CHAP, vi.] THE CAT'S ALIMEI^^TAEY SYSTEM. 



171 



not 





The parts destined to subdivide tlic food, the teeth, have been 

 ah-eady described.* The adaptation of the sectorial teeth for the 

 division of flesh is manifest and admirable. The canines are 

 used for dividing the food. Tliey are 

 weapons for seizing and destroying 

 prey, or for combat. The incisors are of 

 little functional utility, but they help 

 to scrape off flesh and sinesvs from the 

 surfaces of bones. The upper true 

 molars are so small as to be of little 

 service, but their shape and position 

 adapt them for crushing any suitably 

 sized object (such as a small piece of 

 bone) which may have been taken into 

 the mouth. 



§ 9. The TONGUE fills up the cavity 

 of the mouth between the horizontal 

 rami of the mandible. It is a mus- 

 cular mass, coated with mucous mem- 

 brane, attached behind to the hyoid 

 and below to the membrane of the floor 

 of the mouth, but with a free apex. 

 It is long and flat, with nearly parallel 

 sides, tapering slightly in front and 

 more so at its posterior attachment. 



Its fleshy mass is principally composed 

 of transverse fibres which pass directly 

 right and left from a centi-al, vertical 

 membranous septum , This mass of trans- 

 verse fibres is traversed by ascending- 

 fibres of the genio-hyoglossus muscle, 

 and is coated externally by longitudinal 

 fibres which form its cortical muscular 

 layer. Above and below, these fibres 

 belong to two muscles ; one, called 

 the lingua/is mperjicialis supo-ior, pro- 

 ceeds forwards from the basi-hyal, and 



the other, called the /iiigiialis siipcrficia/is infenor, passes tlience- on 

 each side of the ascending fibres above mentioned. The lateral 

 longitudinal fibres come from the stylo-glossus and hyo-glossus. 

 Tins mass of muscular fibres enables the tongue to move freely in 

 all directions and to modify its own shape. 



Imbedded in the areolar tissue of the septum and near the lower 

 surface of the tongue is a spindle-shaped body (formed of fibrous 

 tissue, fat and muscular fibre), connected anteriorly Avitli the 

 mucous membrane of the tongue, and tapering off behind till it is 

 lost in the tissue of the septum. This body is the Iijlla or "wtjrm." 



I'i- 



ST. — UullSLM OF THE TuXGUE 



OF THE Cat. 



a. Arytenoid cartilage. 



ci\ Ciiviiiiivallatc iiaiiill;e. 



c, Epigluttis. 



/ Kuugiliinu paiiil'a-. 



p. Posteriiir jullar ut fauces. 



.s'. Conical iiap-Ua. 



t. Tiiii.sil. 



V. Vocal coril. 



* See cudc 



