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 laminz 
interlocking with corresponding vascular laminz 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 1743, 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. William 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 cecum 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 
1 It is to these enormous folds of the colon that the great size of the abdomen is due, and not to the cecum, 
which is not proportionally so large as in the Horse. 
