458 ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. 



ft. in. 



Length of the small intestines 38 



Circumference of ditto 2 



Length of caecum 16 



Circumference of caecum 5 



Circumference of colon 6 



Length of colon and rectum together . . . .20 



Total length of intestinal canal, exclush T e of the caecum . 58 6 



§ 336. Alimentary canal of Perissodactyla. — In all this order 

 the stomach has the ordinary simple outward form ; the caecum 

 and large intestine are capacious and sacculate. In the Tapir 1 

 the oesophagus ends about one third from the left end of the 

 stomach: its thick epithelium is continued for the extent of 

 3 inches to the left of the cardia, and for that of 7 inches 

 to the right, toward the pylorus : the rest of the stomach has 

 a compact villous surface with a few narrow well-defined rugae : 

 the gastro-mucous membrane increases in thickness, through 

 lengthening of the gastric tubules, as it nears the pylorus. The 

 stomach of the Sumatran Tapir presents a similar disposition and 

 proportion of the cuticular lining. The pyloric part of the 

 stomach shows a tendinous lustre on each side. In one subject 

 the length of the stomach in a right line, was 1 foot 8 inches. In 

 the duodenum of the American Tapir, the mucous coat is raised 

 into transverse folds, along an extent of gut of about 5 inches : in 

 the rest of the small intestines it is smooth and even. In the 

 Sumatran species the valvulae conniventes are continued along a 

 greater extent of the beginning of the small intestine, and re- 

 appear toward the caecum. The length of this cavity is 1 foot, 

 and its greatest breadth the same : it is honeycombed internally, 

 and its lining membrane developes short obtuse processes. The 

 358 length of the small intestines in 



^ the Sumatran Tapir is 69 feet: 



in the American species 45 feet : 

 the length of the large intes- 

 tines in the Sumatran Tapir is 

 20 feet, but in the American 

 kind only 10 feet. The compa- 

 rative shortness of the intestinal 

 canal in the American Tapir is 

 a specific difference not explica- 

 "a""" ble on any observed or known 



stcnach of the n„rse. cxx„-. difference of food or habits. 



In all the Equida the stomach is simple, differing from that in 

 Man by the pyloric part, fig. 358, d, being less contracted and 



1 The species dissected were the common one (Tapirus Amirieanus, Gmelin), clii". 

 p. 161, and the Tapirus Sumatramis. 



