ALIMENTARY CANAL OF FISHES. 



417 



279 



Stomach arid pan- 

 creas, Polyptcrun. 



the cardiac as to make the coecal character of the latter doubtful, 

 is presented by the short and capacious stomach of the Burbot, the 

 Blenny, and the Gynmotus. In the Mormyrus 

 the stomach presents the rare form of a globular 

 sac, fig. 280, e. In the siphonal stomach of the 

 Cyprinida and Balistidcs the pylorus is little if at 

 all discernible, and the transition into intestine is 

 gradual. In the Salmon the intestine is indicated 

 by the pyloric appendages, fig. 286, c: in the 

 Sharks there is a true pylorus, and in Selache, fig. 

 278, an interposed pouch. Where the caacal cha- 

 racter of the stomach is well marked, the length of 

 the blind end of the cardia varies considerably. 

 In the Turbot it is wide and short, fig. 287, b : 

 in the Sand-lance (Ammodytes) it is very large : in 

 the Polypterus, fig. 279, <?, Conger, and Sword- 

 fish, fig. 282, it forms almost the whole of the 

 elongated stomach, the short pyloric portion, fig. 279,/, being 

 continued from near its commencement : in the equally elongated 

 stomach of the Pike, the pyloric portion is continued from the 

 cardiac sac at a little distance from its blind end ; the Herring, 

 Sprat, fig. 288, Whiting, fig. 285, Gurnard, and Scorprena show 

 an intermediate position of the pyloric portion, and this is usually 

 attended with a shorter and wider form of the cardiac caecum. 

 The pyloric portion is usually slender, fig. 278, c, or conical, figs. 

 285, 287 ; but it dilates into a wide sac in Saryus and Lophius ; 

 and forms a small oval pouch in Trachypterus. 



In certain Fishes the stomach deviates from the typical forms 

 either into the extreme of simplicity or the 

 converse, without, however, attaining in any 

 species that degree of complexity which 

 characterises some of the higher-organised 

 Vertebrates. A proper gastric compartment of 

 the alimentary canal cannot be said to exist in 

 the Lancelet : the long caecum, fig. 169, hd, Z, 

 continued from it just beyond the cardia, 

 appears to be a simple form of liver. In the higher Dermopteri, 

 as the Sand-prides, the Myxines, and the Lampreys, as also 

 in Cobitis and Lepidosiren, the stomach is continued straight 

 from the o?sophagus to the intestine. I have found the capa- 

 cious cardiac division of the stomach of the Lophius partially 

 divided into two sacs ; the unusually wide and short pyloric 

 portion forming a third sac : there may also be observed a few 



VOL. I. E E 



280 



Stomach and pancreas, 

 Mormyrus. 



