180 PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE ANATOMY OF THE GREAT ANTEATER. 
but the margin of this latter aperture is indented, as it were, by the ends of the con- 
verging folds of the lining membrane, about ten in number (e, e), which are continued 
into the pyloric cavity. The length of the cardiac slit (6) is 1 inch, that of the inter- 
communicating aperture (f) is 1 inch 3 lines. 
The pyloric division of the Great Anteater’s stomach is remarkable for the thickness 
of its muscular tunic and the density of its epithelial lining, which convert it into a 
veritable gizzard. 
The muscular coat (Pl. LII. fig. 2, h, h) varies from one inch to half an inch in 
thickness ; at the middle of the cavity it is separated from the lining membrane by an 
unusual accumulation of the elastic submucous cellular tissue (7), which is most abun- 
dant in the upper wall of the cavity. A very small proportion only of food can enter 
at one time into this cavity (i), to be subjected to the triturating force of its parietes, 
operating, with the aid of swallowed particles of sand, in the comminution of the un- 
masticated or imperfectly masticated Termites. 
The area of the pyloric cavity, as exposed by a vertical longitudinal section, as in 
fig. 1, Plate LII., appears a mere linear, slightly sinuous, tract, with a dilatation near 
the pylorus (/), due to a kind of valvular protuberance of the upper wall projecting 
towards that aperture. But, when the pyloric cavity is bisected transversely, as in fig. 2, 
its area then presents a crescentic figure, owing to the protuberance formed by the 
thicker muscular tunic and the more abundant submucous elastic tissue (7) in the upper 
parietes. The lower longitudinal plicz (k), which commenced on the cardiac side of the 
intercommunicating aperture, give a longitudinally ridged character to the inner surface 
of the cavity. 
This character is changed near the pylorus, for a reticular rugosity: the pylorus, 
when viewed from the duodenal side, as in Plate LIII. fig. 2, presents a crescentic 
form, with the horns of the crescent directed upwards. The lining membrane of the 
duodenum (m) soon became smooth. 
For the use of the accurate and beautiful drawings, made after my dissections by 
Mr. H. V. Carter, formerly Anatomical Student in the Museum of the Royal College 
of Surgeons, which illustrate the present portion of the anatomy of the Myrmecophaga 
jubata, I am indebted to the liberal permission of the President and Council of the 
Royal College of Surgeons of England. 
