304 



MARSUPIALIA. 



Table of the length of the intestinal canal as compared with the body. 



Salivary glands. These glands in the Car- 

 nivorous Dasyures consist of a small parotid 

 and a large submaxillary gland on each side. 

 I searched expressly, but in vain, for the zygo- 

 matic gland ; the Dasyures do not agree with 

 the dogs in having these glands. They have no 

 sublingual gland. The submaxillary gland is 

 placed in front of the neck, so that its duct passes 

 on the dermal side of the tendon of the biventer 

 maxillae, and terminates half an inch from the 

 symphysis menti. There is a thick row of 

 labial glands along the lower lip. The Opos- 

 sums and Bandicoots present a similar salivary 

 system. 



In the Phalangista vulpina there is a sub- 

 lingual gland on each side of a firm texture, 

 about one inch in length and three lines broad ; 

 a roundish submaxillary gland about the size 

 of a hazel-nut; and a broad and flat parotid, 

 larger than in the Entomophagous or Sarco- 

 phagous Marsupials. 



The parotid glands are relatively larger in 

 the Koala, in which the duct takes the usual 

 course over the masseter and enters the mouth 

 opposite the third true molar, counting back- 

 wards. 



In the Wombat I found the parotid glands 

 very thin, situated -upon both tiie outer and 

 inner side of the broad posterior portion of the 

 lower jaw; the duct passed directly upwards 

 and outwards to th& insertion of the sterno- 

 cleido-mastoideus ; here it was buried in the 

 cellular substance anterior to that muscle, then 

 turned over the ramus of the jaw, and, pur- 

 suing a somewhat tortuous course over the 

 masseter, entered the mouth just anterior to 

 the edge of the buccinator. The submaxillary 

 glands were each about the size of a walnut; 

 their ducts terminated as usual on each side of 

 the fraenum lingua?. 



* These admeasurements were obligingly com- 

 municated to me by my friend Mr. Hobson, of 

 HobartTown, Van Dieman's Land, and were taken 

 from an animal killed in the wild state. I subjoin 

 the admeasurements of an individual of the same 

 species which died after a year's confinement in the 

 Zoological Gardens : there is a considerable diffe- 

 rence in the length of the intestinal canal and 



In the great Kangaroo the parotid is very 

 large, extending from below the auditory mea- 

 tus three or four inches down the neck. In 

 the Hypsiprymnus it reaches as far as the cla- 

 vicle. In both cases this gland is separated 

 from the submaxillary gland by the submaxil- 

 lary vein. 



The tonsils are small in all the Marsupials, 

 but are not represented in the carnivorous spe- 

 cies, as in the Placental Ferae, by simple glan- 

 dular pouches at the sides of the fauces ; for 

 example, they consist of an oblong glandular 

 body on each side in the Dasyurus macrurus. 



The liver. The liver is subdivided into 

 many lobes in all the Marsupial genera. It is 

 relatively largest in the burrowing Wombat 

 and carnivorous Dasyure; relatively smallest 

 in the graminivorous Kangaroo, in which it is 

 situated, as in the placental Ruminants, en- 

 tirely to the right of the mesial plane. The 

 small or Spigelian lobe, which fits into the 

 lesser curve of the stomach, is given off from 

 the left lobe of the liver in the Kangaroos, but 

 from the right in most other Marsupials ; the 

 difference just noticed in the Kangaroo depends 

 on the peculiar disposition of its remarkable 

 stomach. 



In the Koala the under surface of the liver 

 (Jig. 130) is singularly sculptured and subdi- 

 vided into thirty or forty lobules; this condition 

 is presented in a minor degree in the liver of the 

 Ursine Dasyure. 



In a long-tailed Dasyure, which weighed 

 3 Ibs. 8i oz., the liver weighed 3 oz. avoir- 

 dupoise. 



The gall-bladder is present in all the Marsu- 

 pials, and is generally of large size and loosely 

 lodged in a deep cleft of the cystic lobe. In 

 the Opossum it generally perforates that lobe, 

 and the fundus appears at a round opening on 



especially of the coecum ; and it may be allowable 

 to speculate upon the influence which difference 

 of diet and confinement may have had in producing 

 this difference. Mr. Martin's admeasurements of 

 another Phal. Vulpina agree more nearly with mine. 

 See Zool. Proceedings, 1837. 



t The vermiform process measures two inches in 

 length. 





