1904.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 477 



contraction, it should bo mentioned that when the animal was opened, 

 although the two parts of the stomach were distended with food, it 

 nevertheless presented two distinct cardiac and pyloric portions. At 

 the same time the small intestine was empty, which would not have 

 been the case had the stomach contracted to any extent upon its con- 

 tents. It is well known that in the six-banded armadillo {Dastjpus 

 sexcindus), in the two-toed ant eater (Myrmecophaga didadyla) and m 

 the two-toed sloth {Chplcepus Hofnianni) the coecum presents two coecal 

 processes, and in Hyrax, in addition to a coecum proper, the alimentary 

 canal is provided with a second dilatation, terminating also in two 

 coecal processes resembling somewhat those just referred to as occur- 

 ring in the edentates just mentioned. It will be observed, however, 

 that the two coecal processes found in Hyrax, but in no other mam- 

 mal, so far as is known to the writer, are appendages of the colon and 

 not of the coecum proper. The significance of these colonic append- 

 ages is not known. 



The length of the alimentary canal in Hyrax is as follows accord- 

 ing to 



Owen George Chapman 



Small intestine, 54 64 38 inches. 



Coecum, ^ ^^ ,, 



Colonic coecum, ^ q? '' 



Large intestine, 58 oz 60 



112 120 778 



The length of the alimentary canal was nearly five times that of the 

 animal, measured from snout to anus, a ratio not differing essentially 

 from that of Owen^ and George.^ 



The villi of the small intestme of Hyrax, as is well known, are re- 

 markably well developed, indeed as long proportionally as in the 

 rhinoceros.^ The attention of anatomists does not appear, however, 

 to have been directed to the fact that some of the vilh are longer than 

 others, the former terminating in branched or club-like processes 

 (fig 2) resembling somewhat the villi of the Indian rhinoceros 

 studied 'by the writer. In view of the difference of opinion that 

 has prevaUed among systematists as to the affinities of Hyrax 

 with the remaining mammalia, this fact might be urged as con- 



" Exclusive of colonic coeca. 



' Op. cit., p. 204. 



' Ov. cit., p. 38. . , „;■ Q roc 



» Meckel, Systeme der vergleichenden Anatonne, Band iV, b. t,Jiy. 



