DE. J. MUEIE ON THE AN ATOM r OF THE SEA-LION. 5G3 



4. Alimentary Glands &c. 



a. Liver. — As in the Earless Seals, the hepatic organ is divided in a remarkable 

 manner — there being seven or eight very much separated lobes or lobules, and each of 

 these is more or less subdivided into lobules and fissures of an extremely complicated 

 kind. This furrowed and lobular character of the liver is in some respects identical 

 with the condition obtained in the curious Rodent Capromys fournieri 1 ; only in the 

 Sea-lion the superficial sculpturing and segregation into the smaller angular lobules 

 does not proceed quite so far as in the animal compared. In the aberrant form of 

 Lemuroid Arctocebus calabarensis 2 the main lobes of the liver are very much separated 

 by deep incisions, but the surface of the organ is comparatively smooth. 



In Otaria the root of the liver rests upon the enormously dilated abdominal venous 

 sinuses, and, indeed, on the right side, partly surrounds that vascular reservoir. 



What may be described as the first (i) lobule of the right hepatic lobe is, like the 

 other main divisions, tongue-shaped, and only of moderate thickness. Along with the 

 second lobule it is very much separated from the other right lobular divisions ; indeed 

 those two of themselves are quite free and placed widely apart. At its root the first 

 lobule is adherent to the vena cava ascendens, and covers a portion of it deeply. 

 In greatest length, upon its diaphragmatic surface, it measures 9 inches ; and transversely 

 its widest diameter is c>\ inches. Superficially it possesses few furrows or marginal 

 incisions, as compared with other of the hepatic segments. Those present are chiefly 

 towards the left side, and have a trilobed character. The second, smaller lobule (11), 

 4J inches long, situated in front, springs from the root of the first. It is much the 

 narrower of the two, and has an imperfect sagittate outline, the left barb of which is 

 partially adherent, and crosses the base of the first lobule. Fig. 72 shows the second 

 lobe displaced to the right of the first. The third lobule (m), much the largest division 

 of the so-called right lobe, has a sinuous, faintly fissured margin, and comes into contact 

 at the root behind and on the left with the fourth or quadrate lobule. It is thick, 

 measures 10 inches in length, and averages 4 inches in breadth. Both surfaces are more 

 or less irregularly furrowed, the gastric one furthermore having median, somewhat 

 angular, lobulations. A thick broad ligament (I) passes from the left of these to the 

 gall-bladder, which lies in the fissure betwixt the third and fourth lobules. The fourth 

 division of the right lobe (iv), or lobus quadratus (Q), is differently shaped from the 

 preceding, being composed of several pedunculate, unequally fissured parts, joined, 

 however, at the roots and partially adherent and overlapped by the base of the third 

 lobule behind the venous sinus. The suspensory ligament of the liver intervenes be- 

 tween the fourth and fifth lobules, though abdominally they are in contact. The neck 

 of the gall-bladder is placed rather upon the left side of the third lobule ; but its 

 fundus passes obliquely to the dorsal surface of the quadrate lobule. Very large subdi- 

 ' See Professor Owen's description of the anatomy of that animal, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 70. 

 ■ " On the Angwantiho," Professor Huxley, P. Z. S. 1804, p. 330, fig. 10, A, P. 



