i Descriptions of Prefarations. 



left lobe of the liver. From the inferior or convex margin of the 

 stomach the curtain-like omentum or epiiiloon, a process of perito- 

 neum found only in mammals^ hang-s down over the left cornu 

 of the uterus, which is distended with embryoes, and over portions 

 of the intestines. Immediately below the kidney and the spleen, 

 the left ovary and Fallopian tube and the upper end of the left cornu 

 uteri are situated. A fibrous band, under which a black bristle is 

 placed, and which is the remnant of the ligament ^ by which the 

 Wolffian body in the foetus was kept in relation with the dia- 

 phragm, attaches the ovary and tube to the peritoneal covering 

 of that muscle. Below the upper end of the left cornu uteri is 

 seen the caecum, which is of less size and complexity than in 

 Rodents with rootless molars and less varied and nutritious food 

 than these omnivorous representatives of the order, or than those, 

 such as the Squirrels, which live on seeds and have, like the Murini, 

 rooted molars. It tapers off superiorly into the large intestine, 

 which however in many Rodents is not, when compared with the 

 small intestine, as much inferior in length and larger in calibre 

 and thicker in its walls as its name and the homology of anthro- 

 potomy might lead us to expect. Below the caecum we see 

 the cut ends of the veins from the hind-limb, and lower still 

 we see a bristle passed underneath the ureter as it passes 

 forwards to enter the base of the conically contracted bladder. 

 The vagina, rectum, and bladder have, each of them, separate and 

 independent outlets e; into those from the two latter organs 

 black bristles have been passed. The flat nail on the rudimentary 

 thumb, the presence of tactile vibrissae above the eyes as well 

 as upon the snout, and of hairs of great coarseness along the 

 mesial dorsal region, the absence of hair from a small area, in which 

 are the orifices of the nostril, and which is called the ' muffle V and 

 its presence between the annulate scales on the tail, are points 

 worthy of notice. 



^ For a figure and account of this ligament in the foetal state, see Kolliker's 

 'Entwickelungsgeschichte,' p. 438, fig. 215. 



e For an account of a similar arrangement in another Rodent, see ' Hunterian 

 Catalogue of the Physiological Series contained in the Royal College of Surgeons,' 

 vol. iv. p. 2745; for a similar arrangement in an Insectivore and the Simiadae, see 

 lou. cit. 2810, 281 1, 2812. 



f For the various senses in wiiich the word 'muffle' is used, see Waterhouse's 

 •Natural History of the Mammalia,' vol. i. p. 5° ; vol. ii. pp. 7, 8, 



