PROF. OWEN ON THE ANATOMY OF THE INDIAN RHINOCEROS. 37 



toes, is more marked than in the Horse : the hoofs proper, or homologues of the nails, 

 are firmly attached to the periosteum of the ungual phalanges by fine vertical lamin<e 

 interlocking with corresponding vascular laminae of the thickened periosteum. 



Before entering on the subject of the visceral anatomy of the Rhinoceros unicornis, I 

 may premise that some general details on this subject will be found in a paper by 

 Dr. James Parsons in the Philosophical Transactions for 174.3, on the occasion of the 

 death of the Rhinoceros sent by the Chief of the Hon. E. I. Company from Patna to 

 London in the year 1739 : I possess an impression of a scarce print of the animal pub- 

 lished in London in that year. 



A second Rhinoceros of the same species, which was exhibited and died in London 

 in 1800, was dissected by Honoratus Leigh Thomas, Esq., who has given an account of 

 his observations on that occasion in a paper printed in the Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1801. Mr. WiUiam Bell had previously contributed to the Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1793, some interesting remarks on the anatomy of the Sumatran two-horned Rhino- 

 ceros, then for the first time described. 



In the one-horned Indian specimens dissected by me, the peritoneal membrane was 

 thick and much stronger than in the human subject : the cellular tissue connecting the 

 external surface of this serous membrane to the adjacent structures is condensed into 

 an aponeurotic firmness where it is attached to the serous coat, the free surface of which 

 presents an opake, whitish appearance. In the female Rhinoceros I exposed the abdo- 

 minal viscera by laying open the cavity along the middle line of the ventral surface, and 

 turning aside the flaps of its yielding soft parietes. Not the least trace of epiploon was 

 observable when the cavity of the abdomen was thus exposed ; but the viscera which 

 presented themselves were in immediate contact with the sustaining parietes. A single 

 but enormous fold of the colon, not less than two 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 ; 

 immediately below this was a smaller fold of colon' running parallel with the preceding ; 

 below this was a second fold ; and, occupying the right iliac region, a part of the smooth 

 parietes of the caecum appeared : a portion of the liver and the stomach were obscurely 

 visible in the epigastric and hypochondriac regions, and below these were seen a few 

 coils of the small intestine. 



The colon was not displaced without considerable 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 spleen and kidneys were also brought into 



' It is to these enormous folds of the colon that the great size of the abdomen is due, and not to the caecum, 

 which is not proportionally so large as in the Horse. 



