PACIIYDERMATA. 



87! 



lie direction of the single-fanged teeth of their 

 patients by the application of wires. 



Digestive System. The digestive apparatus 

 is enormously developed in all the animals be- 

 longing to this order, being in this respect not 

 only adapted to the quantity of materials con- 

 sumed for the support of their unwieldy bodies, 

 but likewise in accordance with the strictly- 

 vegetable nature of the aliment upon which 

 they feed, which, compared with animal sub- 

 stances, is necessarily bulky and innutritious. 

 We select a few examples. 



The stomach of the Elephant is simple, but 

 in shape it is much more elongated than in the 

 human subject. Its cardiac extremity is pro- 

 longed into a pouch of considerable size, the 

 lining membrane of which is gathered into 

 thirteen or fourteen large valvular folds, which, 

 from their great size, seem to form so many 

 broad valves. The muscular tunic of this 

 pouch and around the cardia is remarkably 

 thick, and its contents such as to indicate some 

 analogy between this portion of the stomach 

 and the abomasus or fourth stomach of rumina- 

 ting quadrupeds. 



The small intestines are very voluminous, 

 and the colon and ccecum of enormous dimen- 

 sions, presenting longitudinal tendinous bands 

 and wide pouches as in the human subject. 

 The following table will serve to shew the pro- 

 digious extent of the intestinal canal of an 

 Elephant seventeen years of age, and only 

 seven feet and a half in height. 



ft. in. 

 Length of the small intestines from 



the pylorus to the coecum 38 



Circumference of ditto 2 



Length of coecum 1 6 



Circumference of ccecum 5 



Circumference of colon 6 



Length of colon and rectum to- 

 gether 20 



Total length of intestinal canal, ex- 

 clusive of the ccecum 58 6 



The liver requires no special notice, but the 

 arrangement of the biliary ducts of the Ele- 

 phant is very remarkable ; and various opinions 

 are recorded by the older anatomists as to 

 whether the Elephant did or did not possess a 

 gall-bladder, most of them denying its existence, 

 while others mistook enlargements of the biliary 

 canals for a true vesiculum J'ellis. 



The gall-bladder of the Elephant (fg. 480) 

 is, in fact, situated between the coats of the 

 duodenum itself, (b, c, e, p,) quite at the ter- 

 mination of the biliary duct which comes im- 

 mediately from the liver. It consists of a great 

 oval pouch divided by transverse valves or septa 

 into four compartments (n, o). The fundus 

 and walls of this pouch are studded with glan- 

 dular granules ; the bile enters it at one ex- 

 tremity from the hepatic duct, (/', g,) and at 

 the opposite end passes into the interior of the 

 intestine (a, d, e, c) through a mamillary 

 projection, situated upwards of two feet from 

 the pylorus, through the orifice of which the 

 point of a probe (g, r) is represented as pro- 

 truding. The arrangement of the pancreatic 

 conduits is likewise remarkable. The pancreas 



consists of a loose arrangement of glandular 

 masses not very closely connected with each 

 other, from which separate ducts are given off, 

 which terminate in a common canal. This 

 latter, however, soon divides into two branches, 

 one of which pours the secretion which it con- 

 veys into the upper compartment of the biliary 

 pouch, where it is mixed up with the bile therein 

 contained preparatory to its introduction into 

 the intestine, while the other branch of the pan- 

 creatic duct opens into the duodenum itself, 

 about two inches lower down, so that at the 

 orifice bile mixed with the pancreatic secretion 

 enters the duodenum, while from the lower 

 aperture the fluid received is pure pancreatic 

 juice. 



The spleen of Pachydermatous animals differs 

 in no noticeable respect from that of other 

 quadrupeds. In the Elephant it measures 

 four feet in length, yet even this is thought 

 small when compared with the gigantic size of 

 the animal. 



The stomach of the Hippopotamus, or, at all 

 events, of a foetal Hippopotamus dissected by 

 Daubenton, presents a very remarkable con- 

 formation. Externally it appeared to be com- 

 posed of three parts ; the principal portion, ex- 

 tending from the cardiac extremity to the py- 

 lorus, was much elongated, resembling more a 

 portion of intestine than an ordinary stomachal 

 receptacle. Besides this central part, extending 

 from the oesophagus to the pyloric valve, were 

 two long appendages like two coecums, one 

 arising on the right side of the oesophagus and 

 running along the exterior of the stomach 

 throughout almost its entire length, and then 

 folding backwards, the other and shorter cul de 



