ALIMENTARY CANAL OF INSECTIVOTIA. 



427 



323 



human intestinal canal, in showing that a change to gastric diges- 

 tion is repeated upon the food in the caecum : chemistry has, also, 

 shown that the chyme here again becomes acidified, after having 

 been neutralised by bile in the small intestines. 



327. Alimentary canal of Insectivora. In this, as in preceding 

 orders, the oesophagus is usually prolonged some way into the 

 abdomen before its termination. My examinations of the stomach 



/ 



in the different insectivorous genera lead me to generalise an ap- 

 proximate, rather than a remote, relative position of the cardiac 

 and pyloric orifices : * the form of this viscus, in most, accords 

 with that in Ornithorhynchus, fig. 

 308, b. In a Proboscis-shrew, e.g. 

 (Rhynchocyon, Peters), the depth, or 

 diameter of the stomach in the axis 

 of the abdomen, exceeds the length, 

 or transverse diameter : the cardiac 

 end does not bulge out to the left of 

 the gullet so much as in Rodentia ; but 

 there is usually an expansion beyond 

 and to the right of the pylorus, and the 

 proximity of that orifice to the car- 

 dia leaves but a short tract answer- 

 ins: to the ( lesser curvature ' of the 



o 



stomach, fig. 323, s. The form of 

 this viscus in Solenodon, Amphisorex, 

 Hydrosorex fodiens, and Cladobates, is very similar to that in 

 RJiynchocyon : in all Insectivora the duodenum expands to much 

 more than the diameter of the oesophagus. In our small native 

 Shrews the shape of the stomach depends much upon the 

 quantity it happens to hold, and the transverse extent prevails 

 most in the empty state. In Sorex araneus the cardiac sac pro- 

 jects moderately beyond the oesophagus ; in S. leucodo?i, Hydro- 

 sorex hermanni and Amphisorex tetragonurus, the cardiac sac as- 

 sumes almost rodent proportions : in many Shrews the contracted 

 pyloric part of the stomach is much prolonged. 



In the Hedgehog the transverse length of the stomach pre- 

 vails over the depth : the blind end to the left is less produced 

 than in the above-named Shrews : the coats of the narrow pyloric 

 end are thick. 2 



1 ' II est generalement dispose en trarers, pins on moins alonge dans ce sens, avec 

 les orifices distants.' xn. tome iv. p. 34. See also LXIII". p. 1002. 



2 Hunter notes that he found in the stomachs of Hedgehogs, in April, grubs, 

 with a little unchewed grass; in May, June, July, and August, * the insects of the 

 season/ and caterpillars of the cabbage (Pier is Brassicce*) ; in September and October, 



Stomach, liver, &c., Rhynchocyon. LXXXIV' 



