138 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP [1881. 



it would show that both the quality of the blood, as well as the 

 quantity, is important in enabling the animal to resist asphyxia. 

 Not only was the quantity of blood in the Hippopotamus very 

 great but the color in the arteries was very bright, more so than 

 is usual in mammalian blood. Further I found the blood cor- 

 puscles measured only the yg^oo of ^'^ ^^^ch in diameter, or more 

 strictl}^ the ^^^ of a millimetre — a Nachet eye-piece micrometer 

 being used. The blood of the Iliiipopotamus should be therefore 

 very rich in oxygen, as a corpuscle subdivided into a number of 

 small ones would expose a larger absorbing surface to the oxygen 

 respired than if undivided. This view is confirmatory of that of 

 Bert, just referred to. It must be admitted, however, that accord- 

 ing to the high authority of Gulliver, the blood corpuscle measures 

 the 34^2^ of an inch in the Hippopotamus. The fact of the Hip- 

 popotamus being able to remain under water would seem, therefore, 

 to depend upon the peculiarities of its vascular and respiratory 

 systems, and the great quantity and rich quality of its blood, the 

 structural relations being as important as the chemical. 



Genito-Urinari/ Apparatus. — In the different accounts of the 

 Hippopotamus that I have referred to, with the exception of that 

 of Gratiolet and of Clark, little or nothing is said of the genito- 

 urinary organs. Daubenton^ devotes a few lines to the descrip- 

 tion of the uterus and vagina, but his specimen, it will be remem- 

 bered, was only a foetus. Peters ^ merely alludes to the mammae, 

 the penis, etc. In Crisp's^ specimen, which was a male, the parts 

 were destroyed to such an extent as rendered detailed dissection 

 impossible. The account in Gratiolet's ^ work is really, I presume, 

 due to Dr. Alix, as that anatomist tells us in the preface,'' the 

 death of a young Hippopotamus born at the Jardin des Plantes a 

 few days previously, gave him the opportunity of adding some 

 details to the dissections left by Gratiolet. Alix's description 

 of the parts, which is an account of both sexes, is excellent, but 

 unfortunately is unaccompanied by any illustrations. Clark's^ 

 figure of the uterus and vagina is imperfect, but his description is 

 very clear. It is to be regretted that Garrod ^ says nothing of the 

 genito-urinary organs of the male animal examined by him. It 



1 Op. cit , p. 58. 2 Op. cit., p. 181. ^ Op. cit., 608. 



* Op. cit., p. 396. 5 Op. cit., p. vi. « Op. cit., p. 195. 



' Op. cit. 



