THE SHORT SUNFISH. 115 



and appears to mark out the extent of the oesophagus. The 

 plicae are then succeeded by an irregularly honey-combed membrane, 

 extending for about 3^ inches further. The tube at this part has a 

 diameter of 2f inches, and its walls are thick and fleshy, The 

 meshes of the mucous membrane are elongated in the direction of 

 the canal, and enclose a still finer pattern of net work. A quantity 

 of thick tenacious mucus, like what is usually found in the 

 stomach of other fishes, was seen adherent to the folds at the upper 

 part of this region of the tube. The duct from the liver opens 

 here on a stout papilla, placed at the distance of only If inch 

 from the bottom of the oesophagus, at the right side, and where 

 the tube is widest. There is no constriction, no pyloric vaivo, 

 either above or below the entrance of the bile duct. Villi are 

 found scattered over the inner surface, beginning, though sparingly 

 at first, just below the oesophagus, gradually increasing in quantity 

 and in size for 3 or 4 inches downwards. They are found, also, 

 on the papilla of the bile duct. The net work of rugae dies out 

 a short way below the entrance of the bile duct, and is gradually 

 succeeded and replaced by a beautiful shaggy pile of villi, measuring 

 nearly ^ inch in length. This change seems to mark the end of 

 the gastric, and the commencement of the intestinal portion of 

 the tube. The stomach, then, is between 4 and 5 inches long, 

 and is peculiar in possessing villi, and permanent folds of the 

 lining membrane, in receiving the secretion of the liver into its 

 cavity, and also in not presenting any well-marked dilatation, 

 or anything like a pyloric constriction. Indeed, the canal down- 

 wards almost imperceptibly diminishes in calibre, and in thickness 

 of its walls, for half its length ; it then remains rather small to 

 within about 1 foot of the anus, after which it is irregularly 

 sacculated for about 3 inches, and at 5 inches from the orifice there 

 is a narrow, obliquely placed, valvular fold of the lining membrane. 

 The villi gradually diminish in length and number towards the 

 sacculated portion of the intestines, below which they are replaced 

 by a minute reticulation, which is continued to within an inch 

 or two of the orifice. 



Guvier, in the Regne Animal, merely mentions that the gall 

 duct opens into the stomach. Professor Jacob gives a figure of 



