MAMMALS. 583 



deer\ In the carnivorous animals, on the other hand, it is always 

 present, as also in the monkeys. In most mammals the bile is car- 

 ried to the gall-bladder by the same route as that by which it is 

 again conducted from it (the cystic duct) ; in some, however, as in 

 the ox, tliere are hepatico-cystic ducts, which were formerly attri- 

 buted incorrectly to man'^; they are branches of the hepatic duct 

 which run to different parts of the gall-bladder, and pour the bile 

 into it. In most cases the bile-duct of the liver joins Avith that of 

 the gall-bladder to form a common canal [ductus clioledoclius) , 

 which conveys the bile into the duodenum. Usually also the 

 excretory duct of the pancreas terminates in this common canal, 

 close to its opening into the intestine. It is thus in man, although 

 in the foetus these ducts have distinct openings into the intestine, 

 and that of the pancreas lies in front of the bile-duct. The bile- 

 duct before it opens into the intestines runs for a space between its 

 muscular and mucous coats, and sometimes forms a dilatation liere^. 



The pancreas is placed behind the stomach between the spleen 

 and the duodenum ; commonly it is divided into two lobes. The 

 smaller excretory ducts unite to form one, sometimes two larger 

 ducts. The spleen lies near the stomach, in the ruminants near 

 the first stomach or paunch ; it is ordinarily elongate and simple. 

 In the dolphin it is divided into several small distinct masses, of 

 which however the anterior mass much surpasses the rest in size, 

 whilst these, of variable number, are suspended to branches of the 

 splenic artery^. 



The cavity of the abdomen is lined by a serous membrane, the 

 ^peritoneum. A duplicature of the peritoneum called the omentum 

 or epiploon is suspended from the under and fore part of the sto- 

 mach. To other duplicatures of the peritoneum the intestinal 

 canal is attached. Of these the chief is named the mesentery ; the 



^ It is remarkable, that in the giraife, according to Owen, it is sometimes wanting, 

 sometimes douhle. The statement of Akistoteles, that in the sheep in Euhoea it is 

 absent (in which animal it occurs elsewhere), obtains from this fact some credibility. 

 Hist. Animal, i. c. 14. 



^ Compare Hallee Elem. Physiol, v. pp. 537 — 541. 



^ As in the elephant where the dilatation is divided by transverse partitions. See 

 Camper CEuvres, 11. pp. 124, 125, PI. xiv. 



* Tyson counted 12 spleens (Haller Elem. Physiol. VI. p. 388), Stannius 18; in 

 Monodon also he found three or four subsidiary spleens. Vergl. Anaf. s. 433. 



