VERTEBRATA. 65 



surface of the diaphragm, while inferiorly it more or less conceals 

 the shrunken stomach. The stomach has a large cardiac pouch 

 with a thin wall, and a pyloric division with much thicker and 

 glandular walls : the oesophagus opens into it about midway 

 between the two divisions. The epiploon, a special process of 

 peritoneum peculiar to this class, depends from the inferior 

 border of the stomach, and in its natural position would hang 

 in front of the small intestines. To the left of the stomach, and 

 attached to it by the gastro-splenic omentum, is the spleen, while 

 below the stomach the great mass of the large and small in- 

 testines lie. Of the large intestines, the darkly stained and 

 dilated caecum is the most prominent, though smaller in the Rat 

 than in most Rodentia. In the first convolution which the duo- 

 denum makes after leaving the stomach, the ramifying and 

 diffuse pancreas lies. A black bristle has been placed beneath 

 the hepatic duct near to its opening into the intestine at a point 

 about an inch and a half from the stomach. On each side of 

 the vertebral column, the slightly asymmetrically disposed 

 kidneys are to be seen lying on the psoas muscles. Three 

 vessels may be noticed passing out of the hilum of the 

 right kidney; of these the anterior one is the renal artery 

 and the posterior one the ureter, while the median and largest 

 of the three is the renal vein. The small, buff-coloured and tri- 

 angular masses attached to the anterior ends of the kidneys are 

 the supra-renal bodies; the left one only is seen, as the right one 

 is hidden by the hepatic lobes. Immediately below the kidney 

 the right ovary can be seen and from it the Fallopian tube passes 

 to the right cornu of the uterus. At a point just behind the 

 bladder the two cornua converge to form an extremely small 

 corpus uteri which opens into the large vagina. ' The vagina, 

 rectum and bladder have each of them separate and independent 

 outlets,' and into each of the three bristles have been inserted. 



In the. interspace between the gastric and mesenteric veins 

 and close to the aorta from which these vessels are derived is the 

 small, pale-coloured, semilunar ganglion : and from it two small 

 nerves are to be observed passing obliquely upwards across the 

 aorta to connect this ganglion with the chain of sub vertebral 

 ganglia which together constitute the sympathetic system. 



The following points arc to be noticed about the head in 



CL. 5 



