ALIMENTARY CANAL OF TEKISSODACTYLA. 463 



lining membrane is puckered up into innumerable irregular 

 small transverse rugae, which appear, however, to be but tempo- 

 rary foldings of the mucous membrane, and are easily obliterated 

 when this is stretched. The colon for the first 4 feet of its 

 extent is puckered up upon three longitudinal bands into sacculi, 

 each about 5 inches long : it is here suddenly bent upon itself, 

 forming the long and large fold, the two parts of which are very 

 closely connected to each other ; and here it dilates into the very 

 wide portion which forms the most prominent object on laying 

 open the abdomen ; the beginning of this dilatation is also closely 

 adherent by its posterior surface to the opposite surface of the 

 beginning of the caecum. The circumference of this part of the 

 colon (which, if its capacity was not due to accidental accumu- 

 lation of alimentary matter, might be regarded as representing a 

 second caecum or reservoir) is 5 feet : beyond this fold the colon 

 becomes gradually narrower, its smallest circumference being 20 

 inches, where it passes into the rectum, which forms several short 

 convolutions before its termination. 



Rhinoceros indicus. 

 Female. Male. 



The entire length of the colon was . . .19 feet. 25 feet. 

 The entire length of the rectum ... 3 feet. 5 feet. 



The total length of the intestinal canal, including the caecum, 

 was in the female 73 feet; in the male 96 feet, or eight times the 

 length of the entire animal. The circumference of the rectum 

 was 10 inches in the female, and 16 inches in the male; but it 

 widens toward the anus. The masses in which the faeces are 

 discharged from the immense receptacles formed by the large 

 intestine, are greater than in the Elephant, and are softer 

 and more amorphous. The longitudinal muscular fibres of the 

 rectum are developed into powerful fasciculi. The contrast 

 between these fibres and those of the external sphincter is well 

 marked, the latter presenting the striated character of voluntary 

 muscles. 



In the little Hyrax, as in the Rhinoceros, the chief feature of 

 the abdominal viscera is due to what Pallas justly calls ( insignis 

 crassorum intestinorum apparatus :' but there are complexities of 

 the large gut superadded to those in other Perissodactyles. The 

 oesophagus has a course of 2 inches in the abdomen : it termi- 

 nates in the same relative position to the stomach as in the 

 Rhinoceros. Two-thirds of the cavity are lined by a thick, white, 

 wrinkled epithelium : the stomach is bent upon itself where this 

 lining ceases. 



The duodenum is not so loosely connected with the back part 



