62 ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 



Before proceeding to treat of the alimentary canal, I may take this 

 opportunity to refer to a paper by Sir Everard Home, in the Philoso- 

 phical Tranactions for 1824, " On the Generative Organs of the Mexican 

 Proteus." The paper itself, so far as anatomy is concerned, contains 

 little that is noteworthy. The specimens dissected were discovered by 

 Bullock, in a lake three miles above Mexico — this lake being some 

 8000 feet above the sea level, and of 60° of temperature. Those taken 

 at Lesenco are brought by the peasantry to the Mexican markets in 

 thousands, in strings of from sixty to seventy each. This paper, how- 

 ever, is illustrated, and the artist has done his work, and done it well ; 

 and his master has given names to the different parts figured. Prom a 

 careful comparison of the plates representing the organs of generation in 

 the male and female axolotl, with my own preparations, I am pre- 

 pared to acknowledge the very general correctness of these fine draw- 

 ings. The organs in the female, in an immature state, are likewise 

 figured; and the ovaries are neither so small, even in an unimpreg- 

 nated condition; nor the oviducts so delicate as to afford any diffi- 

 culty in seeing them, to an ordinary investigator; even the kidneys 

 and urinary bladder (?) are quite perceptible to the most careless ob- 

 server. 



On opening the walls of the abdomen, from the junction of the pec- 

 toral muscles to the curious cloacal aperture, and turning back the mus- 

 cles, the following viscera are seen {vide PI. II., fig. 1), — First, the large 

 and well-marked liver, slightly divided into two lobes by the entrance 

 of the suspensory ligament; next the convolutions of the intestines, end- 

 ing in the strongly-marked straight rectum ; on each side of which we 

 find two glandular bodies — the supposed Cowper's glands of Sir Eve- 

 rard Home ; above these, and below the coils of intestine, the apices of 

 the kidneys are to be seen. If we now remove the left lobe of the liver, 

 we will discover the stomachal portion of the alimentary canal of an 

 elongated shape — the oesophageal portion, as Cuvier says, a little plump- 

 ish and enlarged, and the pyloric end much contracted. But we also 

 have no difficulty in finding a glandular organ, closely attached to the 

 middle-third of the stomach, and tied down to it by a mesenteric attach- 

 ment (vide Eig. 2), which is the spleen — said by Cuvier to be placed in 

 the midst of the mesentery, and to be very small. In Eig. 2 it is re • 

 presented of the natural size. At a short distance below the junction 

 of this gland with the stomach, the intestine contracts, and* twists upon 

 itself. There is no true pyloric valve, but this turn in the intestine to 

 all intents and purposes acts as one. The intestine next proceeds 

 towards the liver. This organ is large, its upper surface concave, its 

 lower convex ; it is divided by the suspensory ligament, which attaches 

 it to the walls of the abdomen, into two lobes ; in the adult male it is 

 of a dark brownish colour, mottled; it overlaps the stomach and portions 

 of the small intestine. The right lobe is the larger, and is slightly 

 notched on its outer free margin, to receive the well-developed gall- 

 bladder, which, though not mentioned in the text by Cuvier, is very 



