64 . ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 



whole alimentary tract is thrown into a series of very deep folds, which 

 appear to be a continuation of the longtitudinal mucous folds of the oeso- 

 phagus; they wind to and fro in such a manner, bending backwards and 

 forwards, and interlacing with each other, as strongly to resemble the ap- 

 pearance presented by the gizzard of a fowl (see Fig. 4, PL II.); and 

 when acting under the control of the muscular coats of the stomach, 

 must form a very effective triturating apparatus. Pour or five of these 

 folds enter into the intestine, and here, for about a quarter of an inch, 

 they become but very slightly elevated ; as they approach that peculiar se- 

 miflexion in the intestine referred to above, they increase in number, and 

 also in depth (Fig. 4), and, from their very close and compact appear- 

 ance, I am led to suspect that this portion of the intestine, between the 

 pyloric orifice of the true stomach and the orifice of the biliary ducts, is 

 more than an ordinary duodenum, and acts somewhat as a secondary 

 stomachal cavity. This idea is strengthened by the additional fact, that 

 the true stomach is lined with a series of minute pores, thickly scattered 

 over the mucous surface, and covering both the raised folds of the mu- 

 cous membrane and the intestines between them. These small pit-like 

 indentations are minute glandular bodies, secreting the gastric juice ; they 

 commence just below the cardiac orifice of the stomach, and are conti- 

 nuous to the entrance of the biliary ducts. While every part of this 

 portion of the intestine is supplied with these crypts, of course they 

 are most numerous when the mucous membrane is thrown into a series 

 of folds ; this occurs in the secondary stomachal portion alluded to, which, 

 in every anatomical particular, is a miniature of the larger one. 



The mucous surface of the small intestine becomes much smoother 

 after it has received the contents of the liver. But in no one spot 

 throughout its length do we find it absolutely smooth ; it is always ar- 

 ranged, more or less, in a series of delicate, longitudinal folds ; and, as we 

 approach the rectal portion, these folds assume a slightly twisted ap- 

 pearance, but not at all distinct enough to be alluded to as a spiral 

 valve. When the small intestine joins the large rectal cavity, the gut, 

 as above-said, contracts very much, and the mucous membrane is packed 

 up into two or three little eminences, which act the part of a valve. In 

 the rectal portion, the lining membrane is thin, and very smooth. In 

 this, as well as in its large diameter, in comparison with the small in- 

 testine, it remarkably resembles the same parts in the Tritons and Sala- 

 manders. 



Prom a survey of the details thus glanced at, it will be seen that 

 there is nothing in the alimentary canal of the axolotl to predicate of it 

 that it is a larval form ; though it may resemble the same parts in 

 an adult Salamander and Triton, yet it differs from these more than 

 was at first thought, and more than one would imagine from the only 

 account that I have found attainable, namely, that of Baron Cuvier. 

 The osseous system has been too well described by Cuvier, and the repro- 

 ductive by the paper and illustrations of Sir Everard Home, to need 

 further allusion to at my hand. 



