Page 344. 
344 ON THE ANATOMY OF PLOTUS ANHINGA. 
of the stratified epithelium which covers this part of the stomach; in 
neither can the outlines and nuclei of the component cells be distinctly 
seen, the cells having blended into a nearly homogeneous substance. 
That portion of the hair which extends below this into the deeper 
layers of the epithelium, appears not to be covered with a prolongation — 
of the cuticle, but to be formed only of the fibrous part. This last- 
named seems, like the fibrous or cortical constituent of a cutaneous 
hair, to be composed of a closely set bundle of much elongated corne- 
fied epithelial cells, slightly larger than those of a cutaneous hair, and 
with their extremities not fusiform (as in that) but truncated. The 
number in a cross section varies according to the size of the filament. 
They may, in many, be seen projecting at the'end a little beyond the 
cuticular part. 
** The roots of the gastric hairs are so closely set as to occupy the 
greater portion of the mucous membrane, so that the connective tissue 
of the corium, which occupies the intermediate space, is very small in 
amount. Between the tissue and the hair-root is seen a layer of 
columnar epithelium cells, which in some places are of considerable 
length. They are continuous towards the surface with the deeper 
cells of the stratified epithelium. They represent the ‘ root-sheaths’ 
of the cutaneous hair, and seem to have undergone a horny meta- 
morphosis. 
“ At their extreme ends the roots are entirely different from those 
of the cutaneous hairs. There is no hair-knob and no papilla; but the 
root generally breaks up into two, three, or more short rootlets, each 
of which tapers to a pointed extremity. This, at least, is the appear- 
ance in vertical section ; but transverse sections show that this branch- 
ing of the hair-root has, at all events in the first instance, more of a 
laminated character. 
“These rootlets are covered by a layer of cubical epithelium cells, 
which are continuous with the columnar cells surrounding the hair- 
root. The latter, as before remarked, is formed merely by the fibrous 
substance or cortical portion of the hair; and the fibres which com- 
pose this would therefore seem to be in some way produced by these 
cells. 
“Some few hairs seem to end bya single tapering rootlet, but 
most of them spread out and branch in the way described.” 
This peculiar hairy mat must act as an excellent sieve to prevent 
the entrance of solid particles, fish-bones, &c., into the narrow in- 
testines. 
The small intestine is 55 inches long in the female, and 40 inches 
in the male; and it is not capacious. The duodenal loop measures 
5 inches in each limb. The left lobe of the bilobed liver is about half 
the size of the right; and a gall-bladder of considerable size is present. 
