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| The
Internal Anatomy of the Thylacine - A Historical Perspective |
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| Dr. Edwards Crisp
(1806-1882), was a general practitioner and medical scientist (Dobson 1952).
He was a Board member of the Pathological and Medical Societies of London,
President of the Physical Society of Guys Hospital, and Vice President
of the South London Medical Society. On the 16th May 1850, the London
Zoo received its first
pair of thylacines. They were presented to the Zoological
Society by Ronald Gunn and Dr. James Grant of Launceston, Tasmania.
The male died on the 25th September 1853 and was the subject of a paper
by Crisp, published in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of
London (1855), in which he compared the anatomy of the thylacine with |
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| Cape
hunting dogs (Lycaon pictus). In 1855, Dr. Edward Crisp authored
a paper in which he made comparisons between the anatomy of the thylacine
and this species. The Cape hunting dog (also known as the Painted
"wolf") is today among the most critically endangered of all wild canids. |
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that
of the Cape hunting dog (Lycaon pictus). Crisp accurately
notes that the thylacine was the first to be dissected in the country,
and proceeds to perform a standard autopsy on the specimen, which he describes
as being excessively fat. Crisp's specimen weighed 14.97 kg (33 lb.)
and measured some 85 cm (2 ft. 9½ in.) from nose to base of the
tail, with a tail length of 38 cm (15 in.). Crisp measured and weighed
each of the thylacine's internal organs and noted some structural points
of interest with respect to its alimentary tract.
The spleen from Crisp's dissection (specimen RCS A116.1) is now preserved
as a "wet" specimen in the collection of the Royal College of Surgeons
(England) (Source: ITSD 5th Revision 2013). |
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| In the "Transactions
of the St. Andrews Medical Graduates Association" (Sedgwick 1868),
Crisp is noted as exhibiting an extensive collection of "model" eyes from
the Paris exhibition (Exposition
Universelle of 1867): "Dr Crisp also exhibited the eyes of
600 different species of vertebrate animal, mammals, birds, reptiles, and
fishes, which had been at the late Paris exhibition. They were prepared
by the exhibitor in the following novel manner, for the purpose of showing
the colour of the iris, and the relative size of the eye to the body.
The contents of the eye were removed, and the cavity filled with Plaster
of Paris; when dry the eye was painted in oil colours so as to imitate
the natural appearance". Among the model specimens was the eye
of the "Tasmanian wolf". |
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| Josef
Hyrtl (1810-1894), was an Austrian born anatomist. Whilst Professor
of Anatomy at Vienna University, Hyrtl published
"Die Corrosions Anatomie
und Ihre Ergebnisse", in which he makes reference to the anatomy of
the pancreatic duct of the thylacine (Hyrtl 1873). Hyrtl was a pioneer
in corrosion anatomy, a process that involves injecting various agents
into vessels, ducts and cavities. These hardened and the adjacent
tissues were subsequently dissolved using corrosive substances such as
potassium hydroxide, leaving a cast. This technique enabled Hyrtl
to study comparative anatomy across different species.
Sir
William Henry Flower (1831-1899), was the curator of the Hunterian
Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England from 1861 to 1884.
Flower (1865) published a paper in the Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society of London entitled "On the commisures of the cerebral
hemispheres of the Marsupialia and Monotremata as compared with those of
Placental Mammals", in which he makes reference to the thylacine:
"The large carnivorous
marsupial, the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), so widely separated
in external characters from both the kangaroo and the wombat, shows the
same general peculiarities of cerebral organisation, 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".
Flower's description
of the brain of the thylacine is the first account noted in the literature.
The brain described by Flower was that originally prepared by Owen.
The specimen still exists within the collection of the Royal College of
Surgeons in London (RCSHM/D 202) (Source: ITSD 5th Revision 2013). |
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Hyrtl's illustration
of the luminal cast of the pancreatic duct of the thylacine.
Source: "Die Corrosions
Anatomie und Ihre Ergebnisse", Table 7, Fig 5.
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A comparison of Plate
XXXVIII Fig. 5 from "On the commisures of the cerebral hemispheres of
the Marsupialia and Monotremata as compared with those of Placental Mammals"
with Flower's specimen (RCSHM / D202) in the collection of the Hunterian
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons (England).
Photo: Dr. Stephen Sleightholme
(ITSD 5th Revision 2013). |
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| (A)
Crus cerebri, divided between thalamus opticus and corpus striatum. |
| (B)
Body of corpus callosum. |
| (F)
Anterior commissure. |
| (G)
Septal area. |
| (I)
Precommissural fibres. |
| (L)
Columns of fornix. |
| (M)
Corpus fimbriatum - edge of posterior crura of fornix. |
| (N)
Psalterial fibres of corpus callosum. |
| (P)
Fascia dentata. |
| (Q)
Hippocampal sulcus. |
| (R).
Corpus striatum. |
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| Plate
XXXVIII Fig. 6 from Flower's paper "On the commisures of the cerebral
hemispheres of the Marsupialia and Monotremata as compared with those of
Placental Mammals". |
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