ALIMENTARY CANAL OF MARSUriALIA. 



413 



310 



Stomach of the Wombat, inverted. 



The stomach in the Wombat and Koala does not materially 

 differ in external figure from that of the above-cited Marsupials ; 

 the oesophagus terminates nearly midway between the right and 

 left extremities, but further from the pylorus in the Wombat 

 than in the Koala. The conglomerate gastric gland is of a flat- 

 tened ovate form, relatively 

 larger in the Wombat than 

 in the Koala, situated to the 

 left of the cardiac orifice, at 

 the lesser curvature of the 

 stomach, fig. 310. The gas- 

 tric gland has a similar 

 position in the Beaver, but 

 in this animal the excretory 

 orifices of the gland are ar- 

 ranged in three longitu- 

 dinal rows, while in the 

 Wombat and Koala they 

 are scattered irregularly ; 

 in the Wombat they are 

 about thirty in number, and the bottoms of the larger depressions 

 are subdivided into smaller cells. In the partially contracted 

 state the inner membrane of the stomach of the Wombat is dis- 

 posed in longitudinal ruga3, 

 which gradually subside to- 

 wards the pylorus ; but 

 when the stomach is dis- 

 tended these folds disap- 

 pear, and the left extremity 

 presents a full globular 

 form. 



The sacculated stomach 

 of the Kangaroo, which 

 offers the extreme modifica- 

 tion of this organ in the 

 Marsupial order, resembles 

 the human colon both in its 

 longitudinal extent, structure, and disposition in the abdomen. 

 In a full-grown female Kangaroo (Macropus major) I found 

 the abdominal oesophagus, fig. 311, a, four inches long, and ter- 

 minating at six inches distance from the left extremity of the 

 stomach : this was folded forward and to the right in front of 

 the oesophagus ; from the basis of the left cul-de-sac the stomach 

 continued to expand, and descended into the left lumbar and 



Stomach of the Kangaroo. 



