29 



so as to let the spirit get into the interior of the alimentary canal, 

 would answer every purpose. 



Digestive Organs. 



" The mouth and tongue corresponded with the descriptions already 

 published of these remarkable structures. The opening of the larynx 

 is chiefly defended, during the submarine mastication of the vege- 

 table matters constituting the food of the Dugong, by the extreme 

 contraction of the faucial aperture, which resembles that of the Ca- 

 pybara. It is not traversed by a pyramidal larynx, as in the true 

 Cetacea. There are two large parotid glands, situated immediately 

 behind the large ascending ramus of the lower jaw. A thick layer 

 of simple follicular glands ai'e developed above the membrane of the 

 palate, and a glandular stratum is situated betSveen the mucous 

 and muscular coats of the lower part of the (esophagus ; a similar 

 but more developed glandular structure is present in the oesophagus 

 of the Ray. 



" The stomach of this singular animal presents, as Sir Everard 

 Home has justly observed, some of the peculiarities met with in the 

 Whale tribe, the Peccari and Hippopotamus, and the Beaver : like 

 the first, it is divided into distinct compartments ; like the second 

 and third, it has pouches superadded to and communicating with it ; 

 and, like the last, it is provided with a remarkable glandular ap- 

 paratus near the cardia. 



"These modifications obviously harmonize with the difficult digest- 

 ibility and low- organized nature of the food of the Dugong. Yet, 

 it is a fact which would not have been, a priori, expected, that in 

 the carnivorous Cetacea the stomach is even more complicated than 

 in the herbivorous species, and presents a closer resemblance to 

 the ruminant stomach ; it is divided, for example, into a greater 

 number of receptacles, and has the first cavity, like the rumen, lined 

 with cuticle ; while in the Dugong, on the contrary, the stomach is 

 properly divided into two parts only (of which the second much 

 more resembles intestine), and both are lined with a mucous mem- 

 brane. 



" The first or cardiac cavity is of a spheroidal or full oval shape, 

 with the left extremity, which contains the gland, produced in an 

 obtusely conical form towards the diaphragm. The length of this 

 cavity was 9 inches, its depth 6^; but it must be remembered that 

 it had been opened, and the sides lay flat together. In the smaller 

 Dugong, where the stomach had probably been more distended at 

 the time of death, this cavity measured 12 inches in length and 7 in 

 depth. 



" The (esophagus is very narrow and muscular, and terminates at 

 the middle of the lesser curvature rather nearer the right than the 

 left extremity of the cardiac cavity. 



" The muscular coat of the stomach is strongly developed, but 

 varies in thickness at different parts of the cavity. Where it covers 

 the gland at the left extremity it is two lines in thickness, but 



