ALIMENTARY CANAL OF PER1SS0DACTYLA. 461 



In dissecting the Rhinoceros l I was struck by the general 

 resemblance of the abdominal anatomy to that in the Horse. 

 The epiploon was not observable when that cavity was exposed, 

 the viscera which presented themselves being in immediate con- 

 tact with the sustaining parietes. A single but enormous fold of 

 the colon, not less than 2 feet in breadth, formed more than 

 one half of the exposed surface of the abdominal viscera: it 

 passed obliquely across the middle of the cavity, from the right 

 hypochondriac to the left hypogastric or iliac region ; immedi- 

 ately below this was a smaller fold of colon running parallel 

 with the preceding ; below this was a second fold ; and, occupy- 

 ing the right iliac region, a part of the smooth parietes of the 

 caecum appeared. The colon was not displaced without con- 

 siderable difficulty, owing to the weight of its contents, and the 

 strength of the duplicatures of the peritoneum attaching it to the 

 spine and contiguous parts. Behind and above the great oblique 

 folds of colon lay a short, thin and corrugated epiploon, devoid of 

 fat ; and behind and below them were several coils of the small 

 intestines. The length of the great fold of the colon taken in a 

 straight line as it lay first exposed was 6 feet 6 inches : some 

 idea of its capacity may be formed from the fact that the portion 

 of the fold next the caecum could easily contain a man, with 

 ample room for him to turn about in it. 



The oesophagus extends about 6 inches into the abdomen, 

 and terminates at the cardiac orifice about 1 foot 5 inches from 

 the left extremity of the stomach. This obtuse sac expands to 

 the cardiac orifice, opposite to which the stomach, as in the 

 Horse, presents its greatest circumference ; it gradually contracts 

 to near the pylorus, on the cardiac side of which the stomach 

 shows its smallest circumference : it then expands into a blind 

 end, of a hemispheric form, beyond the pylorus. The length 

 of the stomach in a straight line was, in the male, 4 feet; its 

 diameter from the cardia to the opposite part of the great curva- 

 ture was 1 foot 10 inches. The small curvature between the 

 cardia and pylorus was 1 foot 9 inches. There is a glistening 

 aponeurotic sheet upon the anterior and posterior surfaces of the 

 contracted pyloric end of the stomach. A sheet of white thick 

 epithelium, continued from the oesophagus, spreads from the 

 cardia over the inner surface of the cardiac portion of the stomach, 

 about 1 foot 4 inches along the lesser curvature. This epi- 

 thelial layer is 1 line thick, smooth, or with very fine rugae on 



1 A male and a female of Bhhioceros indlcus, Cv., v". 



