and Wombat, shows the same general peculiarities of cerebral organization, but attended with a smaller development of the superior transverse commissure, especially of its anterior part, and a greater reduction of the thickness of the interventricular septum." Sir Richard Owen (loc. cit. vol. iii. p. 105) remarks that Thylacinus "has the anterior apex of the hemisphere marked off by a deeper transverse fissure, extending to the inner surface," and that " there is a short fissure above the back part of the hippocampal one." He does not, however, refer to any fuller description of this brain, but 1 " On the Commissures of the Cerebral Hemispheres of the Marsupialia and Monotrem ata as compared with those of the Placental Mammals," Phil. Trans. 1865, pp. 633-651, pis. xxxvi.-xxxviij. |