114 DR. EMBLETON ON 



remarkable. There are five gill-arches, that farthest back is about 

 half the size of the rest, which are very largely developed. 



The abdominal cavity is large, much compressed, and of an 

 irregularly triangular shape, the superior angle or apex lying just 

 above the top of the pectoral fin, the posterior just behind the 

 anus, the anterior 7^ inches in front of this, and beneath the 

 branchial chamber. The greater part of the cavity is occupied 

 by a well-defined packet of intestine, enveloped in peritonceum, 

 and by the liver. 



The Liver is very unequally divided into two lobes, the left 

 being the larger. The Gall Bladder is large, and attached to the 

 right lobe. The hepatic duct joins the cystic, at the posterior edge 

 of the gall bladder, and the common bile duct, 2^ inches long, runs 

 backwards, and opens into the alimentary tube at a point about 

 4 J inches from the top of the oesophagus, a curious arrangement, 

 which will be more fully noticed below. The colour of the liver 

 is an obscure olive, varied with reddish flesh colour. There is 

 no pancreas and no air bladder. The spleen lies in contact with 

 the gall bladder, and anterior end of the stomach, is small, soft, 

 most friable, and of the usual colour. 



The oesophagus, one inch in diameter, is about 2\ inches long, 

 2 inches of which lie in the abdomen, beyond this the tube, slightly 

 dilated, passes backwards, nearly horizontally, between the lobes 

 of the liver for 5 inches; it is then bent suddenly upon itself, and 

 passing downwards and forwards, enters the packet of intestines ; 

 from this, after a good many convolutions, the canal passes back- 

 wards and downwards to the anus, which is large, and externally 

 projecting. The whole length of the canal is 7 feet 6 inches. 

 It is only when it is laid open that its peculiarities can be well 

 seen. Its lining, or mucous membrane, for a short distance below 

 the pharyngeal teeth, is smooth and uniform, then occurs an 

 irregulai circular line, the termination of the cuticle. Below 

 this, the mucous membrane is longitudinally plicated, and the 

 canal somewhat contracted, being 2 inches in diameter, but with 

 thicker walls, the plicae here and there coalesce, and have a series 

 of smaller folds running across their intervals. This disposition 

 of the surface extends for 2^ inches from the cuticular border, 



