Dr. T. S. Cobbold on the Anatomy of the Giraffe. 485 



The carcase was purchased for the Museum of Natural Hi- 

 story by Prof. Traill, to whom our thanks are due for handing 

 over to the Anatomical Museum of the University, the viscera 

 and soft parts which remained after the skin and extremities had 

 been removed. In prosecuting the dissection, Mr. John Lowe 

 kindly rendered assistance, when the following facts were noted. 



The rumen, reticulum, psalterium, and stomach occupied the 

 anterior two-thirds of the abdominal cavity, the intestines being 

 situated further back and suspended, as it were, from the lumbo- 

 sacral region of the spine. The paunch was very greatly dis- 

 tended with food, to which the general enlargement of the abdo- 

 men, observable before the body was opened, seemed principally 

 due. I allude to this circumstance in particular, because little 

 or no fluid had accumulated in the peritoneal cavity, and the 

 omenta (which in all the three previously recorded dissections of 

 the Giraffe made in this country were found loaded with fat) in 

 the present instance exhibited scarcely the slightest trace of fatty 

 deposit. In the colon, caecum and rectum, the faeces had assumed 

 their characteristic pellet-like form, arid the alimentary mucous 

 surface appeared healthy throughout. 



The spleen, though of the normal size, was very soft and 

 readily tore up on being handled, the pulp of an almost abso- 

 lutely black colour separating and running out like thin fluid, 

 leaving the matrix (consisting of the trabeculse, arterial and 

 venous trunks) quite bare in places. This rapid disintegration 

 was not considered sufliciently explained by the circumstance of 

 the animal having been dead four days. 



The pancreas was healthy and in its usual situation. 



The liver, placed far forward in contact with the diaphragm 

 and in front of the stomach on the right side of the body, is an 

 exceedingly simple organ. In form, it is elongated, compressed 

 and slightly fissured, so as to indicate a bilobular tendency : on 

 the under surface there is an elevation corresponding to the lobus 

 Spigelii, the outer border of which is particularly prominent. 

 The entire gland weighed 5 pounds and 6 ounces, and measured 

 in the longitudinal diameter 16 inches, 9 inches transversely, 

 and but 2^ in thickness. To the naked eye and to the touch, it 

 appeared healthy, but here and there were detected small hard 

 points, which on further examination were found to be cysts 

 containing in their interior ci/sticerci, or entozoa in the larva 

 state. It was not until nine days had elapsed since the death of 

 the Giraffe, that I detected also in the bile-ducts of the liver, 

 several individuals of the genus Fasciola^, and by means of a 



* Fasciola, Linnseus, Blanchard, &c. Distoma, Rudoli)hi, Bremser, &c. 

 The term Distoma is unfortunate, as leading to the idea of two mouths ; 

 the genera Fasciola and Distoma have only one true oral aperture, as in 



