450 QUADRUMANA. 



circumstance, some peculiarities occur in the arrangement of the abdomi- 

 nal viscera. The small intestines are, it may be observed, longer, in 

 proportion to the body, than in either the Cercopitheci or Macaci ; the 

 ratio being, in the Semnopitheci, on the average, as eight to one ; in the 

 Cercopitheci, six and a half to one ; in the Macaci, four to one. In a 

 specimen of Semnopithecus Entellus, measuring, from the nose to the root 

 of the tail, one foot eight inches, the length of the small intestines was 

 thirteen feet six inches ; of the large, two feet ten inches ; of the caecum, 

 four inches : the stomach, along the greater curvature, beginning at the 

 left extremity, measured two feet seven inches ; along the lesser curva- 

 ture, one foot : the length of the pyloric division was one foot six inches. 

 In an adult female Proboscis Monkey, measuring, from the top of the 

 head to the root of the tail, one foot nine inches, the admeasurements 

 were as follow : 



ft. in. 



First compartment of stomach, round the greater curve . .16 

 Second compartment, measured in same way . . . . 1 8 

 From the entrance of the oesophagus, round the second compart- 

 ment, to the division-band 11 



The same measurement round the first compartment . . 8| 

 Length of pyloric portion . . . . . . . .21 



Circumference of ditto, at base ...... 9^ 



Ditto just above pylorus 5g 



Length of small intestines . . . . . . . 18 



Ditto large intestines 62 



Ditto caecum ......... 5 



Circumference of ditto, at base . . . . . . 5j 



With respect to the purposes to be served by the complicated struc- 

 ture of the stomach in the genus Semnopithecus, we are not able to offer a 

 positive opinion. The specimens of the Entellus which have been seen 

 alive in our country have never been observed "to ruminate ; it is well 

 known, however, that the food of these animals, in their native regions, 

 consists exclusively of vegetable aliment (such as fruits, grain, leaves 

 and buds) ; and it is probable that, wanting cheek-pouches, the cardiac 



texture of the lining membrane which exists in the ruminants ; they present only a difference in the 

 degree of vascularity and villosity ; and, in that respect, are analogous to the complicated stomach of 

 the quadrumanous genus." 



In the Pteropine group of Bats, a similar modification of the stomach again presents itself. These 

 Bats are fruit-eaters. The author just quoted says, that, in a species of this group (Pteropus rubri- 

 collis, Geoff.), he " found the cardiac moiety divided into two dilated compartments, of which the left 

 is again subdivided and plicated within, while the pyloric moiety is extended in an elongated, tortuous 

 form, proportionately exceeding, in length, that of the Semnopithecus Entellus. It is to a Pteropus, 

 doubtless, and not to a Vampyrus, that is to be attributed a similarly complicated stomach, described 

 and figured by Sir Everard Home, as belonging to the Vampyre Bat, and from which he draws the 

 rather hasty conclusion, that ' the Vampyre Bat lives on the sweetest of vegetables ; and all the 

 stories, related with so much confidence, of its living on blood, and coming in the night to destroy 

 people, while asleep, are entirely fabulous.' I suspect that the stomach of the true Vampyre Bat will 

 be found to accord with the blood-thirsty habits so repeatedly ascribed to it." 



